Articles by Sarah Gonzalez

WASHINGTON, Aug. 12- The White House Rural Council released its “Jobs and Economic Security for Rural America” report today. The report, which highlights positive impacts from President Obama’s rural programs, arrives just before he begins his Midwest bus tour to Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 9- The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) issued a proposed rule today to establish regulations for improving the traceability of U.S. livestock when animal disease events take place.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10- Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack held a White House Rural Council meeting today with the National Association of Counties (NACo). Today’s Council emphasized the importance of beginning farmer programs, especially with more than 30 percent of the nation’s farmers at age 55

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4– The number of farmers' markets grew 17 percent since 2010, according to results released today in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2011 National Farmers Market Directory, with a total of more than 7,000 across the U.S.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8- The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a national partnership to improve rural drinking water and wastewater systems.

WASHINGTON, August 3- A group of agriculture industry groups sent a letter to leaders of the House and Senate on Tuesday, urging them not to interfere with the FDA’s decision whether to approve genetically engineered salmon as food.

Organic and specialty crop producers gathered in front of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry to encourage the continued support of a growing organic, fruit and vegetable industry in the next farm bill.

Only four days before the August 2 deadline, members of the House of Representatives voted in favor of House Speaker John A. Boehner’s