USDA

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a new plan to strengthen its collaboration with tribes and help them build more sustainable food systems.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is now testing the nation’s milk supply for the bird flu virus known as H5N1. The virus has spread through dairy cattle in 16 states, including most of the Mountain West.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is spending $60 million to help tribal farmers in the Mountain West use less water amid drought – and still grow their crops.

Farming and ranching in the Western U.S. sucks up 75% of the Colorado River basin’s water supply. A new analysis shows the federal government is paying these farmers billions in crop insurance, but not helping them adapt to climate change.

Many farmers across the Mountain West grow alfalfa, which is dried into hay and fed to beef and dairy cattle. But it requires a lot more water than most crops. Now, researchers are working on new technologies to reduce the amount farmers use. Still, some say allowing them to grow such a thirsty crop in the arid West is the problem.

Farming produces 10% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is taking new steps to lower that number, but some experts warn it might not be enough.

Rising temperatures across the Southwest are hurting farmers’ crops, and that’s escalating crop insurance costs for heat-related impacts, according to a new report by the Environmental Working Group, a nonpartisan research and advocacy group.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is spending nearly $200 million to reduce wildfire risk to communities nationwide, including many parts of the Mountain West.

Livestock producers in the Mountain West have been hit hard by this winter’s weather. That’s why Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming and Utah have asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture for relief.

Agriculture departments from several states in the Mountain West are asking the federal government to consider relief programs for livestock producers hit hard by the weather this winter.