u s department of agriculture

Without a stable workforce, U.S. farm productivity will decline

Chipotle Mexican Grill is helping the Towson Chamber of Commerce celebrate National Farmer's Market Week at its weekly market on Allegheny Avenue in Towson by distributing 500 $10 food tokens to be used at Thursday's market.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents intercepted a type of mealybug pest in an exotic fruit at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, federal officials said Monday.

Two years after the Obama administration restarted a long-standing effort to rid itself of surplus federal buildings almost all of the excess property identified in Maryland remains in government hands, a Baltimore Sun review has found.

This summer, a van is bringing the federal free-meals program for children into Baltimore neighborhoods.

Anne Arundel County Executive Laura Neuman has hired Walinda "Linda" West as her new director of communications.

I note with great displeasure in the June 27 edition of the Laurel Leader that we are again going to put on a hot dog-eating contest on Main Street to celebrate the Glorious Sixth. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 60 million Americans are now obese, and I am certain I could shed a few pounds. At the same time, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 15 percent of families in America suffer some "food insecurity." Yet we are going to encourage people to gorge in public until

Harford Christian School won its second consecutive Maryland Envirothon recently, its third overall state championship in the past five years, and will represent the state in the North American Envirothon in August.

The Department of Agriculture, the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies are at it again: waging their friendly summer battle to see which can raise the most food for the annual Feds Feed Families charitable drive.

Some of Baltimore's best-known candy makers are pressing Congress to overturn a decades-old sugar policy they say is leaving a bad taste in their mouth.

Federal officials announced Friday a major expansion of the ¿urban waters¿ initiative they kicked off in Baltimore nearly two years ago, adding 11 new blighted water ways around the country to the seven they¿ve already pledged to help clean up and redevelop, including the Patapsco River.

Weather disasters including tornadoes, the derecho storm and Hurricane Sandy caused at least $48 million in property and crop damages in Maryland last year, the costliest since 2003, according to data released Thursday.

Howard County datebook

Children in poor Baltimore neighborhoods can get free meals this summer through an extension of the National School Lunch Program, city officials said Wednesday.

Tough new regulations to protect chicken growers on the Eastern Shore were quietly rolled back in a massive federal spending bill last month — enraging advocates for the mom-and-pop farms and straining their already rocky relationship with Salisbury-based Perdue.

Parents of children who attend 15 Harford County public schools were warned by school officials Thursday night that their children may have eaten a pizza product that is subject to a voluntary recall because of possible E. coli bacteria contamination.

Other school districts have already changed their policies to only sell healthier options in their schools. I urge HCPSS to follow their lead to produce both healthy kids and healthy revenues for schools.

Local farmer Rick Holloway and America's Farmers Grow Communities is supporting the Community Foundation of Harford County Inc. to help better serve the area

Food safety groups are ramping up pressure on Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski over language included in a government funding bill that would make it harder for courts to block the planting of genetically engineered crops.