Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently unveiled the USDA Urban Agriculture Toolkit, a new resource created by USDA’s Know Your Farmer team that intends to help entrepreneurs and community leaders use urban agriculture to successfully create jobs and increase access to healthy food in their communities. The announcement was made during the opening of a new school community garden at Frederick …
#Plant16 Progress Surges
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that corn planting continues to be ahead of the five-year average. Last week results showed 30 percent of the total corn acres have been planted, numbers that exceed the average by 14 percentage points and ten percentage points ahead of where growers were just the week before. Missouri leads the way in corn planing, surpassing …
Vilsack Traveling to Japan, Vietnam
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has made plans to attend the G7 Agriculture Ministers Meeting in Niigata, Japan. Following the meeting he will then travel to Vietnam to highlight the agricultural relationship between the two countries and point out the importance of the Trans-Pacific Partnership to the each as well. At the G7 meeting, Vilsack and other participating ministers will discuss …
#Plant16 Already on a Roll
The #Plant16 hash tag has been burning up Twitter in the past week as corn planting jumped up to 13% compared to the five year average of eight percent. According to USDA, planting progress is now ahead of average by 37 percentage points in Missouri, which at 58% planted nearly a quarter of its crop last week. Iowa, Kansas and …
Corn Prices Projected to Decrease
While optimists hoped the increased demand for ethanol would help drive corn prices, the USDA reports say it won’t be enough to off-set other factors. Demand estimates are lower by 24 million bushels of corn, and ending stocks are higher by 25 million bushels. Production estimates remain unchanged from March. “U.S. corn farmers have indicated their intention to grow another …
USDA Offers Grants for Value-Added Products
The Value-Added Producer Grant program is gaining $44 million to help farmers, ranchers and businesses develop bio-based products and expand existing markets. The USDA made the announcement just last week, and hope to help with grants to veterans, members of socially disadvantaged groups, beginning farmers and ranchers, and operators of small and medium sized family farms and ranches. “America’s farmers, …
USDA Reports Big Growth in Organic Certification
Certified organic operations continue to increase significantly, according to the latest numbers from the USDA. Growth is seeing a double-digit trend, with 21,781 certified operations in the U.S. and 31,160 world-wide. “Organic food is one of the fasting growing segments of American agriculture,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “As consumer demand for organic products continues to grow, the USDA organic …
Vilsack Traveling to Germany and France
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will be traveling to Berlin and Paris next week. April 4-5 he will be in Berlin, discussing rural economic development opportunities related to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with German officials and farmers. Christian Schmidt, the German Mister of Food and Agriculture, as well as other government officials will also meet about the benefits to …
Ethanol Trade Mission to Peru
The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) took part in a recent trade mission to Peru led by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack which included discussions about increasing cooperation with that country when it comes to ethanol production and exports. In this edition of the ZimmCast, RFA General Counsel Ed Hubbard talks about the March 13-15 trade mission which visited Lima and the …
USDA Offers $90 Million in Competitive Grants
The USDA will be making $90 million in competitive grants available to strengthen local food systems, develop market opportunities and support growers specialty crops. The grants will be run through the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) and the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, the Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program, and the Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program. “Over the past seven years, USDA …