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North Carolina Campus Kicks off the School Year with a Focus on Healthy Eating

August 11, 2014 Angie Tagtow, MS, RD, LD, Executive Director, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion

As a registered dietitian, I’m a big proponent of nutrition education for kids and adults alike. MyPlate On Campus , USDA’s initiative that promotes healthy eating on college campuses through peer-to-peer education, is a unique effort to reach young adults during a key life stage. The program now...

Food and Nutrition

A Kansas Community Dedicated to Providing Access to Locally Grown Food

August 08, 2014 USDA Rural Development State Director in Kansas, Patty Clark

Lawrence, Kansas has been building a local/regional foods movement since the early 1970’s. In other words – they made local foods “cool” long before the local food movement and Farmer’s Markets gained in popularity across the nation. The movement started with the creation of a retail food...

Rural

Reclaiming Spaces: One Farmers Market at a Time

August 08, 2014 Lindsay Buchannan, the Acting National Coordinator for Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food

Consumer demand for local food is driving the expansion of farmers markets into places of all shapes, sizes, and locations. Ferry terminals, train depots, grain mills and shipping containers all can, and are, housing farmers markets across the country. There are 8,268 markets listed in the USDA’s...

Food and Nutrition Farming

Learning All Summer Long with WINS Interns at USDA

August 08, 2014 Ed Avalos, Under Secretary of Marketing and Regulatory Programs

With over 3 million students graduating college during the 2013-2014 school year, what sets you apart from your peers? The answer: internships. Internships provide an immeasurable benefit to both the intern and to organizations like USDA. In addition to gaining valuable work experience, internships...

Initiatives

USDA Reaches Out to Farmers with Sweet Conservation Incentives

August 08, 2014 Julie Wright, NRCS Caribbean Area

Pineapples are emerging again as a popular farming enterprise in Puerto Rico because of a new variety that packs more sweetness and boasts stronger harvests. USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is working with pineapple farmers to prevent erosion, improve soil health and keep water clean...

Conservation

USDA Partners with Community, Farmers Market in Eastern Kentucky: To Feed Kids and Help Farmers

August 08, 2014 Katherine Belcher, USDA Rural Development, Kentucky

This week marks the 15 th annual National Farmers Market Week and USDA is celebrating the achievements of the more than 8,700 markets across the county. In rural eastern Kentucky, over the summer, a remarkable thing happened in the small community of Whitesburg. Local, state and federal officials...

Food and Nutrition Rural

Participants in Open Data Roundtables Guide USDA on Ways to Provide High Quality Data to Users

August 07, 2014 Joyce M. Hunter, Deputy Chief Information Officer, Policy and Planning

“Find out who your audience and users are, then figure out the best, easiest way to provide data to them.” Last week, the Obama Administration focused on a specific climate risk – the risk to the food supply – and the ways data could be used to help increase “food resilience.” The goal is to make...

Conservation Technology

Passion for the Future of Agriculture

August 07, 2014 Agriculture Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden

If I could use one word to describe the farmers and ranchers I have met during my time as Deputy Secretary it would be passionate. Last week, it was my great pleasure to join the White House in honoring 17 extraordinary new and beginning farmers who represent the future of agriculture—and let me say...

Conservation

School Nutrition Standards Underpin Healthy Eating Habits

August 07, 2014 Dr. Janey Thornton, Deputy Under Secretary, Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services

In this week’s guest post, Dr. Stephen Cook describes the childhood overweight and obesity epidemic based on first-hand experience with patients in his clinical practice. He also discusses the important role that school nutrition plays in both short- and long-term health outcomes among our nation’s...

Food and Nutrition

Smokey Bear, Iconic Symbol of Wildfire Prevention, Still Going Strong at 70

August 07, 2014 Kathryn Sosbe, Office of Communication, U.S. Forest Service

“Remember . . . Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires.” For more than 50 years, that iconic catch phrase grabbed the hearts and minds of generations of children, spurred a series of books, games and gifts, helped to change the face of wildland firefighting and prompted more than one child to grow up to...

Forestry