USDA Blog

Over the last 15 years, the USDA has made great strides in our efforts to reduce fraud and abuse in its programs. Payment accuracy has never been higher: in FY 2010, 96.19 percent of all benefits were issued correctly, the fourth consecutive year the program has achieved a historically high rate...

On the heels of Secretary Vilsack’s visit to the Midwest last week to inspect Missouri River flood damage to area farms and communities, Farm and Foreign Service (FFAS) Acting Deputy Under Secretary Karis Gutter stopped by Mounds City, Missouri and Hamburg, Iowa to hear from local producers, and to...

The Forest Service fondly remembers the contributions of Dr. Walter A. Soboleff, a centenarian deeply revered and Tlingit elder, who died last month at the age of 102. Located in Alaska, the Tlingit are a Native society that developed a complex hunter-gatherer culture in the temperate rainforest of...

Owning a home in the same area where he built his business is a win-win for new homeowner Greg Kane. In early June 2011, Kane purchased his studio condominium at Riverbend, Colorado, through the help of US Bank Home Mortgage and the USDA Rural Development Guaranteed Rural Housing Loan Program...

As Administrator of USDA’s Risk management Agency (RMA), I want to assure affected producers within the flood-swollen areas of the Missouri River that this flood event is covered by crop insurance for those insured farmers and ranchers within the terms and conditions of their policy. The flood...

I’m Dr. John Clifford, Chief Veterinary Officer for the USDA and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Deputy Administrator for Veterinary Services. Over nearly the last 26 years I’ve had the pleasure of holding numerous positions within the agency. Here’s my story on how I got to...

The Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center located on the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska is a site to see for many tourists. This recently renovated Center is a popular cruise ship destination giving a boost to the local economy. Tourism spending in the Juneau, Alaska area is expected to...

The general public has a fresh opportunity to learn how water grows an economy through a recently launched communications campaign in Texas’ High Plains region.

USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist’s Climate Change Program Office has released the “U.S. Agriculture and Forestry Greenhouse Gas Inventory: 1990-2008” report. This report provides detailed estimates of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration from the management of livestock, croplands...

As the sun rose on the beginning of a normal workday last fall for Rural Development Area Specialist, Vanessa Ingles, little did she know that one of her recent housing repair recipients had some special gifts awaiting her. Mrs. Roxie Whorley and her granddaughter Roxanna Mize who live in the...