State Director for Michigan James J. Turner, Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager, homeowner Sherion Jones and Area Specialist Lori Grover.

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager made two visits to Michigan in the last few days and joining him in his travels was Rural Development State Director for Michigan James J. Turner and several of our staff as he crossed the state. Read more »

Dr. Joe Leonard presents Clarissa Hoffman and Marcel Picotte Sr. with a housewarming plant personally provided by Maxine Moul, Nebraska State Director.

Now is the Time…and the Marcel Picotte Sr. family saw the opportunity and went for homeownership!  Dr. Joe Leonard, USDA Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, and Janie Hipp, Senior Advisor to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack for Tribal Relations at USDA, joined Nebraska USDA Rural Development State Director Maxine Moul and South Dakota State Director Elsie Meeks and staff for a National Homeownership Month event at the Picottes’ family of five home in Winnebago, Nebraska.  Read more »

The People’s Garden exhibit at the 2012 Smithsonian Folklife Festival in the Reinventing Agriculture area of Campus and Community.

Wednesday was opening day of the 2012 Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall.  The Festival features three great themes.  One of the themes entitled “Campus and Community” is a program that commemorates the 150th Anniversary of the founding of Land grant universities and the USDA. The People’s Garden Initiative is thrilled to have an exhibition in the Reinventing Agriculture area of Campus and Community. Please stop by to see it and talk gardening with USDA’s Executive Master Gardeners! Like us, universities from across the country are demonstrating how they engage communities through gardening. The Festival runs June 27 to July 1 and July 4-8 from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Read more »

June is National Homeownership Month, and at the U.S. Department of Agriculture we’ve spent the past few weeks highlighting the role housing plays in our small towns and rural communities.

With 50 million Americans living in rural America, access to quality, safe housing is an important factor to a high quality of life – and as homeownership in a community increases, there are also significant economic benefits.

By some estimates, the sale of an existing median-price home creates nearly $60,000 in economic activity; and that’s not including the extra job-creating potential of a newly-built home.   Read more »

Beth Hoinacki shows an aspect of her crop rotation and cover crop plan.

U.S. trends in organic farming point to a growing industry. USDA agencies like the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) support organic growers by offering funding and technical guidance—both to farmers already growing organic crops, and to those who want to transition to organic production. Read more »

Mississippi Congressman Bennie G. Thompson moderates An America Built to Last: Jobs and Business Creation.

On Wednesday, June 13, the White House, in conjunction with Congressman Bennie G. Thompson, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services hosted an African American Regional Policy Forum at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi. This forum is part of an ongoing series of regional discussions held in communities nationwide. Each forum is intended to connect Administration Officials from a wide range of policy areas with African American civic, elected, and faith leaders to discuss issues critical to the African American community and the nation. Read more »