USDA Home and Garden Bulletin

Logo of the U.S. Department of Agriculture
USDA Home and Garden Bulletin Issue 107, detailing how to mend clothing.

The USDA Home and Garden Bulletin was a series of publications released by the United States Department of Agriculture from 1951 to 2003, totaling 267 issues.[1] These bulletins would contain information on various subjects such as budgeting, canning and jarring foods,[2][3] or nutrition.[4] The bulletins sold for between 10 and 75 cents an issue. Although all issues were published by the USDA, often issues would be prepared and produced by smaller groups within the department, such as the Human Nutrition Research Division,[5] Office of Information,[6] or the Consumer and Food Economics Research Division.[7]

Some issues of the bulletin would be repurposed or adapted in the future as educational materials.[8]

History

An example of suburbs, gaining in popularity over farms

The Home and Garden Bulletin was created to "present in a popular style information on home and garden subjects".[9] and was often deemed a "consumer service".[10] Available via mail order, it was also seen as a way to spread information to rural areas. After over 50 years of continuous publications, the service ended in 2003. The reasons for this vary, but a large factor is urbanization, which has led to less family farms.[11] Another cause is the rise of the internet, which has arguably connected rural communities better without depending on the government.[12][13] Many topics covered in the bulletin were taken up by other divisions of the USDA after new publications stopped, such as the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.[14]

References

  1. ^ Ellen Kay Miller; National Agricultural Library (U.S.) (2002). "Index to USDA home and garden bulletins": 1 electronic resource (46 pages)–USDA. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ United States. Agricultural Research Service. Human Nutrition Research Division (1965). Home canning of fruits and vegetables. National Agricultural Library U. S. Department of Agriculture. Washington : For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off.
  3. ^ United States. Department of Agriculture. Office of Information (1957). Homemade jams and jellies. National Agricultural Library U. S. Department of Agriculture. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Office of Information.
  4. ^ United States. Agricultural Research Service. Consumer and Food Economics Research Division (1968). Food guide for older folks. National Agricultural Library U. S. Department of Agriculture. Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off.
  5. ^ United States. Agricultural Research Service. Human Nutrition Research Division (1965). Home canning of fruits and vegetables. National Agricultural Library U. S. Department of Agriculture. Washington : For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off.
  6. ^ {{2
  7. ^ United States. Agricultural Research Service. Consumer and Food Economics Research Division (1968). Food guide for older folks. National Agricultural Library U. S. Department of Agriculture. Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off.
  8. ^ "NUTRITIVE VALUE OF FOODS: A REVISED USDA CONSUMER PUBLICATION" (PDF).
  9. ^ Blair, Amy (2004-07-07). "USDA Home and Garden Bulletins". Journal of Agricultural & Food Information. 6 (2–3): 145–150. doi:10.1300/J108v06n02_10. ISSN 1049-6505.
  10. ^ United States. Agricultural Research Service. Consumer and Food Economics Research Division (1968). Food guide for older folks. National Agricultural Library U. S. Department of Agriculture. Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off.
  11. ^ "MeSH Browser". meshb.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  12. ^ Kim, Younjun; Orazem, Peter F. (January 2017). "Broadband Internet and New Firm Location Decisions in Rural Areas". American Journal of Agricultural Economics. 99 (1): 1–18. doi:10.1093/ajae/aaw082. hdl:10.1093/ajae/aaw082. ISSN 0002-9092.
  13. ^ Strover, Sharon (2001-06-01). "Rural internet connectivity". Telecommunications Policy. 25 (5): 331–347. doi:10.1016/S0308-5961(01)00008-8. ISSN 0308-5961.
  14. ^ "USDA's Complete Guide to Home Canning". National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Retrieved 2023-02-19.