September 2017

Secretary Perdue has proclaimed September “National Food Safety Education Month (PDF, 346 KB)“. To celebrate, USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service is developing innovative food safety trainings for school nutrition professionals and honoring training graduates like Barbara Griffiths MSBA, RD, SNS, who make safe and nutritious foods a priority in their programs.  As a graduate of USDA’s Produce Safety University, Griffiths has learned to source local fruits and vegetables from growers within her community and turn them into innovative menu items!

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Texas has developed a new USDA web application – Hurricane Harvey Damage Reporter – to help staff assess post-storm, agricultural damages faster and easier than the previous handwritten process.

It’s September, which means the kids are back in school. They will be taught reading, writing and arithmetic, but there’s one lesson they might not be getting in the classroom – proper hand washing. This month, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue signed a proclamation (PDF, 346 KB) naming September National Food Safety Education Month. As part of that effort, USDA is encouraging parents, teachers and caregivers to help prevent the spread of foodborne illness (or food poisoning), by using proper handwashing techniques to avoid bringing germs from the playground to the dinner table.

Compared to urban areas, in 2015, manufacturing represented a greater share of both private nonfarm rural jobs (14 percent vs. 7 percent) and rural earnings (21 percent vs. 11 percent). A new report from USDA’s Economic Research Service, Rural Manufacturing at a Glance, examines the manufacturing sector in rural America.

In 2001, Forest Service Incident Management Teams and crews responded to the terrorist attacks of September 11th with a well-coordinated response of multiple local, state, and federal emergency personnel. Our response to this national crisis highlighted the critical role of incident management systems when responding to an unforeseen national emergency.

The last severe weeks have shown how devastating natural disaster can be. In Texas and Louisiana, hundreds of thousands of people were left without electricity and billions of dollars of property damage was sustained from Hurricane Harvey. Shortly after, Hurricane Irma became one of the strongest hurricanes ever, barreling through the Caribbean and southeastern U.S. In light of these recent disasters, it’s important to remember there are simple steps you can take to minimize food loss and reduce your risk of foodborne illness during and after severe weather and power outages.

Picture this: It’s evening. The summer’s heat is waning and you’re getting ready to bite into a freshly grilled hot dog, but a lurking predator is close by and about to make a meal of you—a blood meal, that is. You put down the hot dog and swat wildly at the winged attacker before it lands.