agricultural marketing service

Family and food are the heart of the Thanksgiving tradition, a time to come together and celebrate everything we are thankful for. The holiday will certainly feel different this year, with the COVID-19 pandemic restricting travel and large gatherings. But that doesn’t mean every tradition should go by the wayside. Now is a great time to highlight a custom sure to make it look – and taste – like the Thanksgiving we all love – that big, beautiful American-grown turkey.

The Pesticide Data Program (PDP), part of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), recently published its 2019 PDP Annual Summary (PDF, 10 MB). This yearly report found that nearly 99 percent of almost 10,000 samples of fresh, frozen and processed foods had pesticide residues below levels set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Most of these samples were of fruits and vegetables. This means you can eat with the confidence that your food is safe and nutritious for you and your family.

Whether you are shopping online or in the grocery store, the USDA grade shield on meat, poultry and eggs is a sign that the product meets certain voluntary national quality standards and has been graded by an USDA employee based on those standards.

U.S. specialty crop producers face a variety of challenges that require a diverse set of solutions. From labor shortages and rising production costs that threatened the health of Florida’s strawberry industry to water supply challenges that stymied North Dakota’s vegetable yields, the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP) has helped producers bring to life innovative ideas in automation.

Among frontline troops serving in Southeast Asia fifty years ago, peace was a distant thought. They were too busy fighting while diplomats assembled in Paris. U.S. forces were pushing hard against the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army in provinces along the A Shau Valley, into Cambodia and Laos. The number killed in action reached beyond 6,000 in 1970. War haunts this generation of aging veterans.

With so many choices in the grocery aisle, looking for the USDA Grade A shield on your poultry is an easy way to pick out the chicken with consistent and verified quality.

December is filled with holiday observances and family gatherings, many highlighted by a seasonal feast. While the centerpiece for these feasts is as diverse as our nation, beef is a popular choice, particularly the standing rib roast, a traditional favorite. Last holiday season, the standing rib roast accounted for one fourth of all beef roasts marketed in retail outlets.

While Veterans Day is an occasion set aside to recognize present and past service, it is nearly impossible to separate memories of lost comrades. We celebrate the living, reflect solemnly on generations now fading, and recall others whose voices are forever silent.

It takes a village to get those red ripe watermelon or sweet ears of corn to the neighborhood grocery store at the right time for consumers. Producers must decide when to plant and pick crops, package produce, find buyers and select the right shipper to transport products to market. Hundreds of people and thousands of decisions are needed to get the fruits and vegetables people love to stores at peak freshness. And to make sure everything gets done right, many producers and handlers rely on trusted resources from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS).

The face of poverty has often been associated with the starving child in the slums of New Delhi, India or streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. While this is the reality for many children across the developing world, rural and urban poverty is often overlooked in developed countries, such as the United States.