USDA Blog

The Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest new Supervisor's Office in Rhinelander, Wisc., was re-engineered with "green" features. The use of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding helped complete its restoration. Here students from the USDA Forest Service’s Blackwell Job Corps Center help...

On December 18, USDA Rural Development hosted a Jobs and Economy Roundtable discussion in Livingston, Montana in Park County. About 7,000 people live in Livingston, which has an unemployment rate of 7.9 percent. The local economy was once dominated by the railroad and agriculture, but in recent...

Oscar Wilde once said, “The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.” It was within that frame of mind that the Obama Administration brought its ‘Jobs Roundtable’ series to Somerton, Arizona. The goal of the roundtable was to reach out to local leaders...

U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development State Director for Michigan James J. Turner and Farm Service Agency Director Christine White held a roundtable on job creation and economic growth on Thursday, December 17 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Lansing Community College’s West Campus.

USDA Rural Development-New Mexico, along with the Farm Service Agency held a Jobs Forum yesterday in Silver City -- a community nestled in the Gila Wilderness of Southwestern New Mexico. Silver City is working hard to address its local economic situation. The recent drop in copper prices caused...

I want to thank Avoided Deforestation Partners for holding this event and inviting me to join all of the distinguished speakers here today in urging the adoption of REDD plus as part of a global climate framework.

This week, at my request, USDA Rural Development and Farm Service Agency staff kicked off a series of meetings intended to gather ideas about ways to spark job creation and economic growth in rural America. This request is a direct result of the Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth that President Obama...

As we approach the end of the year, millions of Americans are counting their blessings and many are bringing Christmas trees into their homes to celebrate the season. At USDA, the Forest Service helps with the nation’s holiday traditions by providing a tree to be displayed as the Capitol Christmas...

Earlier this year, the President launched the SAVE Award - a program that offers every federal employee to chance to submit their ideas for how government can save money and perform better. In just a few weeks, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) received over 38,000 submissions, many of which...

In celebration of American Indian Heritage Month the U.S. Department of Agriculture today reported that there are nearly 80,000 American Indian operators on 61,472 farms and ranches across the United States. This represents an 88-percent increase over the number of American Indian farmers USDA...