A Year of Promise for American Agriculture

From USDA:

Posted by Agriculture Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden, on December 19, 2014 at 2:00 PM

It’s not hard to list our accomplishments here at USDA: After all, our progress on the much anticipated 2014 Farm Bill has been lauded as “the most successful Farm Bill implementation.” We also launched a website for New Farmers and started a conversation with women in agriculture that will continue to grow for many years to come.

What is sometimes less obvious is the people whose lives these programs and initiatives impact. So, to wrap up the year, I wanted to share a few of my most cherished memories from my first year as Deputy Secretary.

1. This year, I was honored when Secretary Vilsack asked me to lead the team of USDA employees charged with implementing the Farm Bill and especially excited to work on provisions that impact veterans. I was also proud to announce last month that Karis Gutter will be USDA’s military liaison, a position created by the Farm Bill based on the strong demand for veterans to get into farming. Karis will be instrumental in helping people like disabled veteran and outdoorsman Jason Seaton of East Tennessee achieve his dream of bringing wildlife back to his farm.

2. Farming is a tough business especially when you did not grow up on the farm, but that didn’t stop Pam Schreiber from building her own diversified agricultural business, all while raising her three children. I had the privilege of meeting Pam last winter. Now the owner of Eight Mile Creek Farm in upstate New York, Pam produces more than 30 different kinds of fruits and vegetables, certified organic grass-fed beef, pork, and heritage chicken, as well as cage-free organic eggs. To help people like Pam find information and resources to help them get started, this year we launched www.usda.gov/newfarmers.

3. This past summer, I had the honor of traveling with the first-ever, all-female congressional delegation to Africa to focus on empowering women around the world through agriculture. I met a wonderful young woman named Yetemwork Tilahun who is working with USDA’s Feed Enhancement for Ethiopian Development project to boost milk production on her dairy farm through better feeding practices and farm management. Around the world, USDA is building strong communities and giving farmers the resources they need to do what they love.

4. This year also brought about a new discussion on women’s evolving role in agriculture and what lies ahead. At the White House, I gathered with women from different agricultural backgrounds to discuss ways to inspire the next generation of women leaders.

One woman in particular, Kate Danner, a young farmer in Illinois, is already thinking about what is going to happen to her family’s operation over the next 20 years. After completing her college degree, Kate worked up an innovative business plan for her family farm alongside her father. For the first five years of this plan, Kate works for her father. For the next five years, Kate and her father are joint partners. And for the final five years before full transition, Kate’s father works for her. This young woman continues to trail blaze in what has commonly been a very difficult conversation for parents and their children to have about succession planning.

5. This summer, the White House chose 17 individuals that represent the future of agriculture to honor at a Champions of Change event. Coming from both rural and urban backgrounds, these champions showcased the passion that is evident across all areas of the agriculture industry. For instance, Pierre Sleiman of California took his passion for science and technology and started a hydroponics business, while Fabiola Nizigiyimana started her agriculture career in the United States as a refugee.

I wish I could share the stories of every single person I met this year. Each one of them exemplifies the very best of agriculture and rural America. I am proud of all that USDA has accomplished in 2014, and look forward to seeing new faces and hearing more incredible stories in 2015.

Stopping a Winged Purveyor of Disease and Death

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Sandy Miller Hays, USDA-Agricultural Research Service Information Staff, on April 7, 2014 at 12:00 PM

The mosquito Aedes aegypti can spread several diseases as it travel from person to person. Only the females feed on blood. In this photo, the mosquito is just starting to feed on a person’s arm.

During the month of April we will take a closer look at USDA’s Groundbreaking Research for a Revitalized Rural America, highlighting ways USDA researchers are improving the lives of Americans in ways you might never imagine.  For example, researching mosquitoes that spread diseases that threaten human health worldwide.

Today is World Health Day, and this year’s theme is vector-borne diseases—those diseases spread by organisms like insects, ticks and snails.  Significant vector-borne diseases in the Americas include dengue fever, malaria, leishmaniasis, lymphatic filariasis and schistosomiasis.

One of the most egregious offenders is the mosquito, and the scientists of USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are taking aim at this winged attacker with weapons ranging from traditional remedies to computer modeling and satellite images.

Rift Valley Fever (RVF) is a viral disease spread to livestock and humans via mosquito bites, and is a major threat in Africa and the Middle East. ARS scientists partnered with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and federal partners from NASA, CDC and the Department of Defense to form the Rift Valley Fever Outbreak Early-Warning Team to develop and transfer an early-warning system to detect and predict outbreaks of RVF.

The model is based on analyzing satellite images to detect when temperatures in the Pacific and Indian oceans elevate concurrently to produce widespread and heavy rainfall in Africa. The right conditions can give rise to major increases in the number and longevity of infected mosquitoes that spread the disease. Similar models can help predict outbreaks of malaria and dengue.

In October 2006, the model predicted that RVF would flare up within three months in sub-Saharan Africa, and warnings were sent to countries in harm’s way to allow them to step up surveillance and controls for disease-carrying insects. Additional warnings were issued from 2007-2010 in Sudan, Southern Africa and Madagascar months prior to the detection of RVF disease.

At a remote patrol base in Iraq, ARS scientist and U.S. Army entomologist Seth Britch applies a pesticide treatment to camouflage netting and shade cloth that will be suspended over outdoor eating and cooking areas and areas between dormitories. This treatment reduces populations of biting flies and mosquitoes by transferring lethal doses to the insects when they rest on the camouflage material.

In other work, ARS scientists have shown that compounds in the oil of seeds of Jatropha curcas—burned in homes in India—are effective mosquito repellents. They’ve also shown that a naturally occurring compound from pine oil seems to deter mosquito biting and repels two kinds of ticks.

Additionally, ARS scientists have evaluated treatments applied to uniforms to help protect military personnel against biting insects, and have helped the military evaluate spray equipment to combat insects that threaten the health of deployed soldiers.

These are just a few examples of the ways ARS scientists serve every day on the front lines in the battle against mosquitoes, ticks and other creatures that pose ongoing, serious threats to the health of the world’s population.

ARS agricultural engineer Clint Hoffmann evaluates a pesticide spray nozzle as ARS works to devise better ways of protecting military personnel from disease-transmitting insects like mosquitoes.