USDA Blog

October is National Cooperative Month, and the theme, "The Future is Cooperative," anticipates the increasingly vital role cooperatives play in enhancing the quality of life in rural areas. At USDA Rural Development, we recognize the significance of these businesses in fostering economic growth...

As an auditor for USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), I am one of a small group of highly-qualified individuals who audit companies that utilize our programs to back up their marketing claims and add value to their products by verifying their standards or requirements. One of these programs...

USDA’s AMS publishes weekly retail reports on grocery store prices nationwide. Recently, reports on red meats, poultry, and eggs moved to the My Market News platform, offering customizable data as part of AMS’s modernization efforts.

When purchasing food, many consumers look for information on where the food came from and how it was produced. No antibiotics, cage-free, and grass-fed are a few marketing claims consumers find on protein-based food packaging. To provide assurance to customers of the validity of these and other...

“It’s been great to have a team that’s not afraid to let me share my opinion, share my identity. I feel like in this space, I’ve been proud of who I am.”

The Tri-Faith Unity Garden and Hope Orchard, a USDA People’s Garden in Omaha, Nebraska, is a natural healing space where people of three faiths gather through the Tri-Faith Initiative. This unique interfaith project —including a synagogue, church, and mosque along with the garden— is a space where...

Today, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack kicked off National Homeownership Month. Each year, as part of this nationwide celebration, USDA highlights programs that help people in rural and Tribal areas buy, build and repair affordable homes.

For basketball great Ralph Sampson, farming is his new game of choice. The new and beginning farmer is looking to resurrect his family’s farm and spur new economic growth on the ancestral land.

USDA kicked off National Small Business Month with the Midwest “Path to Prosperity" event at the Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, MO on April 24 th and 25 th. This was the 19 th event, since 2022, to provide regional business and economic development workshops that featured experts...

Organic is a growing sector, with domestic sales of organic products topping $69.7 billion in 2023. However, consumer research shows that consumers do not always understand what “organic” means and how USDA protects the organic label.