August 2019

In 2019, 19.3 percent of the 3.8 billion people in 76 low- and middle-income countries are projected to be food insecure, meaning they do not have access to sufficient food for an active and healthy lifestyle. By 2029, their food security situation is projected to improve, leaving 9.2 percent food insecure (assuming rising per-capita incomes, stable or declining food prices, and no new major crises).

Children’s nutritional needs do not take a summer break. This summer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service partnered with the Texas Department of Agriculture and Baylor University’s Texas Hunger Initiative to help keep Texas children in several low-income rural areas fed during the summer through a summer meals demonstration project.

If birthday parties were rated, the events surrounding Smokey Bear’s big day would easily earn five stars or diamonds since it is his 75^th. From California to Maine, states held celebrations in recognition of the USDA Forest Service’s fire prevention message “bearer” and his famous line, “Only You Can Prevent Wildfires.”

For some, agriculture may not be the first thought that comes to mind when you think of Colorado. Mountains, lakes, and national parks might come first. But to the proud 69,032 farmers and ranchers operating in Colorado, agriculture is their primary thought.

Each spring, ranchers face the same challenge of trying to guess how much grass will be available for their livestock to graze during the summer. Ranchers make this determination relying on boots-on-the-ground observations of rangeland conditions. But now in the Northern Great Plains, ranchers have a new forecasting tool to help them with this important decision: “Grass-Cast.”

No matter your age, the end of summer is also a time of beginnings. This means a new school year, new episodes of your favorite TV show and the start of football season.

For anyone who wants to see the facts about Missouri agriculture, the 2017 Census of Agriculture is the place to look, with more than 60,000 facts covering every aspect of Missouri agriculture at the state and county levels.

I never thought I could ever work in the U.S. government. One day, when I was applying for my U.S. citizenship at a local Hispanic nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., I saw a flyer about the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities’ (HACU) National Internship Program (HNIP). This seemed unbelievable for a student coming from a low-income family to know that there were paid internships that could also help me grow in my career. I was pursuing an undergraduate education at George Washington University. Being the first generation to attend college in the U.S., I often had to let go unpaid internship opportunities that could have helped my career, and instead get side jobs to pay for college.

Extreme climate events can be devastating. However, some of their effects can be transformed into opportunities.

How do river ecosystems support fish? How do environmental changes influence the system’s capacity to support fish? And how might different restoration strategies influence fish? These are questions J. Ryan Bellmore, a research fish biologist who works in Juneau, Alaska, for the USDA Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station, and his partners set out to answer.