USDA Blog

Last week I went to a North American Pollinator Partnership (NAPPC) symposium at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s South Building, just off the National Mall. NAPPC is celebrating 10 years of existence, and the symposium made up day one of NAPPC’s three-day, annual conference, the focus of which...

Seventy-five years ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Soil Conservation Service, now the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), was established largely because of the efforts of one determined individual—Hugh Hammond Bennett. Bennett served as the agency’s first chief for more than 15...

It is an iconic fixture of rural America – the local diner. Not just a restaurant, but a social hub for a community, and when the local café in Sunburst, Montana closed in 2007 it seemed one more nail in the coffin of a small town facing decline.

The announcement last week that USDA and the Department of Justice have reached an agreement with Native American farmers and ranchers to settle alleged incidents of discrimination by USDA marks the start of a new civil rights era. This isn’t just talk. It is meaningful action on the part of the...

Saturday, October 23, 2010 -- This morning dawned a beautiful, crisp, autumn day here in the District of Columbia. As the sun climbed above the horizon, over 500 volunteers gathered to build a playground at the Hyde Leadership Charter School in northeast DC. Among the volunteers were Secretary and...

During the past year, nearly $3 billion in guaranteed loans were issued through The USDA Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program to lenders across the country as they worked with local businesses to help create jobs in rural America.

In mid-October, USDA’s Under Secretaries for Natural Resources & Environment, Rural Development, and Farm & Foreign Agriculture Services launched a major new Wood-to-Energy Initiative that seeks to build a forest restoration economy by integrating wood-to-energy activities within the larger forest...