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The forced resignation of U.S. Department of Agriculture manager Shirley Sherrod after a misleading video purporting to show her making racist comments appeared on conservative media outlets this week raises any number of questions about the Obama administration's apparent willingness to jump to conclusions before getting all the facts. What's clear, however, is that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack ought to be ashamed of the unseemly rush to judgment that suggested his agency puts a higher premium on limiting political damage than on ferreting out the truth.

The Maryland Department of Human Resources will step up efforts to find people who sell their food stamps for cash or otherwise defraud the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, under a pilot program with the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday. The agencies will sign enhanced data sharing agreements to monitor the more than 754,000 Marylanders who receive food stamps and the nearly 3,800 retailers that accept the benefits. Virginia will also participate in the initiative, which will gradually expand to other states over time.

For food safety questions call the U.S. Department o Agriculture's hotline, 1-800-535-4555, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Federal workers' unions and food safety groups have joined to oppose new rules proposed by the Department of Agriculture to streamline federal poultry inspections. The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service says the rules would "modernize" inspections of young chickens and turkeys, saving money for businesses and taxpayers while allowing inspectors to focus on the areas of poultry production that pose the greatest risk to food safety. The new inspection system grew out of a pilot program that began in the 1990s under President Bill Clinton.

The Maryland Department of Human Resources will step up efforts to find people who sell their food stamps for cash or otherwise defraud the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, under a pilot program with the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday. The agencies will sign enhanced data sharing agreements to monitor the more than 754,000 Marylanders who receive food stamps and the nearly 3,800 retailers that accept the benefits. Virginia will also participate in the initiative, which will gradually expand to other states over time.

Maryland farmers can help shape the future of agriculture by responding to the 2007 Census of Agriculture report form when it arrives in their mailboxes this month. Conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture every five years, the census is a complete count of the nation's farms and the people who operate them. It looks at land use and ownership, operator characteristics, production practices, income and expenditures and other topics. The census provides the only source of uniform, comprehensive agricultural data for every county in the nation.

Farmers may be leery of anyone from the federal government promising help, but here's one offer that sounds too good to refuse. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service announced this week that it is making up to $315,000 available to "farmers, ranchers and forest landowners" in the Catoctin Creek watershed in western Frederick County. The offer is part of a new water quality initiative by the NRCS directing technical and financial help to 157 watersheds nationwide.

For food safety questions call the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Meat and Poultry Hotline, 1-800-535-4555, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Like the owners of any other businesses, farmers can make their best decisions when they have good information. And farmers who attend the USDA's 83rd annual outlook conference will be bombarded with a bin full of thoughts from some of the best minds in agriculture. About 100 speakers, including U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, will discuss a variety of issues including crop insurance, farm income, the outlook for the poultry and dairy industries, and the creation of a new national farm bill.

Some of the best minds in agriculture will be offering their predictions for the year ahead during the U.S. Department of Agriculture's annual outlook forum, a two-day event starting Feb. 21. Speakers will also discuss the trends in agriculture and farm policies. There will be addresses by two of the top officials at the USDA - the secretary and the chief economist. Because both positions are filled by acting replacements, the USDA said it is too soon to say who will be giving the talks.

Farmers may be leery of anyone from the federal government promising help, but here's one offer that sounds too good to refuse. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service announced this week that it is making up to $315,000 available to "farmers, ranchers and forest landowners" in the Catoctin Creek watershed in western Frederick County. The offer is part of a new water quality initiative by the NRCS directing technical and financial help to 157 watersheds nationwide.

Baltimore-based Pompeian Inc. has become the first olive oil maker to have the quality of its products backed by the United States Department of Agriculture, the company announced. The manufacturer has obtained approval for its extra virgin and extra virgin organic olive oils through the USDA's Quality Monitoring Program, which tests products to verify purity and quality. To enter the USDA program, Pompeian agreed to unannounced visits and testing of product samples. The product verification will allow the privately owned company to start placing a USDA logo on its products this month and will give consumers additional assurances, said David Bensadoun, chief executive officer of Pompeian.

Whether it was on my "rural tour" of states throughout the country or at workshops with the Department of Justice to discuss competition in agriculture, time and again, livestock and poultry producers have emphasized the need for a fair and competitive industry and workable, common-sense rules to address bad actors. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently finalized a rule to implement the 2008 Farm Bill to help remedy some of these concerns. In the last 30 years, the livestock and poultry marketplace has not only become more concentrated but also more vertically integrated.

A $60,000 federal grant announced Thursday will allow the South Baltimore neighborhood of Cherry Hill to grow several new community gardens. Three-quarters of the U.S. Department of Agriculture money will be divided among community groups that will create and run the gardens, said grant administrator Nadine Braunstein, an assistant professor in Towson University's College of Health Professions. The remaining $15,000 will go to Towson to manage the program, she said. "Why were we inspired to do this in Cherry Hill?

Anyone who squeezes through a crowded farmers' market knows that now is prime time for locally grown produce. The summer's bounty - sweet corn, squash, eggplant, melons, peaches, berries, tomatoes - has arrived with the intensity of a thunderstorm. Everything looks inviting, even the okra (those green pods that when boiled become a dish some wouldn't touch with a 10-foot fork). Nationally and locally, the number of farmers' markets has grown faster than a runaway zucchini vine.

Maryland's newest terrorist life form — the brown marmorated stink bug — may eventually meet its archnemesis in the form of a tiny prizefighter of a wasp from Asia. The parasitic wasps that are being raised in quarantine in a Delaware laboratory are not glamorous-looking bugs. They are black, stocky and about the size of the comma in this sentence. But they are uncommonly efficient at hunting down and injecting their offspring into stink bug egg masses. In true horror-movie fashion, the larvae consume the stink bugs from the inside out. When the wasps grow into adults, they chew their way out, procreate — and go on the hunt for more stink bug eggs.

Ralph G. Stup, a retired U.S. Department of Agriculture reporter and former longtime Elkridge resident, died Monday of heart failure at Seminole Shores Living Center in Norton Shores, Mich. He was 89. Mr. Stup was born and raised in Derwood, Montgomery County, and graduated in 1937 from Sherwood High School. During World War II, he served in the Army as a meat inspector. He was discharged in 1945 with the rank of staff sergeant. After the war, he enrolled at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he earned a bachelor's degree in animal husbandry in 1950.

If you shopped at BJ's earlier this summer, here's a reason to check your freezer. The USDA has announced a recall of 8,500 pounds of ground beef that was repackaged for sale at retail locations including 26 BJ's Wholesale Clubs, such as the location in the White Marsh Retail Center, due to possible E. Coli contamination. The original packages, each containing three 14-pound chubs, had a use or freeze by date of July 1, 2010. There have been three reports of illnesses --- two people in Maine and one in New York --- due to this meat, prepared by Cargill Meat Solutions Corp.

The forced resignation of U.S. Department of Agriculture manager Shirley Sherrod after a misleading video purporting to show her making racist comments appeared on conservative media outlets this week raises any number of questions about the Obama administration's apparent willingness to jump to conclusions before getting all the facts. What's clear, however, is that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack ought to be ashamed of the unseemly rush to judgment that suggested his agency puts a higher premium on limiting political damage than on ferreting out the truth.