UNIVERSITY PARK — Six Pennsylvania State FFA officer team members for 2025-2026 will call Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences home beginning this fall as first-year students. Sarah Firestone, president; Alexis Butler, treasurer; Jaylene Everhart, chaplain; Jonathan Bradshaw, ...
WASHINGTON — The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service has completed data collection for the Agricultural Yield Survey, which supports the August Crop Production report. The August Crop Production report provides timely information used by producers to make marketing, production, and risk management decisions throughout the growing season. It also supports grain handlers, processors, exporters, input suppliers, lenders, crop insurers, commodity organizations, researchers, and policymakers. “Producer participation in the Agricultural Yield Survey makes a ...
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced $7.5 million in grant funding available through the Cold Chain Grants for Emergency Food Assistance Program. The Program will fund projects to support cold chain equipment investments that help food assistance entities temporarily store, effectively package, and distribute fresh, frozen, and minimally processed foods. “The Trump Administration continues to prioritize providing Real Food for Americans. Over the past year and a half, we have worked hard to incentivize healthier options for Americans and today’s ...
UNIVERSITY PARK — Bumblebees are able to learn to associate new odors with their colony’s queen, instead of being preprogrammed to recognize the queen’s pheromones from birth, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State. For the study, recently published in the journal Communications Biology, the researchers treated buff-tailed bumblebee queens daily with one of two different floral scents as they built their colonies. Later, the researchers gave these worker bees — who grew up exposed to one of these scents as they tended to the queen — a choice between the ...
PENNSYLVANIA FURNACE — Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding recently honored twelve Centennial Farms for having been in the same family for 100 years. He also named a Centre County farm a Bicentennial farm, honoring the Stine family, who have passed down their farm within the family since 1813. “Today, we celebrate 13 farm families who have made tremendous contributions to feeding Pennsylvanians and preserving our agricultural heritage,” Redding said. “These farms and families have varied histories, yet all share a deep commitment to future generations, as well as ...
USDA, HHS, EPA join forces to bolster consumer protections WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin recently announced an updated Memorandum of Understanding to reaffirm their shared commitment to protecting consumers from heavy metals and other contaminants in food. For decades, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have coordinated through ...
