Food security in the United States is at its best levels since before the Recession, but shows little change over last year. That's according to a report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wednesday. USDA reports most Americans are food secure in having consistent, dependable access to enough food for active, healthy living. There is still a minority of American households that experience food insecurity at times during the year when access is limited by lack of money or resources.


"Today's report is a positive signal that reflects a recovering and growing economy," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. "Food security for households with children, and households overall, is the strongest it's been since before the Recession. Two million fewer people live in a state of food insecurity today compared to 2011. This report also reflects the continued importance of anti-poverty and nutrition programs, including SNAP and healthier school meals, which help to keep food insecurity from rising, and efforts to improve employment and training programs that help low-income people obtain the skills they need to find good paying jobs so they can provide enough healthy food for their families."


In 2014, 86.0 percent of U.S. households were food secure throughout the year. The estimated percentage of U.S. households that were food insecure remained essentially unchanged from 2013 to 2014. Food insecurity was down from a high of 14.9 percent in 2011.  Click here to read more about the impact of food insecurity to children and how it varies from state to state.

Renewable energy groups are up in arms over a study of the economic impacts of the nation's Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The Renewable Fuels Association and Growth Energy both responded to the results of a study released by the American Petroleum Institute (API) that was commissioned by NERA Economic Consulting (NERA). Click here to read the API study, titled: Economic Impacts Resulting from Implementation of the RFS2 Program.


Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy stated, "While API and its allies attempt to keep America hooked on dirty and dangerous foreign oil, consumers are paying the price. Americans deserve market access to renewable fuel, and a cleaner, less expensive choice at the pump. Ethanol blends like E15 reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make the air we breathe cleaner. And despite what API claims, over 84 percent of cars on the road today are approved to use E15. Regardless of what API claims, the bottom line is that ethanol blends help clean the environment, are higher performing, less expensive and directly benefit the consumer by providing a choice and savings."


"Even as API and other special interests aim to protect their stranglehold over 90 percent of our fuel market, Americans realize that ethanol-blended gasoline is a cleaner, less expensive motor fuel that's increasing our energy independence and security," said Buis. "It's time to put an end to the oil industry's lies. A strong RFS is good for drivers, America's economy, and our future."


Click here for reaction from Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Bob Dinneen. 

A national foodservice distributor is proving to their customers that they have their back. Performance Food Group has helped align the beef industry through their program called Path Proven. Dr. Brad Morgan is a meat scientist and he serves as the senior director of protein. Since joining the company in January, he has been working on the traceability program for several areas including beef, which connects the consumer and the food service company back to the producer.


"We're going to trace the path of where this animal came from, until it ends up on our plate in your restaurant today," Morgan said.


Performance Food Group develops and markets meat products to more than 150,000 independent and national chain restaurants, quick-service eateries, pizzerias, theaters, schools, hotels, health care facilities and other institutions. Morgan said food service establishments really like the Path Proven model. One of his customers said all she wanted was to know was that they were getting good product and that the foodservice company had their back. The customer said that would allow her to sleep better at night knowing they were serving the best product possible to their friends, family and customers, so she can be confident in knowing where the animal came from and how the animal was treated and she could answer any questions with an educated response.


"We're just making sure we're doing what we say we're going to do, we do it on a consistent basis, we make it as cost effective as we can and we're telling that story," Morgan said. "That story has to be told and that is part of the program that we're trying to sell that accompanies all the produce, all the beef, all the protein that we sell to end-users."


Performance Food Group is also involved with a program called Progressive Beef. Morgan said this is similar to the Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program, which has worked well for cow-calf operators.  Click here to read more or to listen to this featured interview with Dr. Brad Morgan.

Oklahoma has set out to improve water management and efficiency in the state. The Oklahoma Water Resources Board has established several goals for the next five to fifty years. The Oklahoma Water Resources Board is in the process of implementing the state's Comprehensive Water Plan that was established in 2012. The state is working on implementing the eight priority recommendations and other smaller sub-recommendations. Director of Water Planning Owen Mills said the state's long term water management priorities include improving monitoring of the state's water resources. He said they want to maintain long term data in order to establish trends in water quality and water levels.


The state is also looking at utilizing marginal quality water. That involves looking at ways to use water that is not fully treated to drinking water standards, such as waste water. Mills said marginal quality water could be used to wash vehicles or irrigating golf courses. The state is also looking at treating brackish or salty ground water to drinking water standards.


As federal drinking water standards become more difficult to meet and replacement of the state's aging infrastructure becomes necessary, the Oklahoma Water Resources Board also looks for more regionalization efforts. Mills said they look for more rural towns to share resources or have regional water treatment plants. The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) has also offered principal forgiveness for projects that regionalize or consolidate two or more systems. This is offered through the state's Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF). This is a required part of a multimillion dollar capitalization grant the ODEQ receives from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) each year. 

Efforts to look at the state's long term water use is also underway with the Oklahoma's Water for 2060 initiative.  Click here to read more or to listen to this full interview.

Things change over time. A man's hairline, his beltline and retirement fund are some examples of the process.  Many of these changes are gradual and go unnoticed on a day-to-day basis. However, if he were to compare a snapshot of the top of this head from years ago to how it looks now, the changes could be drastic.


That is the concept behind a new app created by Oklahoma State University's Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management. Rather than hair and body weight, this app lets land managers see how effective their prescribed burning efforts have been.


"The RxBurnTracker app allows anyone who uses it to see the progression of the property through the use of prescribed fire," said John Weir, NREM research associate.


Available for both Android and Apple, the app allows users to name each burn unit and pinpoint certain areas within the unit to use asreference points. A user can take a "before" picture, which will be saved within the app and used as a ghost image to be able to take photos from theexact same spot for the "after" shots.  Click here to read more about the RxBurnTracker app.