California Ag Network

Tag: USDA ARS

  • California Citrus Breeding Program Receives Additional Congressional Support

    California Citrus Mutual (CCM) and Citrus Research Board (CRB) voiced support for the House Committee on Appropriations for including additional funds in the FY 2027 Agriculture Appropriations bill for the citrus breeding program in Parlier.

    Congress is allocating an additional $500,000 in federal funding, on top of the $1.5 million previously granted, to expand the program into California. If approved, the program will receive $2 million in federal funds annually, in addition to the funding it receives from CRB.

    “CRB was instrumental in developing the concept for the California-based program and was also involved in efforts to establish the nationwide program, while CCM advocated to secure funding,” said CRB President Marcy Martin. “Our two organizations working together on behalf of the industry have been instrumental in getting this program off the ground.”

    “I would like to thank our Appropriators and Committee leadership for their continued support of this vital program,” said CCM Director of Governmental Affairs Jacob Villagomez. “Finding solutions for California-specific growing patterns is an essential tool in fighting HLB for years to come.”

    The California citrus breeding program will focus on fresh market citrus. Funding will go towards research and development of citrus selections suited to California growing regions, changing climatic pressures, consumer taste preferences and resistance to pests and diseases, such as huanglongbing.

    The California program is an expansion of the existing national USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) citrus breeding program located in Fort Pierce, Florida, which is focused primarily on varieties optimized for Florida growing conditions. Work done through the Florida program has resulted in new varieties with higher yields, increased disease resistance, improved color, and a longer shelf life.

    The Florida and California breeding programs, along with the continued support from the University of California citrus breeding program at UC Riverside, will work together to deliver results for California-based growers.

    The California citrus breeding program is located at the USDA ARS field station in Parlier. Thanks to ongoing appropriations commitment, forward progress continues to be made with the addition of a dedicated scientist, completion of a greenhouse, and future plans for laboratory and office space, and hopefully securing additional ground for further expansion.

    — Story contributed by California Citrus Mutual and Citrus Research Board

  • A Scientific Journey to Achieve the Perfect Steak Bite

    Researchers at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS), U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) in Clay Center, NE, continue to make significant discoveries towards achieving consistent beef tenderness across all cuts. Their work helps farmers, livestock producers, meat producers, and even grocery stores and restaurants make sure the meat you eat is as tender and tasty as possible.

    Beef tenderness is one of the most important characteristics consumers look for when selecting beef cuts. If the meat is tough, consumers are less likely to buy it again. Given the substantial role of beef in American agriculture — according to the USDA’s Economic Research Service, cattle production accounts for about 22% of all farming revenue in the U.S. — the beef industry aims to ensure every piece of beef is tender to keep consumers satisfied.

    Various factors can affect meat tenderness, such as breed, diet, age, and cattle management. In addition, during processing, factors like chilling rate, the aging process, and the temperature and acidity levels in the muscle can all influence meat tenderness. However, until recently, scientists were not able to explain more than about 40% of the tenderness variation in beef steaks.

    ARS Research Food Technologist Andy King, at USMARC’s Meat Safety and Quality Research Unit, led a team of scientists to examine the metabolic pathways within the muscles that may influence the quality of meat post-harvest. Previous studies identified enzymes, proteins, and metabolites present within several pathways that were associated with tenderness variation. To build on that work, the USMARC scientists studied how these molecules interacted with one another and other known factors such as muscle shortening and aging, finding that it is not just one factor but a combination of different processes that play a huge role in tenderness — each impacting the others in intricate ways.

    “It’s like a matrix of interacting factors that now help us explain much more of the variation occurring inside the meat, showing that tenderness isn’t caused by just one thing, but is the result of many factors working together,” said USMARC Research Leader Tommy Wheeler.

    King explains that the way muscles utilize oxygen, breakdown proteins, and generate energy all influence the tenderness of the meat, and these processes vary among different beef cuts, such as NY strip or top sirloin steaks, but the overall concept is the same.

    “Now that we have a deeper understanding of all the factors influencing beef tenderness, we can begin developing strategies for the beef industry to manage these variables, ensuring consistently tender beef,” said King.

    Details on the peer-reviewed study can be found at https://doi.org/10.22175/mmb.20241.

    This study is part of a series at USMARC aimed at enhancing consumer dining experiences and increasing profitability for beef producers, which is a win-win for everyone. – by Maribel Alonso, ARS Office of Communications

  • Defending Against Marek’s Disease with Genetics and Epigenetics

    Poultry is the world’s most consumed meat. This popular food choice is also squarely in the crosshairs of Marek’s disease, a foe with a mortality rate that is typically 10-50% in unvaccinated chickens, but can reach as high 90% in some breeds.

    As the second largest exporter of chicken (behind Brazil), U.S. poultry production is big business. According to the National Chicken Council, in 2022 the U.S. poultry industry accounted for more than 1.5 million jobs, nearly $95 billion in wages, and $417 billion in economic activity. The disease, however, takes a tremendous bite out of those numbers – estimated worldwide economic losses from Marek’s disease exceed $2 billion due to poultry meat condemnation, reduced egg production, and vaccination cost.

    Currently, poultry producers depend primarily on vaccines to keep their birds safe, but researchers with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are working to develop a long-term control strategy that relies on a better understanding of disease resistance through host genetics and epigenetics (how behaviors and environment can change the way genes work).

    According to Huanmin Zhang, an animal geneticist with the ARS Endemic Poultry Viral Diseases Research unit in Athens, GA, “that fundamental understanding could guide us to develop more potent vaccines for better disease control.”

    Chicks atop a picture of a genetic map of a chicken. The chicken genome will make it easier to locate genes, especially those for complex traits like disease resistance. (Photo by Peggy Greb)

    Marek’s disease is a highly contagious viral disease that causes tumors in chickens and is caused by a version of the herpes virus. Its clinical signs vary from bird to bird, but commonly include premature death, paralysis of the legs, wings, and/or neck, weight loss, loss of appetite, reduced vision, irregular pupils, and tumors in various tissues. The disease is spread among bird populations through both direct and indirect contact. Direct contact includes bird-to-bird aerosols and secretions, while indirect contact involves contaminated material, such as poultry dust and dander from shed Marek’s disease-concentrated feather follicles.

    The disease is not contagious to humans.

    “The genomics group is [working] to identify genetic and epigenetic factors that modulate genetic resistance to Marek’s disease and to advance the fundamental understanding of how those factors interact with the viral infection process and vaccination process,” Zhang said. “An understanding of the underlying mechanisms will help researchers develop more efficient strategies to establish disease resistance in lines of chickens through selection and breeding. Much more potent vaccines could also be designed to protect all lines of chickens, instead of just some.”

    One of the project’s accomplishments was developing a pangenome of the domestic chicken, in collaboration with research partners at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO. A pangenome is the entire set of genes from all chicken breeds that descended from a common ancestor. Information from the pangenome can show researchers where the DNA sequences from different breeds are identical or different.

    “The pangenome paves the way to discover what effects genetic variants have and make breeding for disease resistance more readily possible in chickens,” Zhang explained.

    Reaching the goal of containing , controlling, or mitigating the Marek’s disease depends on the work of the world research community and advances in biotechnology. Zhang noted that advances in understanding and controlling the disease have been greater during the last two decades than the previous 50 years. – By Scott Elliott, USDA-ARS Office of Communications

  • Will Microplastics Endanger the Food Stream?

    It’s no secret that drought-induced water shortages cut into freshwater irrigation practices. That’s hard on the farming community, because agriculture accounts for about 85% of the world’s freshwater usage. Treating and recycling used municipal water to make up for the shortage is not a new concept – Israel treats and reuses about 90% of its wastewater, and the Phoenix, AZ, area recycles up to 97% – but, there may be a problem with that: Microplastic.

    These bits of post-consumer refuse are tiny, ranging in size from 1 micron (a human hair is 50-70 microns thick) to 5mm (about the size of a stud earring), and make their way into the sewage system. Microplastics are the result of wear and tear that breaks off of anything that contains plastic, such as clothing, dishes, or plumbing fixtures.

    According to a leading environmental scientist, potentially hazardous materials can attach themselves to that plastic and enter the agricultural system via wastewater irrigation.

    “Microplastics can be introduced to wastewater from multiple sources, including personal care products, laundry, and dish washing,” said Clinton Williams, soil scientist and research leader at the Agricultural Research Service’s (ARS) Water Management and Conservation Research unit in Maricopa, AZ. “Once in the wastewater these plastics can adsorb (hold onto) organic molecules, including pharmaceuticals.”

    ARS soil scientist Clinton Williams draws samples of reclaimed water used for irrigation. (Photo by Stephen Ausmus)

    According to Williams, when the wastewater is used for irrigation or released into the environment the microplastics can accumulate at the root-soil interface. From there, the microplastics can release the pharmaceuticals where they are taken up by crops.

    Further, these antibiotics could encourage microenvironments where microorganisms could develop antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR is a condition in which mutations cause an organism to survive exposure to an agent that had previously been used as an effective treatment.

    Williams said that synthetic materials like nylon and acrylics have the highest potential to transport antibiotics. Future work will focus on quantifying the potential for these antibiotics to be taken up by edible crops consumed by people. The development of AMR is also being measured in the soil microbial community.

    Wastewater is treated, but treatment plants are deigned to remove organic carbon and nitrogen. Antibiotics are at such a low concentration, typically less than 10 parts per billion, that they are not directly removed.

    Williams and research partners at Clemson University and the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, are examining the interactive effects of microplastics and antimicrobials in agroecosystems by applying microplastics and antibiotics together to soils, and then measuring the development of AMR.

    “[Irrigation with treated wastewater] will increase,” Williams said. “It’s a resource that can be used to increase water supplies without significant costs, [but] if microplastics are shown to increase the uptake of antibiotics and other micro-organics into food crops, there may be a need to remove microplastics from treated wastewater.” – By Scott Elliott, USDA-ARS Office of Communications

  • The Antimicrobial Benefits of Mushrooms

    Scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are examining the antimicrobial properties of mushroom extracts. Their goal: make food crops safer throughout the production process, from farm to fork – and beyond – including the ability to mitigate chronic human health conditions.

    Petri dish containing the fungus Aspergillus flavus. This common fungus is a concern because it produces carcinogenic aflatoxins that may contaminate certain foods and cause aspergillosis, an invasive fungal disease. (Photo by Peggy Greb)

    Mushrooms are a classic example of a two-sided coin. On one side, mushrooms are a valuable source of food and income around the world and are known to have pharmaceutical qualities. On the other, nearly 7,500 cases of mushroom poisoning (over 700 serious cases and 52 deaths) occur each year in the United States alone.

    Now, researchers are pitting the good properties of mushrooms against the bad.

    “Edible mushrooms [are] a source of bioactive compounds, and certain medicinal mushrooms have emerged as beneficial ingredients of dietary supplements,” said Jong H. Kim, molecular biologist at the ARS Foodborne Toxin Detection and Prevention Research unit in Albany, CA.

    Kim is the primary author of a paper on how medicinal mushrooms contribute to food safety.

    The role of mushrooms in food safety begins in the farmer’s field. According to Kim, pinecone cap mushrooms, which are a type of fungi, provide the main ingredient in the fight against a worldwide carcinogenic fungus – Aspergillus flavus.

    A. flavus produces aflatoxins, some of the most dangerous mycotoxins that widely contaminate many major crops, such as corn, tree nuts, and peanuts. People who eat a large amount of food contaminated with aflatoxins – or products derived from animals that have eaten it – are at higher risk for some adverse health conditions, including liver cancer and stunting in children.

    “Many antimicrobial agents have been developed from mushroom ingredients for crop protection, [including] the natural fungicide strobilurin,” Kim said. “Strobilurins [are] one of the most important classes of agricultural fungicide.”

    When farmers use strobilurins, the compound inhibits A. flavus growth by interrupting its ability to breathe. Stopping A. flavus in the field reduces the amount of aflatoxins that manufacturers must contend with during food processing and packaging.

    “[We] found that a component of the mushroom Taiwanofungus camphoratus (Tc) could be developed as a food ingredient having antimicrobial potential, thus inhibiting the growth of fungi and bacteria in foods,” Kim said. “Tc lowers the contamination rate of toxin-producing or heat-tolerant fungi that escape the food sanitation process. The application of Tc in the food industry will promote food safety, which is vital for the health of consumers.” – By Scott Elliott, USDA-ARS Office of Communications

  • Exploring Honey’s Sweet Benefits

    Foodborne pathogens, which can encompass viruses, bacteria, and parasites, can cause foodborne illnesses when consuming a meal that has been contaminated. There are an estimated 48 million cases of foodborne illnesses every year. A commonly known pathogen that fits into this category is Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC), which infects the small intestine causing diarrhea and other consequences to the person infected.

    ARS scientists, in collaboration with the National Honey Board, are examining the way honey affects the gut microbial community and possibly assists it in resisting infection by the foodborne pathogen ETEC. To begin their studies, both pathogen and honey were put through a model of the stomach to better represent how the study components would interact with each other during human consumption. ETEC has a tolerance to acidic environments and honey is naturally acidic, as is the stomach. Therefore, all of honey’s bioactive compounds and anti-microbial components are used to working in that kind of environment.

    “We have to put ETEC through the stomach because it’s going to change how it behaves once it’s exposed to that acidity,” explained Ste Traxler, a graduate student researcher at the Western Human Nutrition Research Center in Davis, CA.

    The choice to use honey was not only due to its natural acidic nature, but also because of the accessibility of this food. The particular honey utilized in this research project was clover honey, which is available in supermarkets.

    “So, the plants that the bees are collecting their nectar from determine your honey type,” explained Traxler, “and that will also determine a lot of those bioactive components.”

    Honey is also being used in some hospitals as a way to prevent infections, particularly in hospital’s burn wards, because of the need for having protection for the broken skin barrier from outside bacteria that could pose as a threat. The more hydrogen peroxide in the honey, the more it is effective as a topical antimicrobial. The honey with the highest concentration of methylglyoxal, a natural potent anti-microbial, is Manuka honey.

    Manuka honey comes from the Manuka tree, which is native to New Zealand. Sometimes this tree is referred to as the New Zealand tea tree because both the Manuka and Tea Tree produce oils with similar properties and come from the same plant family. All types of honey have some level of concentration of methylglyoxal, while also having other micronutrients that contain antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

    Foods like lettuce, Brussel sprouts, and spinach may become contaminated with E. coli. It’s important to notice that these items are typically ingested without cooking them, which causes the risk of exposure to foodborne pathogens like E. coli to heighten. This is one of the reasons researchers are studying how honey can help prevent infection after ingesting contaminated food.

    Honey has a lower glycemic index than standard table sugar (sucrose). Therefore, ARS scientists are also investigating whether the benefit of reduced metabolic stress that comes from sugar consumption also occurs when consuming honey in the context of a snack with the added benefit of consuming a healthier option. Another benefit seen from honey is that, so far, there hasn’t been any bacterial resistance observed from it, the same way that happens with antibiotics. For these reasons, researchers are learning how honey can positively affect our digestive health and help us obtain protection against pathogens and bacteria. — By Olga Vicente, USDA-ARS’s Office of Communications

  • Solving the Mysteries Behind the World’s Most Widespread Zoonotic Disease

    Leptospirosis is a serious zoonotic disease that affects both animals and humans. This bacterial disease is commonly spread through the urine of infected animals and rodents, including wildlife and livestock such as cattle and swine. Humans can contract leptospirosis by having contact with water (such as by swimming, rafting, or kayaking) or soil that has been contaminated by urine or body fluids of infected animals. Although this disease if often spread through urine, transmission can also occur in the genital tract of domestic animals.

    Humans who contract leptospirosis may suffer from a range of symptoms, from a mild fever to massive pulmonary hemorrhage. For livestock, the disease can result in poor milk yield, reproductive failure, and in some cases, severe acute disease, especially for dairy and beef herds.

    Scanning electron micrograph of a leptospire.

    “Leptospirosis is caused by a very unusual and unique bacteria,” said Jarlath Nally, research microbiologist at the National Animal Disease Center (NADC) in Ames, IA. “Very few people work on it, the diagnostics are limited, and research is challenging because the bacteria that causes the disease are very difficult to grow in the lab.”

    Leptospirosis is not a new disease; it was first described in 1886. Globally, the disease kills over 50,000 people a year and infects over one million. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described it as the most widespread zoonotic disease geographically.

    Human infections can be treated with antibiotics, but the condition is considered rare in humans and can be difficult to diagnose. Vaccines have been developed for livestock, including dairy and beef herds. However, the vaccine protects only against specific variants of Leptospira, the bacteria that causes leptospirosis, and protection dwindles after one year. There are more than 38 species and hundreds of serovars of pathogenic Leptospira.

    “It gets complicated because there are so many variants of this disease” said Nally. “And the vaccines being used today are based on variants isolated over 30 years ago.”

    Detection is also a problem. Infected animals often appear asymptomatic. Stakeholders may not be aware that their herd is infected until they notice an increase in abortions or reproductive failures. Further complicating matters are the diagnostic tests, which are not always accurate.

    ARS researchers Ellie Putz and Luis Fernandes working to elucidate pathogenic mechanism of leptospirosis.

    “We’ve done a lot of work to improve diagnostics,” said Nally, “but there are limitations, and stakeholders need to be aware of that.”

    Nally and his research partners are looking to improve diagnostics, testing, and current vaccine strategies to provide cross protection against multiple variants of Leptospira. To date, they have generated a large repository of isolates of Leptospira from a range of domestic (cows, bulls, horses and dogs), wildlife (rats, mice, mongoose, red panda), and environmental sources (soil, water), including new species and serovars detected for the first time in the U.S. They also created a new growth media that allows researchers to isolate the Leptospira bacteria directly from infected animal tissue at 37 degrees Celsius. This is an improvement over the old methods where Leptospira were previously restricted to isolation at 28-30 degrees Celsius.

    “That’s a temperature more in line with standard laboratory processes,” Nally said. “But more importantly, it’s an environmental condition that’s more similar to the host.”

    Researchers have also been able to genetically manipulate the bacteria, allowing them for the first time to identify, target, and silence certain genes.

    “Not only silence a single gene, but we can actually silence two genes at the same time,” said Nally. “We were able to apply our technology to silence two similar genes to actually identify a virulence factor, rendering the bacteria completely attenuated, which provides new avenues to generate vaccines and apply it to different variants.”

    Next steps for Nally and his research team are to map complete genotypes, complete serotypes, and identify virulence factors that facilitate the disease process. At the same time, they want to identify which variants are circulating in domestic and wildlife animal populations in the U.S.

    “We are also interested in understanding how the disease occurs,” he said. “We are looking to understand why these bacteria are colonizing in the genital tract and why they’re associated with reproductive failure versus strains that are associated with more severe acute disease. To understand the ‘how’ will help us develop vaccines that will cross protect against all the variants that are out there.” — By Todd Silver, USDA-ARS Office of Communications

  • Agriculture and Science vs. Climate Change

    An ancient proverb states that the longest journey begins with a single step. Now, a group with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has taken one such step in the worldwide struggle against climate change.

    Roger Thilmony, molecular biologist with the ARS Crop Improvement and Genetics Research unit in Albany, CA, and his team have developed a new variety of wheat that has shown modest improvements in the plant’s ability to withstand drought.

    “Global climate change is a grand challenge for agricultural production,” Thilmony said. “Drought is one of the primary stresses that limit crop productivity and cause economic losses. The creation of drought stress-tolerant crops, like wheat, is important to mitigate these problems and enable good agricultural yields, despite environmental challenges.”

    Thilmony’s team used advanced gene editing technology, known as CRISPR, to locate, isolate, and inactivate wheat’s six Sal1 genes. Sal1 encodes a protein that acts as a sensor of plant stress. When the gene is inactivated in some plants, they appear to have increased tolerance to drought, he explained.

    The result was a moderately successful crop of test plants.

    “The process was relatively efficient at producing the desired [results],” he said. “The modified wheat plants stayed green longer than unmodified wheat plants, but they did not produce more seed than the unmodified plants under drought conditions. That could be interpreted as a form of drought tolerance.”

    Wheat is one of the most widely grown crops in the world and is a critically important food source for its nutritional and health benefits.

    CRISPR gene editing technology is often used to speed up the process of selecting for agriculturally beneficial traits, cutting years – even decades – from the time it would take to produce them using traditional animal husbandry and plant breeding programs.

    “Gene editing can be applied to a wide array of crops, and it is possible that editing can be used in other plants to make them more drought stress-tolerant,” Thilmony said.

    While the project did not produce the “giant leap” of a lunar landing, it was a successful step in the right direction toward mitigating the effects of climate change.

    “Although we did not produce wheat plants that were more productive under drought stress, the research does demonstrate how gene editing is a powerful tool in testing ideas and determining if specific genes [like Sal1] play a role in the tolerance of crops to environmental stresses,” Thilmony said. – By Scott Elliott, USDA-ARS Office of Communications

  • Celebrating 100 Years of USDA Grape Breeding in the Central Valley of CA

    Strategically positioned in the nation’s center of grape production — the Central Valley of California, 2023 marks 100 years for the USDA’s raisin and table grape breeding program at their agricultural research facility, currently based in Parlier, CA. Watch this brief interview with Summaira Riaz, the current head of grape breeding at this one-of-a-kind research station, as she highlights some of the major milestones of this program over the years, and her expectations moving forward. Read more about it in the coming issue of American Vineyard Magazine. (Editor’s Note/Correction: Craig Ledbetter was referred to at 3:27 as ‘caretaker’ of the the program, when in actuality, he formerly held Riaz’s position as head of the grape breeding program following David Ramming, and is much appreciated for his accomplishments with the Agricultural Research Service.)

    Please thank this video’s sponsor Ranch Systems for their industry support.

  • Digging Deeper into Climate Change Data

    As the world’s leading agricultural export market in the nation, California has a lot at stake in the climate crisis. According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, California’s agricultural production is valued at $50 billion with exports totaling $20.8 billion in 2020. The ever-changing weather patterns that climate change is causing could lead to significant farming challenges. Fortunately, California farmers now have a web-based tool to help them navigate through difficult conditions due to climate change.

    “There are other types of these tools around the United States that are kind of region-specific for the commodities and those regions, but we didn’t have one in California,” said Steven Ostoja, director for the USDA California Climate Hub. “Essentially CalAgroClimate is a free online compendium, if you will, of tools and resources to help growers or crop consultants make better decisions about what they might need to do or want to do to address the concerns of climate change.”

    CalAgroClimate is a web-based and mobile-friendly decision support system that translates high-resolution gridded weather data and forecast information into decision support tools designed to provide both location and crop-specific information for managing risks. It was developed by the USDA California Climate Hub and the University of California Cooperative Extension.

    CalAgroClimate currently has four tools available for users: heat advisory, frost advisory, crop phenology and pest advisory. The heat and frost advisory tools work in similar ways: users are given a map where they can select certain locations and temperature thresholds based on specific crops. Temperature thresholds for heat range from 90 F to 100 F while frost thresholds range from 35 F to 28 F. Farmers are also able to determine heat and frost risk for the next 7 days for a given location, including the number of consecutive days with temperatures above or below thresholds for selected crops.

    The crop phenology tool is used for crop-specific and location-specific purposes, where the user can monitor growing degree accumulations and estimates when the crops reach certain growing stages. It can even advise users about past crop developments and compares growing seasons from previous years. The pest advisory tool helps users track projections based on past generations of pests and diseases using temperature and heat unit accumulations.

    Ostoja said he believes CalAgroClimate can provide stakeholders with science-based data to help reduce the risk associated with climate change.

    “Ultimately, our hope is that there is a reduction in indemnity and crop insurance claims.  CalAgroClimate provides users a means to evaluate risks and make decisions to protect against economic and bottom-line losses due to weather and climate events,” he said. “What we’re really hoping to do is just let people have that comfort, knowing that they’re able to make decisions that are based on the best available science that’s readily available and that’s accurate, so that they feel more comfortable and confident.”

    Ostoja and his team continue to search for ways to make CalAgroClimate even more useful for its users. They are collecting more user feedback, improving the user interface, and holding workshops for potential users. Ostoja said that they also hope to add a user feedback tool to the website soon to allow users to share their feedback, impressions and suggestions.

    “This spring we also plan to take CalAgroClimate to do focused workshops with specific groups to both facilitate and better understand this tool,” he said.

    USDA Climate Hubs were created in 2014 to develop and deliver science-based, region-specific information and technologies to agricultural and natural resource managers that enable climate-informed decision-making, and to provide access to assistance to implement those decisions. — By Andrew Casas, USDA-ARS Office of Communications