USDA Blog

How does one turn a cold, miserable rainy day in late October into one as bright and warm as a sunny day in June? Just visit a local elementary school where students and teachers and community volunteers are all so excited about the bountiful garden out back behind the school. A magical place where...

“The Ryan Express” Delivers the Goods Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan pitched 27 years in the big leagues, tossing a league record seven no-hitters. In that span Ryan was comfortably pumping 100 mile-per-hour fastballs past hitters until he was 40 years old, registering 95 mph on the...

Last week the Let’s Move Faith and Communities team hosted partners from across the country for a conference call on USDA’s new nutrition education resources. It was a packed hour. This year USDA has published the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the new MyPlate food icon, and online resources...

On Monday, I laid out my priorities for the upcoming Farm Bill. This legislation addresses farming, but also deals with many important aspects of life in America. It’s about supporting the jobs of the future, it’s about keeping pace with the changing needs of agriculture and rural America, and it’s...

It can be a challenge to build a healthy plate of fresh fruits and vegetables. That’s why First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Faith and Communities initiative is helping community and faith-based organizations to ensure that all families have access to healthy, affordable food in the communities.

With nearly 2 million page views in 2011 alone, the USDA National Farmers Market Directory is one of the Department of Agriculture’s most popular consumer search engines.

Nearly two dozen of our Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) inspectors received the prestigious Colonel Rohland A. Isker Award for support of military food operations today. I am tremendously proud of each of them, and tremendously proud of the vital role they play in ensuring that every soldier...

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from the USDA’s rich science and research portfolio. Nutrition advice is all around us—in grocery stores, magazines, public service announcements, and food labels. We’re...

Recently I was in Des Moines, Iowa, to participate in events leading up to World Food Day. This day is observed each October 16th in recognition of the founding of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1945. The first World Food Day was held in 1981. Its purpose is to increase worldwide...

This Saturday is National Nut Day, a perfect opportunity to honor nature’s nutritional dynamo– the nut. It seems that Americans are more than a little nutty about nuts, which are considered specialty crops. Nearly one out of every 10 of us eats nuts, or a nut product, at least once a day. Almonds...