research and science

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.

Innovation was the buzz word during the 2011 USDA Science and Technology Plant Variety Protection Office (PVPO) Board Meeting.

The PVPO, part of the Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS) Science and Technology Program, gives legal intellectual property rights, similar to patents, to breeders of new varieties of plants which are produced by seeds such as corn and soybean or by tubers such as potatoes. The program protects intellectual property rights by offering certificates to owners of unique plant varieties so that they can introduce them to the marketplace.  The board, made up of a diverse group of experts in the plant variety development field, met to discuss pressing industry matters and address how the PVPO conducts its business.

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.

This year, USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) celebrates its 50^th anniversary. ERS was established on April 3, 1961 during the Kennedy Administration, when USDA combined the Department’s economic research functions into one agency. The functions of our predecessor agency, the Bureau of Agricultural Economics (BAE, dating from 1922), had been dispersed in 1953 to other USDA offices, and many former BAE economists found a home in the new ERS.

This week, ERS is marking the occasion with a day-long symposium in USDA’s Jefferson Auditorium, featuring speakers from government and the research community who will focus on the agency’s contributions to public policy and the social sciences. USDA employees and the public are invited to the symposium.

Cross posted from the Let's Move! blog:

Ensuring that Americans eat well and lead healthy lives is among our greatest goals at USDA.  First Lady Michelle Obama, of course, has taken an important role on this front – leading a national conversation and administration-wide effort.  As part of the Lets Move! initiative USDA is taking on the challenge of food deserts.  These nutritional wastelands exist across America in both urban and rural communities where parents and children simply do not have access to a supermarket.

Last week, I got the chance to address students at Delaware State University’s first-ever Graduate Research Symposium. Delaware State is part of the land-grant university system that is called an “1890 institution,” because it was founded through the second Morrill Act, passed in that year to extend the education system of the land-grants to African-Americans.

I’m a former dean of an agriculture school (at Iowa State University), so talking to students is one of my favorite parts of my job as USDA’s Chief Scientist and Under Secretary of Research, Education and Economics. I had to agree with Provost Alton Thompson who said, in my introduction, “It’s a great day to be at Del State!”

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.

Proving that agriculture does indeed count, Director of the Statistics Division at USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Joe Prusacki, was selected as ProFarmer’s 2010 Ag Person of the Year.

This award is a great honor for Prusacki and is shared by all of USDA as it exemplifies the department’s continued commitment to actively listen and be responsive to the needs of its stakeholders.  Previous notable recipients include Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and Nebraska Sen. Mike Johanns , a former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

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.

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

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of joining U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, U.S. Representative Lacy Clay, along with St. Louis area economic development and agriculture representatives to celebrate the establishment of a new national operations center for USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) in Overland, Mo.  This facility, with the jobs and local investment it brings, has the potential for positive, long-term economic impact in our community.

Last week, I was in South Carolina to see some of the work being done by USDA’s scientists at the U. S. Vegetable Laboratory, where researchers strive to improve vegetable yields and quality. Any chef will tell you great meals begin with high quality ingredients, and nutritionists will add that a colorful meal is a nutrient-dense meal.  On my way to the lab, I stopped at a place that is focused on that good food equation, especially using locally sourced produce: The Culinary Institute of Charleston at Trident Technical College.