USDA Blog

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 USDA’s rich science and research portfolio. Unlike the math and agricultural statisticians with whom I work daily, I took a completely different career path into the...

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 USDA’s rich science and research portfolio. When you plunk down $17.99 for a bottle of your favorite premium olive oil, you’d like some assurance that what you just...

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 USDA’s rich science and research portfolio. Did you know that more than 11 million Americans worked on farms in 1930, of which 8.3 million were family workers? Compare...

Rate of shattered maple bats down 50 percent. In 2008, Major League Baseball (MLB) came to the U.S. Forest Service, asking our Forest Products Laboratory to investigate why baseball bats were increasingly shattering into multiple pieces on contact. The Forest Service team, led by David Kretschmann...

When you think of steps that can be taken to improve our environment and mitigate climate change, "reducing food waste" probably doesn't come to mind right away. But in fact, food waste is an important factor in climate change, because wasted food represents 20 percent by weight of the solid waste...

Plant breeders use certificates of intellectual property rights protection as an important marketing tool. The Plant Variety Protection Office (PVPO), part of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), is a user fee funded program that grants these certificates after careful and detailed review...

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 USDA’s rich science and research portfolio. Most people don’t equate aviation with agriculture, but two USDA partners, Washington State University (WSU) and members of...

The International Jr. Foresters’ Competition is an annual event hosted by the Russian Federal Forestry Agency. It promotes and rewards young scientists for their interest and efforts in the environmental field and encourages international dialogue about forestry issues. Individual youth ages 16-20...

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 USDA’s rich science and research portfolio. In the wake of the economic downturn that began in late 2007, food insecurity in households with children remains near the...

2013 is the International Year of Statistics. As part of this global event, every month this year USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service will profile careers of individuals who are making significant contributions to improve agricultural statistics in the United States. I arrived at my...