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Nocturne, a winter-hardy, black-fruited blueberry developed by ARS. USDA-ARS photo by Mark Ehlenfeldt.

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from USDA’s rich science and research portfolio.

You probably don’t think there’s anything special about picking up a tub of fresh blueberries at the store or the farmers market—the quality of the product, the freshness and the convenience of it all. If only you had to go pick the fruit from the wild yourself!

Up until 1911, blueberries had to be picked from the wild, and bushes were dug from the wild that might or might not survive when transplanted elsewhere. True domestication—reproduction at the will of the grower and breeding to improve desirable traits—was beyond reach until USDA botanist Frederick Coville unlocked a longstanding mystery in 1910.

Coville compared plant growth in alkaline, neutral, and acid soil. By 1908, he had pretty much dropped alkaline soil from testing. He had remarkable success with very-low-pH (or acid) soil. While most plants prefer soil at the neutral pH 7, blueberries only thrive at pH 4.5 to 4.8. That blueberry plants require moist, acid soil was a novel concept at the time and one that Coville, in his later years, would consider his greatest discovery.

In 1911 came his landmark first successful crosses between two wild blueberries—one highbush and one lowbush—that had been selected for their superior qualities from a pasture in Greenfield, New Hampshire. These were named Brooks (highbush) and Russell (lowbush). The crosses he made in 1911 and 1913 resulted in 3,000 hybrids. Another cross of Brooks with a wild blueberry named Sooy in 1912 resulted in another 3,000 seedlings.

Four years later, in 1916, and exactly a century ago, the first commercial cultivated crop of highbush blueberries was harvested.

Much of Coville’s original wild breeding stock came from his partnership with Elizabeth White of Whitesbog, New Jersey, whose family owned a large cranberry farm, and a horticulture enthusiast herself. She acquired high-quality bushes by recruiting blueberry pickers and local residents to locate and tag desirable large-fruited bushes for use as parental stock, and then she personally went out and brought them back to Whitesbog and made them available to Coville.

Coville’s historical records provide a fascinating look at USDA research efforts that took blueberries from a crop picked from the wild and sold for 14 cents a quart in 1912 all the way to a commercially grown crop of more than 553 million pounds worth more than $817 million (2014). Worldwide, current blueberry production is greater than 1.9 billion pounds.

His crosses continued to be released for many years after his death in 1937 and included Bluecrop, Blueray and Earliblue—varieties still popular today with gardeners and commercial growers. By 1942, of the 18 blueberry varieties offered by Eastern growers, 14 were the result of Coville’s selection efforts or breeding. His varieties remain part of the pedigree of most varieties grown today.

And the USDA research program Coville founded in New Jersey is still carrying out critical research to protect and expand the U.S. blueberry crop. Consumer demand continues to increase at a rapid pace, thanks not only to the blueberry’s taste and versatility but also to its health benefits.

Let’s wish the highbush blueberry a happy 100^th birthday!

Matt McCue and Lily Schneider of Shooting Star CSA, an organic farm in California, received an FSA loan. Their operation is chemical and pesticide free and they rely on practices that reduce impact on the environment.

What do siblings Kenna and Peyton Krahulik, organic farmers Lily Schneider and Matt McCue, and livestock producer Brian Morgan have in common? They worked closely with USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) to obtain loans, giving them the working capital they needed to grow or maintain their operation.

FSA makes and guarantees loans to family farmers and ranchers to promote, build and sustain family farms in support of a thriving agricultural economy. It’s an important credit safety net that has sustained our nation’s hard working farm families through good and bad times.

You may have read or heard how demand for farm loans has experienced an increase this year relative to last year. The high demand created a gap in funding before the end of the federal fiscal year, or Sept. 30. USDA has safeguards built into the system to help bridge short-term gaps, ensuring that farmers and producers can continue to apply for farm loans.

Since 2009, USDA has provided more than $38 billion in credit to help farm and ranch businesses grow and thrive. Annual lending to underserved producers has increased 118 percent. Our new microloan program also provides an important access point to credit for new, small or underserved farmers and ranchers. Since the program’s inception in January 2013, USDA has issued more than 20,500 microloans.

From planting until harvest, calving until market, or farrow until finish, most farmers and livestock producers at some point will use a farm ownership or operating loan for interim financing to meet cash flow needs during the period between early investments and later sales. In fact, each year FSA provides credit to more than 43,000 agricultural applicants, or guarantees loans from USDA-approved lenders to 113,000 borrowers. You can apply for direct loans from FSA or guaranteed loans, which are loans issued by FSA approved commercial lenders and backed by the federal government. These low-interest loans help farmers and ranchers do any number of things to keep their business going from purchasing or enlarging a farm; constructing or improving new farm buildings; paying closing costs; refinancing debt; purchasing equipment, seed, or livestock; or paying for other operating needs.

Whether you’re a farmer or rancher with a lifetime of experience, or just starting your own farm, ranch, or niche operation like organic or locally-sourced specialty crops, a USDA farm loan can be an excellent way to strengthen your farming business. With low interest rates, low delinquencies, and streamlined eligibility requirements, USDA continues to be the lender of first opportunity for those who raise livestock or grow crops, helping producers grow and expand their business and to achieve their version of the America dream.

If you’re interested in getting a USDA loan, file your application and submit any required paperwork with your lender or at your local FSA county office. We encourage you to apply.

Chef Jakob Reed of Albany Bistro in Decatur, Alabama

The following guest blog by Earl Gohl, Federal Co-Chair, Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) highlights some of the innovative work of one of USDA’s frequent partners supporting locally-led economic and community development in the 13 state Appalachian region. ARC is a leader in place-based development strategies.

An analysis of the most recent USDA Census of Agriculture determined that direct market farm sales grew three times as fast in Appalachia as compared to the rest of the country and that Appalachian consumers spend more per capita on direct farms sales than the rest of the country.

Farmers are not the only entrepreneurs fueling Appalachia’s growing local food economy. From Northern Mississippi to southern New York, a bounty of entrepreneurs, including bakers, brewers and butchers as well as chefs, retailers and farmers, are contributing to the Region’s local food system.

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) wanted to document how the local food economy was taking root in the Region. Now, over 900 local food businesses  – like the family owned Farmer’s Daughter market in Capon Bridge, West Virginia that features local meats and groceries and Albany Bistro in Decatur, Alabama that features produce from northern Alabama and middle Tennessee — are featured on Bon Appétit, Appalachia! the largest searchable online map of local food businesses and entrepreneurs operating in the region.

Bon Appetit, Appalachia! was first released in 2014 as tool to promote agri-tourism.  In a mere two years, the innovative online tool grew more than 70 percent with hundreds more local food businesses listed on the map, indicating an expanding local food economy.  To compliment the website, ARC has produced an abridged, easy-to-carry printed version of Bon Appetit, Appalachia!, now available through 13 state tourism agencies across the Appalachian Region. In addition, the map is being distributed through many Edible Communities magazines in and around Appalachia in partnership with Edible Communities, Edible Communities also produces a monthly podcast, “Backroad Journeys,” which profiles businesses on Bon Appétit Appalachia!

Harnessing the Region’s local food economy and robust entrepreneurial eco-system are key to ARC’s five year Strategic Plan for Capitalizing on Appalachia’s Opportunities. It is also the reason ARC has partnered with USDA on other local food efforts including Local Food, Local Places, and Food LINC, and is a proud supporter of USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative.

This week, Louisville, Kentucky is welcoming the Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems Funders for its annual meeting, which includes tours of the growing local food system in Eastern Kentucky and across the Appalachian region. They will be visiting many places on the Bon Appetit, Appalachia! map and seeing how entrepreneurs are using local food to strengthen the Region’s economy.  Use #bonappalachia to tell us where Bon Appetit, Appalachia! takes you!

Hundreds of local food entrepreneurs are featured on Bon Appetit, Appalachia!

Pablo Chacón, a Guatemalan farmer, takes notes at the CATIE dairy farm and research center in Turrialba, Costa Rica, where he is studying agroforestry on an FAS-funded scholarship.

Pablo Chacón, a young Guatemalan farmer who is studying agroforestry at the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Turrialba, Costa Rica, can now show the people in his home community how livestock grazing and hardwood forests can co-exist and prosper. Earlier this month, he told me and other Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) visitors to CATIE that the education he gained from his FAS-funded scholarship to CATIE has equipped him to be a change maker.

“CATIE’s research in the tropics shows that degraded lands can be restored using combined forest and pastoral production systems,” Chacón said. “The benefits of trees in pastures are clear: The shade helps reduce stress in animals during the dry season, keeps moisture in the soil and retains the strength of pastures during the dry season.”

Indeed, through his studies at CATIE, Chacón learned that his family and other in his highland community not only can, but should, grow trees in pasture fields. The trees provide shade for the cows on hot days and also help fight erosion. Helping this young Guatemalan become an agent of positive agricultural change exemplifies the capacity-building programs that FAS executes throughout Latin America, particularly in Central America.

With a capacity built up over more than 100 years, the U.S. agricultural sector is, arguably, the most efficient in the world. It profits greatly from food and feed exports, including to Central America, where governments expressed the desire to recreate U.S. agricultural efficiency. The United States agreed to train farmers, processors and government policymakers to build stronger agricultural systems within their countries. We have made good on our word, and the technical assistance has been a win-win for our economies. For nearly a dozen years, since the CAFTA-DR trade agreement entered into force, USDA has been training Central American farmers to grow more food in ways that raise farmer incomes, minimize waste, reduce pests and safeguard the environment.

Pedro Chacón’s story is just one example of how USDA promotes agricultural practices that help small farmers in developing countries produce food more efficiently and sustainably. But how does this benefit the United States?

First, more efficient farming methods generate more income for farmers, who can then participate in the global economy. Second, all farmers use precious resources: The finite amount of arable land and water on Earth, combined with the challenge of feeding 9.6 billion people by 2050, will require farmers everywhere to be good stewards of our natural resources. Finally, the U.S. food and beverage industry, a thriving part of our economy, needs commodities – namely cocoa and coffee – that are not grown commercially in the United States. For every dollar of cocoa the U.S. imports, our own farmers sell another $2-4 of dairy, sugar and peanuts. And there are more than 130 million coffee drinkers in the United States. Central America is a main source of both cocoa and coffee, so USDA’s assistance in protecting the production of these commodities is also protecting a major driver of our domestic economy.

Less than 30 million of the over 300 million hens that lay our nation’s eggs are raised in cage free systems. AMS is committed to working with the U.S. egg industry to facilitate their efforts to address this challenge.

Have you been to a supermarket to buy a carton of eggs lately?  If so, you may have found an array of food marketing claims on the packages.  All natural, organic, cage-free, pasture-raised, free range, non-GMO, raised without antibiotics, Omega-3 enriched, vegetarian-fed diet, and hormone free are just a small sample of the many claims consumers might see in the egg case. The modern food shopper is inundated by choice.

From its inception, the role of AMS has been to facilitate an efficient, fair, and competitive marketing system to benefit producers and consumers.  One of the ways AMS accomplishes this is by establishing and applying grade standards to different agricultural products. Terms such as “Grade A” and “Large” have become a trusted part of the American egg vocabulary, helping both farmers and consumers with descriptive labels. Other marketing terms that now appear on egg cartons have evolved to reflect consumers’ demand to understand things like where the eggs come from, how chickens were raised and who raised them.

Over the past few months, a new trend has emerged with the potential to greatly impact our egg producers and impact what consumers see on store shelves.  A significant number of large institutional buyers of eggs and egg products have announced that within 10 years, they intend to purchase eggs from only cage-free production systems. There are a variety of reasons for these announcements. But there is no doubt that the change will be a big one for the industry.

Today, fewer than 30 million of the over 300 million laying hens in the U.S. are raised in cage free systems. In other words, less than 10 percent of our egg supply is produced in cage-free systems such as organic, pasture-raised, or indoor cage free systems.  To meet buyers’ new commitments, the industry will need to convert over half of their production to cage free systems by 2025.

Assuming American egg consumption remains the same at about 260 eggs per person each year, new housing systems will need to be built for an additional 140 million or more cage free hens. Egg producers estimate that it costs approximately $40 per bird to build a cage-free production system – so the new commitments could cost on U.S. egg producers $5.6 billion to build the needed cage free systems by 2025. That’s not counting other tools they will need, including research and assistance in dealing with flock management and different health and disease factors specific to cage-free systems.

As egg producers look ahead to these challenges, our staff is working right alongside them.  Our analytic and voluntary Market News reporting resources will provide an ongoing measure of the market shift and what will be required to meet the potential demand, while we continue to monitor and report any changes.  AMS is also working with sister agencies to help coordinate resources that can help the industry in other areas like research.

U.S. agricultural producers are innovative and adaptive, but momentous changes like the proposed shift to cage-free will require all hands on deck – and a good, hard look at what such a shift would take. AMS will be there to help.

A U.S. delegation, led by Dr. Jack Shere, USDA Chief Veterinary Officer, and Dr. John Clifford, U.S. Delegate to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) participated in the 84th General Session in Paris, France.

International trade is a key factor in the economic and financial stability of many countries.  Trade restrictions resulting from an animal disease outbreak can have devastating economic effects.  With this in mind, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service signed three international agreements on this very topic last month at a meeting of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in Paris, France.  These agreements will make it easier to maintain safe and fair trade of animals and animal products if an animal disease outbreak occurs. They emphasize the cooperation and understanding of the countries involved to promote shared knowledge, data and resources, which can be crucial during an animal health event.

The three arrangements, signed by the United States, relate to the International Animal Health Emergency Reserve (also signed by Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom), the Sharing of Vaccines for Foot and Mouth Disease (Australia, Canada, Mexico, and New Zealand), and Supporting the Recognition of Zoning for Foreign Animal Disease Outbreaks (Australia, Canada, and New Zealand).

The International Animal Health Emergency Reserve agreement allows for countries to share emergency response teams and personnel as needed during animal disease outbreaks.  It also lets the countries involved to act rapidly and more effectively control and eradicate an outbreak.

The Sharing of Vaccines for Foot and Mouth Disease agreement allows for countries to more readily request and consider requests for FMD vaccine from their respective FMD vaccine banks. This particular arrangement provides an opportunity to share vaccine resources can be beneficial during an outbreak and leaves the door open to include other countries’ FMD banks if there is future interest.

Supporting the Recognition of Zoning for Foreign Animal Disease Outbreaks agreement allows countries to understand and accept each other’s processes for managing outbreaks and paves the way for recognizing “zones” for trading purposes.  This arrangement would allow for trade to be resumed early from disease-free zones and support continuing trade from affected zones where biosecurity risks can be effectively managed through specific import conditions, such as product treatments.

Our animal health experts have a shared vision to safeguard our nation’s agricultural resources and to support international trade and cooperation while preventing the introduction of dangerous and costly disease in our country.  These agreements will complement our existing preparedness activities and benefit not only US producers and consumers, but the global community.

USDA Works with Families to Realize Their Dreams of Homeownership infographic. Click to enlarge

Five years ago, Christy Carr seemed like a long shot as a future homeowner.  She was a newly divorced, unemployed mom of five, and her credit score was in the 300’s. The home she shared with her children had no heat, no electricity and no running water. A neighbor let Christy run an extension cord to his garage outlet just so that the family could keep the lights on. Since they had no car and only a cooler to keep their food cold, they walked to the store three times a day.

In order to rebuild her life, Christy had to find work and clean up her credit score.  After many interviews, Christy was offered a good job at a marketing company. She was able to move into an apartment but it was too small to house all of her children, and her older sons had to stay with another family member. At the same time, Christy brought her student loans out of default and paid off old marital debts. After 18 months, her credit score had risen by 300 points, and she was able to open a credit card secured through her bank.

With her financial situation improving, Christy focused on finding a safe place to raise all of her children under one roof. She applied for USDA’s Rural Development’s Single Family Housing Direct Loan Program and made an offer on the house of her dreams.  The professional staff in Ohio’s USDA Rural Development office were able to help her through the process, with Christy eventually closing the loan and moving her family into their new home. Now, she can continue to invest in not only her family and their future, but her community as well. In the last eight years, one third of USDA’s Direct Home Loans have been allocated to single-parent households like Christy’s.

Christy Carr is just one of the many deserving people that Rural Housing Service staff help each year to realize their dream of homeownership. Since 2009, we have assisted 1.1 million homeowners with USDA home loans, including more than 69,000 very-low income homeowners. USDA also provides home repair loans and grants that make it possible for people in rural communities to make necessary repairs and upgrades to their homes. Over the last eight years, USDA has helped more than 63,000 very-low income homeowners make essential repairs.

During Homeownership Month, we honor and thank all of the people who work with us to Build Communities Together. If you think homeownership is right for you, contact your local Rural Development office to learn about the assistance that may be available.

Christy Carr and her sons on the front steps of their new home, financed by USDA Rural Housing Service.

Climate change is increasing the intensity and duration of wildfires.

Find out the latest in forest news with this week’s Forest Digest!

• Wildfire, Forests, and Climate Change [Infographic] — TheEnergyCollective.com
  Forest mismanagement and escalating climate change are lengthening and intensifying wildfires, which threaten the health of the world’s forests. Plus, an infographic on the world’s deadliest wildfires.

• Forest Fires Can Heat Up the Whole Planet — National Geographic
  Climate change is dramatically affecting boreal forests, threatening to turn them from a major carbon store to a greenhouse gas emitter.

• Neutralizing acidic forest soils boosts tree growth, nitrogen export — ScienceDaily
  Efforts to counteract acid rain in forest soils by adding calcium were effective in regaining tree growth, but also increased nitrogen levels to the water.

• Senators, Obama Administration Butt Heads Over Wildfire Costs — Morning Consult
  As wildfire costs increasingly use up more of the Forest Service’s budget, Senators on the Energy and Natural Resources committee proposed a bill that would use the emergency budget to proactively mitigate wildfires.