Students, Polis agree pizza not a vegetable; Congress not so sure

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis is trying to convince Congress that pizza is not a vegetable.

Vilsack puts brakes on road building on Colorado public lands

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Friday reinstated a year-long “time out” on road building on more than 58 million acres of public lands in 39 states, including more than 4 million acres in Colorado.

“While the courts continue to wrestle with…

Colorado’s struggling dairy farmers get a boost

Struggling dairy farmers in Colorado and the nation received a $290 million boost from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Thursday.

Love it, hate it: Conservationists split on Sherman pick to head USFS

Some conservationists praised the Obama administration’s nomination Thursday of Harris Sherman to the post of Undersecretary of Natural Resources and Environment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Others aren’t quite so sure the two-time head of the Colorado Department of…

Isgar creates Senate vacancy with appointment to USDA rural post

Term-limited state Sen. Jim Isgar won appointment as the U.S. Department of Agriculture state director of rural development, Mile High Politics first reported Tuesday morning. The Hesperus Democrat, whose Senate District 6 covers eight counties in the southwest corner of Colorado, plans to step down in about three weeks, he told Jeremy Pelzer, creating the need for a vacancy committee to fill the final year of his term.

USDA provides $1 million in stimulus grants for biomass projects

Four Colorado projects that convert wood waste, or biomass, into energy received a total of $1 million in federal stimulus funds Thursday, but a state with more than two million acres of dead and dying lodgepole pine forests could use a lot more.

Vilsack issues directive protecting national forest roadless areas

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Thursday issued a memorandum essentially blocking most development and road building on more than 53 million acres of national forest (4.4 million in Colorado) designated as roadless areas.

Conservationists call on Vilsack to suspend, cancel Colorado roadless rule

A growing chorus of Colorado and national sportsmen and conservation groups are calling on U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to suspend work on the controversial Colorado roadless rule or pull the plug on it altogether in favor of a strong national rule.

Rural broadband loan program may fail recovery transparency test

A federal watchdog lambasted a U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Rural Utility Service effort to expand broadband Internet service to rural communities for “irregularities” in the $5.7 billion loan program.

Ag-nominee Vilsack speech at CU Law hints at ethanol, trade and labor stances

Way back in late 2006 former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack ran for the democratic nomination for president — for a whole three months until he gave it up in Feb. 2007. While on the routine nationwide criss-cross tour to make the case for his candidacy Vilsack, long known as a pragmatic centrist, launched into a rather fiery Q&A following a speech at the University of Colorado Law School.

Those remarks could serve as an interesting predictor of Vilsack’s approach to food, farming and energy as Pres.-elect Barack Obama’s newly nominated U.S. Agriculture Secretary.