Fourth-grade teacher Theresa Artman sat her students in front of a large monitor in her Austin, Texas, classroom. But they weren’t alone.

The Joslin Elementary School students were just some of the thousands of children across the country who watched the April 13 webcast of PollinatorLIVE from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Tamberly Conway, a conservation education coordinator for the U.S. Forest Service hosted the show. Read more »

As I talk to farmers across the country, regardless of what they produce or where, they all share one common challenge:  how to best move product from the farm to the marketplace.  This is especially crucial for small and midsize farmers who may not have enough capital to own their own trucks, their own refrigeration units, or their own warehouse space.  They might not have the resources to develop sophisticated distribution routes, build effective marketing campaigns or network with regional buyers and customers.

Without infrastructure, logistical and marketing support, these producers might be growing the sweetest strawberries or raising the most tender beef, but they lack the infrastructure support to get their exceptional products to your table. Read more »

State Director Vernita F. Dore, Ty'Sheoma Bethea and Tammye Treviño, Administrator for Housing and Community Facilities Programs at the Dillon Middle School groundbreaking ceremony in Dillon, South Carolina.

Tammye Treviño, Administrator for Housing and Community Facilities Programs, and USDA Rural Development State Director, Vernita F. Dore participated in groundbreaking ceremonies for three different schools in Dillon County on Monday, April 18, 2011. Read more »

Richburg, S.C. - Fire scientists at the IBHS Research Center recreate an ember storm in the lab's large test chamber. This facility is the first in the world capable of subjecting full-scale buildings to realistic wildfire conditions. (Photo courtesy of the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety.)

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from the USDA’s rich science and research portfolio.

On March 24, Forest Service scientist Jack Cohen served as a technical expert for the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety’s Wildfire Demonstration Day in Richburg, South Carolina.  This demonstration aimed to highlight home ignition risks and ways to protect property in wildfire prone areas, especially in the wildland-urban interface.  Jack’s research on the Structure Ignition Assessment Model served as the basis for this demonstration.   Read more »

Floyd Nauls, Jr., NRCS district conservationist in Madison County, Texas and his farm, N Bar and Z6, will be featured in April on Texas Farm Bureau’s “Voices of Agriculture.”

For more than a century, Floyd Nauls, Jr.’s family has owned and worked land in Madison County, Texas. The fertile land has grown crops and cattle and has sustained multiple generations of the family during good times and bad. Read more »