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07/15/2011 12:48 PM EDT
Young members of the Chedepo-Grebo tribe celebrate their cultural heritage by re-creating traditional decoration and attire during a recent cultural celebration in Guinda. The tribe is utilizing an FSA Operating Loan to expand its specialty fruit and vegetable growing business focusing on the ethnic market in Northern California. by Val Dolcini, California state executive director As we reflect on this important month that celebrates our nation's 235th anniversary, I thought I'd share a story about how FSA in California is helping people achieve and celebrate their own version of the American Dream. This morning, I visited with a Liberian immigrant...
07/15/2011 08:03 AM EDT
A taskforce designed to streamline day-to-day FSA operations in response to department-wide budget constraints is joining forces with the latest employee feedback initiative. The Best Practices Taskforce was initiated in March 2011 to develop innovative ideas that could generate cost-savings and incorporate greater efficiencies throughout FSA's state and county offices. State executive directors served as primary participants on the taskforce, which was started by former acting FSA Administrator Val Dolcini and chaired by Julia Wickard, Indiana state executive director. "When tasked with this project, I was honored to assume the role of assisting FSA in producing some suggested roads for...
07/14/2011 02:29 PM EDT
Staff searching for a central location to find solutions to their software questions have a place to turn. The Quick Tips and Resource Links site, or QTips is now available to help answer specific questions about Microsoft Office programs such as Word, PowerPoint or Outlook, and other software applications. Want to know how to use formulas in an Excel spreadsheet or how to change margins in a Word document, just connect to QTips. Learn how to shorten a long URL or get assistance on Adobe Acrobat Reader. Whatever the problem, QTips can help assist in identifying a resource.Employees can ask...
07/13/2011 01:04 PM EDT
More than 17,000 complaints of employment discrimination were filed by federal employees and applicants during fiscal year 2010, a 3.75 percent increase over last year. According to the Annual Report on the Federal Work Force issued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, retaliation was the most common allegation followed by age and race. Each federal agency is responsible for handling their own complaints. Read more (FedSmith).
07/13/2011 12:19 PM EDT
About $15 million in payments will be issued to asparagus producers approved for the Asparagus Revenue Market Loss Assistance Payment Program. The program compensates asparagus producers for revenue losses during the 2004 through 2007 crop year. Payments, which are set to be dispersed July 13, will be capped at $100,000 per producer. Learn more.
07/13/2011 10:27 AM EDT
Federal pay raises and bonuses are on a short leash. A memo issued last month by Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry told agencies not to give within-grade step increases to employees who are rated lower than fully successful. Another memo, issued a couple of days later, placed restrictions on employee bonuses beginning in October. The measure comes as part of the budget belt-tightening and political pressure from critics that site a generous federal pay system. Read more (Federal Times).
07/13/2011 08:27 AM EDT
The Florida orange forecast for the 2010-11 growing season was reduced to 139 million boxes, but still remains above the 133.6 million produced in 2009-10. According to a report by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, grapefruit production remains at 19.9 million boxes while tangerine production is steady at 4.6 million boxes. Review the report.
07/12/2011 03:29 PM EDT
Just because a producer works at a smaller operation doesn't mean he or she can't sell on a bigger scale. And the size of a farm shouldn't limit a producer's ability to feed local foods to local people. But how can such an operation connect the dots to successfully market its products? One answer lies in a new kind of business model known as food hubs, which are emerging as critical pillars for building stronger regional and local food systems. A food hub centralizes the business management structure to facilitate the aggregation, storage, processing, distribution, and/or marketing of locally/regionally produced...
07/12/2011 08:13 AM EDT
Farmer and ranchers applying for assistance for 2009 crop losses under the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments (SURE) program have a little more than two weeks to submit an application. SURE provides crop disaster assistance to eligible producers that have suffered crop production or quality losses. Producers must have suffered at least a 10 percent loss on a crop of economic significance and obtained a policy or plan of insurance under the Federal Crop Insurance Act or the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program. A limit of $100,000 per person or legal applies to the combination of payments from SURE and the...
07/11/2011 01:36 PM EDT
American farmers are planting more genetically engineered varieties of soybeans, cotton and corn as opposed to conventional and organic seed, according to a report by the USDA Economic Research Service. The use of genetically engineered corn increased to 88 percent in 2011, compared to 86 percent in 2010. Soybean rose to 94 percent, just one percent higher than last year, while cotton jumped to 90 percent, up from 86 percent in 2009. Read more (Des Moines Register) or view the report.
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