Articles by Whitney Forman-Cook

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says USDA will enroll more than 800,000 acres in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) this year, while expressing hope that Congress will allow for even higher enrollment in the next farm bill.

USDA announced Friday at the tail end of National Small Business Week that it will invest $39.3 million in rural small businesses.

With the U.S. Senate still at work on an agreement on biotech labeling, a major food company is rushing ahead with research on possible labeling language that could serve as an alternative to the wording required by a Vermont law. The Campbell Soup Co. is testing as many as nin

USDA and EPA said Thursday that five communities would receive planning assistance through the Obama administrations interagency Cool & Connected program to set up broadband services and revitalize their downtowns.

Several witnesses from states that depend on oil and gas production for jobs and royalties told a House subcommittee on energy last week that a rule proposed by the Obama administration to cut down on methane emissions would actually cut down on energy production.

USDA@s Office of Inspector General (OIG) says officials in the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Farm Service Agency (FSA) need to improve the way they handle conservation compliance reviews.

USDA announced Wednesday it will grant $15.6 million to universities for research, education and extension programs that the department says will benefit rural America.

The story is familiar: There@s less and less state and county funding to keep cooperative extension programs around. But now, with states across the country struggling to pass budget deals, the stakes are higher than ever before.

Almost 30 percent of farmers in New England are likely to leave the agriculture sector in the next 10 to 20 years, and almost none of them have a young farmer in line to take over their operations, according to a study released by the American Farmland Trust (AFT) and Land For Good

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the launch of USDA�s newest private capital investment fund for rural America at a White House event on Tuesday.