rural development

At the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), we understand the essential role that veterans, military spouses, and transitioning service members can play in revitalizing and strengthening our agricultural industry. This is one of the reasons we provide a range of training resources and support. USDA’s Military Veterans Agricultural Liaison, or MVAL, connects veterans to resources within and outside USDA to help them embark on successful careers in agriculture. These efforts also help move USDA closer to its goal of developing a workforce in which 25 percent of all employees are veterans.

This October USDA is celebrating National Cooperative Month, an observance that recognizes the cooperative model, its many influential uses, and how cooperatives benefit their members in numerous ways. There are at least 30,000 cooperatives in the United States providing more than $700 billion to the economy. This year’s theme is Owning Our Identity, a reference to the principles and values that distinguish cooperatives from other business forms.

When Linda Leaks organized tenants in low-income District of Columbia neighborhoods to fight eviction, she helped them gain more than home ownership. In combatting gentrification and the community displacement of the ‘80s and ‘90s, she empowered people to recognize the collective power of the cooperative business model.

Since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has advanced equity by listening to the people we serve and learning how we can serve them better by removing barriers to our programs and services. USDA offices and agencies have developed key actions to comprehensively incorporate equity into the Department’s services, which touch every American’s life.

Virginia native Michael Reese wanted to see the world, meet new people, and secure funding for college. Following in the footsteps of his father and brother, he served in the United States Navy for 30 years from 1989 to 2019.

In recognition of Homeownership Month this June, USDA Rural Development (RD) New York’s State Office had the privilege of celebrating the newest homeowner on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation. Randa Martin and her four children welcomed the RD team and staff from the Akwesasne Housing Authority to their newly constructed home in Hogansburg, N.Y., a community on St. Regis Mohawk tribal land. RD presented the family with a red maple tree, planted together with Martin’s sons in memory of their late father, Richard Lebehn.

Today, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack kicked off National Homeownership Month. As part of this nationwide celebration, USDA is highlighting programs that help people in rural and Tribal areas buy, build and repair affordable homes and to pay their rent in America’s smallest towns and communities.

Water has always shaped where we plant our communities and how they grow. If you farm, fish, or live in rural America, you know that healthy waterways are vital to ensuring that communities, large or small, can continue to thrive.

I recently traveled to Torrey, New York to break ground on the town’s first-ever water district. This project has been more than 20 years in the making and it will improve the health and lives of people living in rural parts of the state. It will also improve the water quality and conservation efforts on the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

In June 2021, President Joe Biden announced the creation of the Interagency Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) to root out racial and ethnic bias in home valuations after a report from the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation found that appraisals for home purchases in majority-Black and majority-Latino neighborhoods were roughly twice as likely to result in a value below the actual contract price compared to appraisals in predominantly-white neighborhoods.