USDA

Holiday celebrations are a great time to gather with family and friends. But when you’re on a tight budget and pressed for time, it can be challenging to prepare a nutritious, timely meal for your loved ones. With that in mind, USDA offers these healthy tips for creating low-cost meals your whole...

How much will that little bundle of joy cost? According to USDA’s Cost of Raising a Child report, the answer for a child born in 2012 is $241,080 for food, shelter and other necessities over the next 17 years, which translates to about $301,970 when adjusted for inflation! Speaking as a father and a...

June is Homeownership Month. Today we are sharing a first person account of a 76-year old Kentucky resident who used USDA’s home loan program to purchase her first home. She submitted this account through the USDA Rural Development Kentucky State Office and we are sharing it so that others who are...

In support of Secretary Vilsack’s implementation of President Obama’s agenda to put Americans back to work and create an economy built to last, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) in collaboration with Virginia State University’s (VSU) Small Farm Outreach Program will host Rural Small Business...

Research shows that students with healthful eating patterns tend to do better in school, and it’s important that children begin learning about food and nutrition when they’re young. In support of that goal, the Food and Nutrition Service recently released three free sets of curriculum educators can...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture works every day to improve childhood nutrition and combat obesity in order to raise a healthier generation of Americans. In recent days, we have had some positive developments in this work. USDA released a promising new report on the impacts of providing our...

Cross posted from The Huffington Post: Rural Americans face many unique challenges - and every day, the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides assistance to help grow American agriculture and increase opportunity for rural communities. Unfortunately, 90 percent of America's persistent poverty...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the selection of 30 university students who will attend USDA’s 2013 Agricultural Outlook Forum. The students—who attend land-grant, Hispanic-serving, and American Association of State Colleges of Agriculture and Renewable Resources Institutions—have...

USDA’s 2013 Agricultural Outlook Forum, “Managing Risk in the 21st Century,” will be held at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Virginia, on Feb. 21-23. Speakers will include USDA policymakers and 85 distinguished experts in the fields of international trade, insurance, forestry...

I was honored last week to participate in the annual Native American Heritage Month observance at USDA’s Jefferson Auditorium. A near-capacity crowd watched as the Vietnam Era Veterans Intertribal Association presented the colors. That gesture was especially fitting, given this year’s theme of...