Department of Agriculture Function

United States Department of Agriculture Function

To Review

For more than 150 years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has served the people and places of our country that are hard to reach, off the beaten track, or otherwise underserved. Rural America provides our nation’s food and enough for record agricultural exports, as well as the majority of our energy resources, the fiber for goods and manufacturing, and more than 35 percent of our nation’s military members. We recognize their strategic importance to our national and economic security, as well as the values they give to our national identity.

At USDA, we have spent the past eight years working to support these communities and create opportunity in rural America. Today, the United States is experiencing record agricultural productivity and exports, ensuring Americans are more food secure and spend a smaller portion of their paychecks at the grocery store than most developed nations.

I have made it my priority to ensure USDA embraces all forms of production and producers of all sizes—from organics to conventional, from the smallest to the largest farms and ranches across the nation. Our support has empowered an explosion in the local food movement and significant growth in farmers markets and direct sales by farmers to schools, hospitals and other institutions. We have also focused on expanding access to healthier food, implementing the most significant updates to school meals in decades for our nation’s youth, making changes to our programs that ensure mothers and newborns have access to more nutritious food, and helping to reduce child hunger to the lowest level on record.

At the end of 2008, rural areas were reeling from the Great Recession. At the depths of the recession, rural counties were shedding 200,000 jobs per year, rural unemployment stood at nearly 10 percent, and poverty rates reached heights unseen in decades. Many rural communities were ill-positioned to bounce back quickly, since widespread job loss came as the economy was increasingly focused on technology, advanced manufacturing, and services.

Over the course of this Administration, USDA made targeted investments to help rural areas grow, and also transformed itself into a 21st century service provider that delivers programs and services to all Americans. At the same time, the Administration formed, and I was pleased to Chair, the first White House Rural Council to better coordinate federal investments in rural areas, in partnership with local, state, and private sector partners. USDA executed an aggressive strategy to bolster and complement production agriculture by removing obstacles to U.S. trade and increasing exports, maintaining record exports for eight years straight. We strengthened the emerging bio-economy by supporting renewable energy and manufacturing of biobased products.

Alongside a record number of producers, we invested in conservation and elevated eco-markets. We made significant investments in affordable rural housing, energy efficiency and availability, community facilities, clean and reliable drinking water and wastewater systems, and internet access, coupled with historic levels of loans and grants for rural businesses. And we made it a priority to build a new era for civil rights at USDA, charting a stronger path for the future where all Americans are treated with dignity and respect.

As we’ve invested in rural America, we have seen improvements in the economy. Median household income in rural areas of the U.S. increased by 3.4 percent in 2015 and poverty rates have fallen. Rural populations have stabilized and are beginning to grow. Rural counties added over 250,000 jobs in both 2014 and 2015, and the rural unemployment rate has dropped below 6 percent for the first time since 2007. Hunger is down in rural and urban areas alike, as about 8 million fewer people are struggling to provide adequate food for themselves or their families compared to the height of the recession, and child food insecurity is at an all-time low.

Under this Administration, USDA has created and invested in a strategy for rural America, and thanks to those efforts, the future of our rural communities looks bright today. But there is more work to be done to ensure that USDA’s targeted investments continue to help the rural economy retool itself for the 21st century.

Record of Progress
RURAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
This Administration, spearheaded by USDA, has vigorously invested in the rural way of life. Nearly eight years after the Great Recession took hold in rural America, we’re beginning to see positive trends in key indicators such as median household income, population, job creation, and unemployment rates in rural areas, as well as food insecurity and child food insecurity in both rural and urban areas.

Since 2009, USDA has invested more than $6.9 billion in loans and grants for more than 1,200 projects expanding broadband service for nearly 6 million people who live and work in rural America, including tribal areas. These investments have given rural businesses the connectivity required to compete in the global economy and have opened the doors to state-of-the-art health care, educational and cultural resources. We’ve also improved and modernized rural electric infrastructure serving more than 5.5 million rural residents and businesses by funding more than 185,000 miles of electric line. At the same time, we invested in smart grid technology and air quality improvement technologies to improve electric system operations and reduce electric utility emissions. And today, 19 million rural residents have improved water and wastewater services in their communities thanks to USDA investments.

Over the course of this Administration, we’ve proudly helped more than 1.2 million families buy, repair or refinance a home in rural America—that’s more homeownership opportunities than any other previous Administration in USDA’s history. We’ve invested in more than 8,350 critical community facilities projects— including schools, libraries, health care facilities, recreational centers, and public safety facilities. In 2014, USDA launched a public-private partnership designed to facilitate the flow of capital to infrastructure projects in rural America, with our private sector partner committing to lend up to $10 billion and lending more than $3 billion already to over 400 projects in the power, water, communications, and community facilities industries.

USDA believes every American should have an opportunity to succeed, but a full 85 percent of our country’s persistent poverty counties are in rural America. That’s why in 2010, we established the StrikeForce for Rural Growth and Opportunity Initiative, making a commitment to strengthen rural economies through increased investments, intensive outreach and local partnerships. Through StrikeForce, we’ve partnered with almost 1,500 community and faith-based organizations to support nearly 190,000 projects, and directed $23.5 billion of USDA’s investments into over 970 high-poverty rural counties. Through the Promise Zone Initiative, USDA, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and other federal agencies are collaborating with community leaders to provide tailored assistance based on the specific needs of a community. Today, USDA serves as the lead for supporting eight rural and tribal Promise Zones, and has delivered over $410 million of federal investments to the first two rural and two tribal Promise Zones—the Choctaw Nation, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Southeastern Kentucky and South Carolina Low Country—in just two years.

COMBATTING RURAL SUBSTANCE AND PRESCRIPTION DRUG MISUSE
In late 2015, President Obama asked me to lead an interagency federal effort focused on the rural heroin and prescription opioid crisis. In 2014 alone, we lost 28,648 lives too soon and according to NIH, the epidemic incurs $72 billion in health costs each year. The opioid crisis disproportionately affects rural communities in part due to the lack of outreach and treatment resources available in remote areas. After hearing from mothers and fathers who’ve lost their children to opioid misuse, and listening to mayors and medical personnel appeal for greater treatment resources, it’s clear that rural communities need our help to fight this devastating epidemic.

As Chair of the White House Rural Council, I have worked with colleagues across the Administration to aggressively examine the tools at our disposal to stem the tide. Our strategy focuses on maximizing the reach of the resources we have available to focus on prevention, treatment, recovery, and criminal justice reform. USDA’s offices across the country now play an important role in raising awareness about the issue and helping people connect with available resources.

Since 2009, USDA has invested in more than 8,283 educational and health care facilities nationwide through our Distance Learning and Telemedicine program, which is helping hospitals in rural communities become better equipped to treat individuals struggling with substance misuse through telemedicine. Our Community Facilities Grants and Loans program has allowed communities to build treatment and recovery facilities. In 2014 and 2015, we provided more than $213 million to 80 projects in 34 states for mental health facilities alone. In March, we announced that the Rural Health and Safety Education grant program could be used for communities to conduct drug misuse awareness efforts, and two grants have already been awarded. In August, we began leveraging USDA rural housing programs to provide more housing for individuals in recovery.

These steps, and many others taken by our colleagues at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs, will help many communities, but additional resources are critical. The $1 billion in new funding proposed in President Obama’s 2017 budget and just recently provided by Congress in the 21st Century Cures Act will help meet that need.

RECORD AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AND EXPORTS
Agricultural exports have topped $1 trillion since 2009, far and away the best stretch in our nation’s history. These exports make up 20 percent of U.S. farmers’ cash receipts, support more than 1 million American jobs, and generate an additional $1.27 trillion in U.S. business activity. U.S. agricultural exports have delivered a trade surplus every year since the 1960s—meaning we consistently export much more than we import—making us a more economically secure nation.

Since 2009, USDA has worked to remove hundreds of unfair barriers to trade; opened or expanded key markets for products such as beef, dairy, fruits and vegetables, and more; and led 17 trade and investment missions and attended 23 trade shows, generating billions of dollars in sales for U.S. businesses.

For eight years, we have fought hard to preserve and expand markets because the livelihoods of rural Americans depend on it. Ninety-five percent of the world’s consumers live outside of our borders. In 2015 alone, USDA resolved more than 150 trade-related issues involving U.S. agricultural exports valued at $2.4 billion. We’ve also negotiated to eliminate restrictions on U.S. beef in 15 countries since January 2015. And despite the historic animal disease outbreak affecting poultry in 2015, USDA negotiators enabled U.S. poultry producers to maintain 74 percent of their market share. Just a year removed from the highly-pathogenic avian influenza outbreak, USDA has helped the United States recapture nearly every market.

USDA has supported American agriculture by quickly and nimbly administering programs and services provided by Congress through the Farm Bill and other legislation. Since 2009, USDA has successfully implemented two Farm Bills while improving upon Farm Bill programs by introducing new risk management tools for small and medium producers, such as Whole Farm Revenue Protection, and expanding lending to underserved and beginning producers. USDA has provided more than 109,000 agricultural producers with investment capital of more than $34 billion to strengthen farming and ranching operations since 2009. Annual lending to underserved and socially disadvantaged producers increased dramatically, from $379.4 million in 2008 to $827.3 million in 2015, a 118 percent increase. Our streamlined microloan program, pioneered under this Administration, is now an important access point to new, small, or underserved farmers and ranchers. Since the program’s inception in January 2013, USDA has issued over 21,700 microloans, 70 percent of which have gone to beginning farmers.

STRENGTHENING GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY
Food security is critical to economic security, as well as national security, not only for the United States, but also for other nations around the world. The United Nations estimates that worldwide demand for food will increase 60 percent by 2050. International organizations recognize that food insecurity is common in conflict-affected countries, and that policies that help to build resilience to food insecurity can limit violence, strengthen governance systems, and build up civil society.

The 2007-2008 global food price crisis underscored the breadth of these challenges, and prompted us to work across agencies to design a new global food security program called Feed the Future. Launched in 2009, Feed the Future has helped to reshape how the United States combats global hunger and malnutrition, while supporting agricultural development. Led by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), USDA supports this government-wide effort by investing in cutting-edge research to strengthen agricultural production and nutrition in Feed the Future focus countries, and promoting open data and sharing between nations to ensure that research will contribute to efforts to feed the world. Open agriculture and nutrition data is a powerful tool for long-term sustainable development. USDA has served as the U.S. Government lead on the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) initiative, focused on opening agriculture and nutrition data to support sustainable development and solve longstanding global food security challenges, since its creation in 2013.

IMPROVING NUTRITION AND ACCESS TO HEALTHY FOOD FOR AMERICANS
In 2008, the programs that form the foundation of our country’s nutrition safety net — the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and WIC — were in need of consistent and strategic investment to ensure adequate healthy foods were available to every qualifying American. Ensuring that nutrition assistance from these core programs was available to all qualifying individuals during the Recession prevented millions from falling into poverty. The Recovery Act also expanded nutrition assistance by temporarily increasing SNAP benefits, which helped to further dampen the effects of the recession on families that fell on hard times.

As the economy has improved, the number of Americans participating in SNAP has declined by over 4 million from its peak, which is what the program is designed to do. Despite the improved economy and lower unemployment, many households still struggle to afford food and the nation’s food programs continue to do important work helping these families make ends meet. The large majority of households receiving SNAP today include children, individuals with disabilities, the elderly, and working adults. In fact, two-thirds of SNAP benefits go to households with children. Last year, SNAP kept at least 4.7 million Americans — including 2.1 million children — out of poverty. Research has shown that SNAP not only reduces food insecurity, but it also leads to improved health and educational outcomes for adults and children.

USDA’s National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program play an important role in ensuring that children have the nutritious meals at school they need to be successful students. The historic Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA), implemented by USDA under this Administration, is a critical part of making our school meals programs a success. Today more low-income children are receiving free breakfast and lunch as a result of the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) created by the HHFKA. This option reduces redundant paperwork at high-poverty schools and provides all students with a healthy breakfast and lunch at no charge during each school day. More than 8.5 million students have improved access to breakfast and lunch because of CEP, which is operating in 3,000 school districts and 18,000 schools.

The HHFKA not only expanded access to food for our most vulnerable, it also created a healthier food environment at school for over 50 million children. Built on science-based recommendations to increase fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and low-fat dairy, while reducing fats and sodium, HHFKA is ensuring school environments promote healthy choices, including snacks and vending options. Today, 99 percent of schools have embraced updated, healthier school meal standards, and Farm to School programs are helping kids eat fresh, healthy food while helping schools keep food dollars right in their own communities.

In partnership with states, school districts, and communities, over the last eight years USDA has undertaken robust efforts to expand access to healthy meals during the summer, when school is out and food insecurity typically rises in households with children. Since 2009, USDA and our partners have served more than 1.2 billion summer meals to low-income kids — an increase of an average of 17 million meals each year. Today, nearly 4 million children participate in summer meal programs. We have also undertaken successful pilot projects that provide families with additional nutrition assistance during the summer to test the impact of this approach to reducing food insecurity. The pilots provide modest additional nutrition assistance that families can use at the grocery store, and have been shown to significantly reduce food insecurity among children. As a result of this effective pilot, President Obama’s 2017 budget calls to establish a permanent, nationwide Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children program.

We have also made changes to benefit newborns to pre-K children. Today, 8 million low-income women, infants and young children receive an improved variety of healthy food through WIC—boosting fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy, while expanding support for breastfeeding and nutrition education. Participation in WIC, which serves about half of all babies born in the United States, has improved pregnancy outcomes and resulted in fewer infant deaths, fewer premature births, increased birth weights, and less prevalence of obesity for low-income preschool children. According to the Government Accountability Office, every dollar spent on prenatal WIC participation saves $3.50 in health care costs.

In 2011, USDA launched the newly designed MyPlate icon to promote healthier eating among all Americans. MyPlate took the place of the older Food Pyramid and helps communicate science-based recommendations for healthy eating by giving Americans an easy visual method to help them find the right dietary proportions and keep their families’ plates healthy.

Taken together, USDA’s efforts have contributed to a steady decline in child food insecurity from its peak in 2011, with food insecurity for children at its lowest level in history. USDA also worked diligently to safeguard the integrity of its nutrition programs, making significant reductions in the SNAP trafficking rate while putting new efforts in place to support individuals transitioning from SNAP to the workforce. Under this Administration, USDA has invested more than $300 million in state employment and training programs designed to help participants build comprehensive skill sets and match them with good-paying jobs.

SUPPORTING LOCAL AND REGIONAL FOOD SYSTEMS
When President Obama took office in 2009, “local food” was still a relatively new concept. USDA gave new priority to giving consumers what they had been asking for: a stronger connection to their food. The Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Initiative (KYF2) was launched in 2009 to break down bureaucratic silos and take stock of existing USDA programs across the Department that could support the growing demand for local and regional food systems. Between 2009 and 2015, USDA has invested over $1 billion in more than 40,000 local and regional food businesses and infrastructure projects. Today, more than 160,000 farmers and ranchers nationwide are selling into local markets, from farmers markets and community co-ops, to local restaurants, grocery stores and institutions, generating huge returns for local communities. Our National Farmers Market Directory now lists over 8,500 farmers markets nationwide, an increase of 93 percent since 2006. The number of SNAP-authorized farmers and farmers markets has grown dramatically, from 753 in 2008 to more than 6,400 today. Industry estimates show U.S. local food sales totaled at least $12 billion in 2014, up from $5 billion in 2008, and experts anticipate that value to hit $20 billion by 2019.

In 2014, the U.S. retail market for organic products was valued at over $39 billion, and it continues to grow. Over the past eight years, we have made great strides in strengthening USDA’s programs that support organic operations—including introducing crop insurance for organic producers—helping to more create jobs and opportunities in rural communities while meeting increasing consumer demand for organic products. Today, there are more than 21,700 certified organic operations in the United States, representing a nearly 300 percent increase since 2002.

SAFER FOOD AND GREATER CONSUMER CONFIDENCE
The work we have accomplished under this Administration represents some of the most significant positive changes to America’s food safety system since the 1950s. Since 2009, USDA has made changes to meat and poultry labels, updated our food safety inspection methods, enhanced our ability to quickly and broadly investigate food safety outbreaks, modernized how our laboratories test for pathogens like E. coli and Salmonella, and reconsidered all the ways we help safer food reach store shelves. Altogether, these new standards are expected to prevent 50,000 cases of foodborne illness annually. Thus far, the total number of foodborne illnesses attributed to products that we inspect—meat, poultry and processed egg products—fell more than 12 percent from 2009 to 2015, a signal that our strategy is working.

This Administration has shifted the overall paradigm of federal food safety efforts from one of response to one of prevention. USDA established a zero tolerance policy for raw beef products that contain certain strains of E. coli and developed new Salmonella and Campylobacter performance standards for poultry parts (legs, thighs, wings, etc.), which consumers purchase far more frequently than whole chickens. In August 2014, USDA finalized the most significant update to poultry food safety inspections since 1957, requiring for the first time that all poultry facilities create a plan to prevent contamination, rather than addressing contamination after it occurs. To help ensure proper handling, preparation, and storage of food, in 2009 USDA introduced a new educational campaign focused on “clean, separate, cook, and chill,” highlighting four basic safe food handling practices to prevent cross-contamination. And in 2015, we launched the Foodkeeper app for smartphones and tablets to offer consumers valuable storage advice and food safety information about more than 400 common food and beverage items whenever and wherever they need it.

CONSERVATION AND FORESTRY RECORD
Seventy-percent of the nation’s land is owned and managed by private interests. And as we begin to feel the growing impacts of a changing climate, these farmers, ranchers, and landowners have willingly stepped up to meet this challenge. With USDA’s support, they work to implement voluntary practices that clean the air we breathe and the water we drink, prevent soil erosion, and create and protect wildlife habitat. Since the start of this Administration, USDA has invested more than $29 billion to help producers make conservation improvements, working with as many as 500,000 farmers, ranchers, and landowners to protect land and water on over 400 million acres nationwide. As a result of these efforts, nitrogen runoff from farm fields has been reduced by over 3.5 billion pounds; phosphorus runoff has been reduced by over 700 million pounds; and net greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced by over 416 million metric tons since 2009, or the equivalent of taking 12.6 million cars off the road for a year.

We have also instituted a new “working lands for wildlife approach” on more than 850,000 acres to address high-priority wildlife objectives across vast landscapes, such as restoring habitat for the Alabama black bear, Indiana bat, sage grouse, the New England cottontail, the Golden-winged warbler, and many other animal species, while keeping the working lands in productive use for farmers and ranchers. Through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), USDA pioneered a new collaborative approach to improving the nation’s water quality, soil health, and wildlife habitat and protecting open spaces across the country. RCPP empowers local communities to work with multiple partners, farmers, and ranchers to develop and implement geo-specific conservation solutions that work best for them. Our $1.2 billion investment in RCPP over the next five years can leverage an additional $1.2 billion from partners for a total of $2.4 billion for innovative conservation work.

Between 2011 and 2014, despite record drought, longer fire seasons and more than half of its budget spent fighting wildfire, the USDA Forest Service and our partners increased the pace and scale of forest restoration by 9 percent by removing flammable vegetation, commonly referred to as hazardous fuels. Over the past eight years, the Forest Service reduced hazardous fuels on millions of acres in the wildland urban interface and sustained or restored watershed conditions on many millions more. And, since 2009, we have reduced reliance on fossil fuels, supported rural economic growth, and advanced forest restoration by investing nearly $1 billion to support over 230 wood energy projects across the country.

CLIMATE SMART AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY
Agriculture, forestry, and land stewardship have emerged as a central component of United States’ effort to stem the impacts of climate change. To meet our national goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, our nation’s food and forestry producers have embraced innovation and conservation. Launched in 2015, in direct response to President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, USDA’s Building Blocks for Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry set the nation’s first measurable benchmarks in food and forestry to reduce net emissions and enhance CO2 sequestration by 120 million metric tons per year. Our nation’s public and private forests offset up to 14 percent of GHG emissions each year. Knowing our forests are one of the earth’s best filters of GHG, the Forest Service developed a landmark Forest Planning Rule in 2012 — the first such rule in more than 30 years — to guide management of the 193 million acres in the National Forest System.

To give agriculture and forest producers a reliable source of regional data and science-based information to help them address region-specific risks due to climate change, USDA established seven regional Climate Hubs and three sub-hubs. Since 2009, USDA has invested over $656 million to support climate change research by USDA scientists and partners at land-grant universities, helping inform farmers, ranchers, and land managers as they evaluate and respond to climate-related challenges.

Putting wood to good use is another tactic in our climate plan. Using wood helps to reduce GHG emissions by storing carbon and simultaneously offsetting emissions from conventional building materials. In September 2015, in partnership with the Softwood Lumber Board and the Binational Softwood Lumber Council, USDA announced the first winners of the U.S. Tall Wood Building Prize Competition. The competition was held to promote forest restoration and retention and foster sustainability in the built environment.

We estimate that 30 to 40 percent of the U.S. food supply is wasted, and food waste is the single largest component in our landfills, which pump methane—a greenhouse gas—into our atmosphere. Our partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to initiate the U.S. Food Waste Challenge sets the first-ever national food waste reduction goal of 50 percent by 2030 in an effort to reduce the amount of wasted food in landfills, which in turn will reduce GHG emissions.


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