The US Department of Agriculture and Health and Human Services (HHS) published guidelines in order to foster healthy dietary patterns for Americans of all ages.

Notably, this edition includes, for the first time, healthy dietary patterns for infants and toddlers.

“At USDA and HHS, we work to serve the American people – to help every American thrive and live healthier lives through access to healthy foods and providing nutrition recommendations,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.

“With the release of the dietary guidelines, we have taken the very important step to provide nutrition guidance that can help all Americans lead healthier lives by making every bite count,” Perdue added.

This week, Americans will enjoy a scrumptious meal on Thanksgiving Day with loved ones. To ensure the meal is prepared safely, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued food safety advice in order to reduce foodborne illness.

Guidelines:

• The first step to safe food preparation is to clean. Handwashing is advised to control the spread of germs, especially before, during, and after preparing food. In recent research, participants didn’t even attempt to wash their hands or did not wash their hands sufficiently before and during meal preparation.

• To make sure food stays safe to eat, all perishable items should be refrigerated within 120 minutes of when they finished cooking.

• Store leftovers in small containers in the refrigerator until the Monday after Thanksgiving Day or in the freezer for later use.

• Although many choose to stuff the turkey, USDA rather recommends the citizens to cook stuffing outside of the turkey cavity to lower cross-contamination risk.

For the unversed, on Thanksgiving Day in the US, families and friends get together for a meal, which traditionally includes a roast turkey, stuffing, veggies, cranberry sauce, gravy, and pumpkin pie.

To provide information on livestock markets, price risk, and risk management tools, the US Department of Agriculture and the Extension Risk Management Education program, a USDA-funded program, will host a webinar on November 12 focused on livestock risk management.

“We strongly encourage farmers and ranchers to attend this webinar. The information that will be presented here will be invaluable to livestock producers who have an interest in the various risk management tools available to them through USDA,” said Bill Northey, USDA Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation.

The informative webinar for agriculture producers is scheduled for 2-3 pm Eastern on Thursday, November 12.

Meanwhile, the agriculture department will also organize more webinars to assist cattle producers, feeders who want to better comprehend the reporting, delivery, and grading of feeder cattle, live cattle, and carcasses.

In the second round of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) approved more than $7 billion in payments to agriculture producers to help absorb some of the escalated marketing costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“America’s agriculture communities are resilient, but still face many challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These payments directed by President Trump will continue to help this critical industry recoup some of their losses from ongoing market disruptions and associated costs,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said.

Through the second round of CFAP, USDA is making available about $14 billion for farmers who continue to face market disruptions and associated costs because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) published a progress report about the implementation of the agricultural provisions in the US-China Phase One Economic and Trade Agreement.

Outstanding sales of US corn to China are at an all-time high of about 8.7 million tons, while US pork exports to China touched a record in just the first five months of 2020, the report said.

“This China Phase One Agreement is proof President Trump’s negotiating strategy is working. While it took China a long time to realize President Trump was serious, this deal is a huge success for the entire economy,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, adding the agreement finally levels the playing field for U.S. agriculture and is a bonanza for American farmers.

Under the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farmers to Families Food Box Program, the country’s Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced more than 100 million food boxes have been distributed in support of American farmers and ranchers affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.

“It is incredible to think that in a little more than five months, this food box program has gone from an idea to a reality that has provided more than 100 million boxes of nutritious foods to people in need and along the way has helped to keep farmers and ranchers in business and allowed Americans working in our nation’s food supply chain to get back to work,” said Secretary Perdue.

It should be mentioned here that the program connects food distributors and small farms to help deliver food to faith-based groups and families in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reminded farmers and ranchers about the tropical Storm Beta that the department is eager to help them with the help of programs that provide assistance in the wake of disasters.

Notably, Beta weakened to a tropical depression as it parked itself over the Texas coast, raising concerns of large-scale flooding in Houston and other areas.

Meanwhile, USDA joined hands with FEMA and other disaster-focused organizations in order to create the Disaster Resource Center.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced to invest $268 million in order to modernize rural drinking water and wastewater infrastructure under the Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grant Program.

“Upgrading the infrastructure that delivers safe drinking water and modern wastewater management facilities will improve public health and drive economic development in our small towns and cities,” Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development Bette Brand said.

These investments will help to improve rural water infrastructure for over 260,000 residents.

US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced up to an additional $14 billion for agricultural producers who continue to face COVID-19-induced market disruptions.

Signup for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP 2) is scheduled to start from September 21st and run through December 11, 2020.

“America’s agriculture communities are resilient, but still face many challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. President Trump is once again demonstrating his commitment to ensure America’s farmers and ranchers remain in business to produce the food, fuel, and fiber America needs to thrive,” said Secretary Perdue.

US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue approved up to $1 billion in contracts to support farmers in need through the USDA “Farmers to Families Food Box Program” following US President Donald’s approval.

Earlier this week, USDA crossed the mark of 90 million food boxes in support of American farmers affected by the ongoing crisis triggered by COVID-19 pandemic.

“These contract awards will go to vendors who submitted the strongest proposals in support of American agriculture and the American people. The high level of interest and quality of proposals are a testament that the program is accomplishing what we intended – supporting U.S. farmers and distributors and getting food to those who need it most. It’s a real trifecta, which is why we call it a win-win-win,” said Secretary Perdue.