April 2013

Twenty schools registered as GreenSchools! through the Project Learning Tree/U.S. Forest Service program are among 64 schools and 14 school districts honored April 22 as by the U.S. Department of Education as a Green Ribbon School.

The Education Department gave the awards for the schools’ exemplary efforts to reduce environmental impact and utility costs, promote better health, and ensure effective environmental education, including civics and green career pathways.

The schools were confirmed from a pool of candidates voluntarily nominated by 32 state education agencies. The list includes 54 public and 10 private schools. More than half serve a student body more than 40 percent of which is eligible for free and reduced price lunch.

Earth Day is one of our favorite days at USDA Rural Development because we get to showcase the important work that we do to improve water quality for millions of rural Americans. As a part of our Earth Day Celebration this year, USDA Rural Development is announcing 43 projects that will bring new and improved water and waste disposal service to rural communities in 32 states.

For example, one of the projects we’re announcing is in Texas. Buffalo Gap, a rural community outside of Abilene will construct a first-ever wastewater collection system.  The community currently is all-septic.  The funds will allow construction of sewer lines, manholes, lift station and cleanouts.  The system will collect sewage and pump it to Abilene’s wastewater treatment plant.  This is just one example of a small community doing big things to help its residents this Earth Day.

Accurate and timely information, access to new markets, and financial protection are critical to the success of any business. In the produce industry, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) provides services to cover all three of these items.

By providing current price and volume information, AMS Market News helps produce businesses, transportation companies, and others make informed decisions. In response to user requests, we created the Custom Average Tool (CAT). This new tool makes it easy to view average price trends over a period of time, select a range of data desired, download data in a spreadsheet, and much more. Choosing which varieties or products to carry and what the price levels might be at a given time of year are easier for  a wholesaler to determine when they can easily visualize average price trends compared to movement in a dashboard. The CAT is now prominently displayed on our Fruit and Vegetable Market News Portal.

Cross posted from The Huffington Post:

In the United States, we haven't worried about food security since the Dust Bowl days of the 1930's. In fact, our farmers have become so productive we have a thriving food export sector that has returned a positive effect on our economy for over 40 years. Unfortunately, many other countries can not make that same claim.

Over 870 million people are malnourished or hungry according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. As the world grows more interconnected every day, it is imperative that we reach across borders to help other countries solve issues as fundamental as the ability to feed their people.

Most college juniors look forward to summer break as a time to relax without any responsibilities.

Not Kelsey Bulman.

In the summer of 2011, she began volunteering with the Earth Team of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. For her efforts, Bulman won Minnesota’s Earth Team Award in 2012 and was honored with a 2013 National Earth Team Volunteer Award.

This is the twelfth installment of the Organic 101 series that explores different aspects of the USDA organic regulations.

Consumers purchase organic products expecting that they maintain their organic integrity from farm to market. Under the USDA organic rules, organic farmers must demonstrate they are protecting the environment, supporting animal health and welfare, and producing their products without the use of prohibited substances (including synthetic pesticides).

Conservation has long been a key element on Dan and Sharon Anderson’s ranch. The Andersons, who raise sheep and cattle west of Glad Valley in northwestern South Dakota, have a passion for healthy resources that grew out of respect for what conservation has done for their ranch.

In 1959, Dan’s father, James, purchased the ranch, which had seven pastures. With help from USDA’s Soil Conservation Service (now the Natural Resources Conservation Service), the elder Anderson started cross-fencing the larger areas to give his livestock better forage options and nutrition. When he took over the farm in 1990, Dan expanded this practice, continuing to work with NRCS to implement an extensive rotational grazing program. Today, the Andersons rotate both cattle and sheep around 32 pastures, with plans to divide the fields further.

In my position as Under Secretary, I occasionally travel the country to meet with, and learn from, some of the many partners who administer and leverage the USDA’s 15 nutrition assistance programs. These programs—from school meals to SNAP (formerly food stamps)—currently touch the lives of one in four Americans.

During a whirlwind visit to Minnesota in March, I had the opportunity to meet with a variety of individuals and organizations directly or indirectly involved with one or more of our nutrition programs. For starters, I participated in a terrific roundtable at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health hosted by national nutrition expert Dr. Mary Story, a strong supporter of healthy school meals. Minnesota Senator Al Franken joined me to hear from local organizations and agencies that administer nutrition assistance programs, promote good nutrition or even work with farmers markets. I was impressed with the accomplishments being realized and the creative approaches employed by local partners to improve nutrition, eliminate hunger, support children and families, and connect farmers to local markets.

If Morgan Grove had 30 seconds to brief any high-level official, he would simply describe his job as working to make cities better and safer places for people to live.

“Our Forest Service research benefits the public in many ways -- including having clean water to drink, safer living environments and recreating outside for healthier lives,” said Grove.

Because of Grove’s love of the great outdoors, he’s observed, learned and shared a lot of his scientific expertise during his 17 years with the U.S. Forest Service. He is a research scientist at the Northern Research Station’s field office in Baltimore, located in one of the most heavily forested and heavily populated areas in the United States.

Today, roughly half-a-million bison dot the nation’s landscape, a far cry from the more than 20 to 30 million that once roamed much of North America.

And while they have not been part of the Forest Service’s Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie ecosystem for more than a century, the habitat here will soon be home for 20 to 30 of the animals, perhaps as early as December 2013.