Blog Posts

The following is a column submitted to local area newspapers in September 2015. Two years ago, the newest member of my staff, Rob McCann, stood outside the Portland Career Center on a cold gray morning.  He had recently been discharged from the Marines after serving three tours in Afghanistan and Jordan—participating in nearly 150 combat missions and over 60 firefights.… Read more »

Read more »

Bill would create national task force to prioritize federal efforts Read more »

The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program provides grants to organizations for education, mentoring, and technical assistance initiatives for beginning farmers or ranchers. Read more »

The purpose of the Department of Justice's (DOJ's) and Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD's) PFS Demonstration is to strengthen communities’ ability to prevent and end homelessness and reduce avoidable incarceration by increasing the provision of Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), a proven evidenced-based practice. Read more »

Provides guaranteed loan financing and grant funding to agricultural producers and rural small businesses to purchase or install renewable energy systems or make energy efficiency improvements. Read more »

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) announces the availability of approximately $3 million in competitive grant funds to solely enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops through collaborative, multi-state projects that address the following regional or national level specialty crop issues: food safety; plant pests and disease; research; crop-specific common issues; and marketing and promotion. Read more »

Media Projects: Development and Production Grants support film, television, and radio projects for general audiences that encourage active engagement with humanities ideas in creative and appealing ways. Read more »

This grant program supports: (1) training students for Master's and doctoral degrees in food, agricultural and natural resource sciences, and; (2) Special International Study or Thesis/Dissertation Research Travel Allowances (IRTA) for eligible USDA NNF beneficiaries. Awards are specifically intended to support traineeship programs that engage outstanding students to pursue and complete their degrees in USDA mission areas. Applicants provide clarity about the philosophy of their graduate training, and relevance to USDA mission sciences, NIFA priorities and national science education policies and statistics. Applications are being solicited from institutions that confer a graduate degree in at least one of the following Targeted Expertise Shortage Areas: 1) animal and plant production; 2) forest resources; 3) agricultural educators and communicators; 4) agricultural management and economics; 5) food science and human nutrition; 6) sciences for agricultural biosecurity; and 7) training in integrative biosciences for sustainable food and agricultural systems. Read more »

The following is an op-ed by Congresswoman Chellie Pingree For the last few years, I’ve had the chance to visit important sites of the civil rights movement with one of its leaders, my colleague Congressman John Lewis. One of the most impactful stops was the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.  After hearing a sermon in the church, we went down the narrow steps… Read more »