Secretary Vilsack Visits Beltsville Agricultural Research Center

June 10, 2011

Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, and his top managers visited the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center and the National Agricultural Library.

During their visit, Secretary Vilsack and his staff toured exhibits highlighting a portion of BARC's programs and activities. These Exhibits included handling live insects, walking through a rainforest to discover research on chocolate, a discussion on nutrition, and a lesson on pruning and maintaining bonsai. Secretary Vilsack won a hat from the Diversity Committee for answering all the questions correctly using the Wheel of Diversity as well as a squeeze biodiversity barrel by matching up seeds with pictures of the corresponding plants. Finally, Secretary Vilsack viewed the worms that were currently the main participants in an ongoing research project related to cleaning up some contaminated soil.

The exhibit tent was followed by tours to different areas of BARC's many research programs. Separate tours were led to the Climate Stress, Composting area, Turkey Barn, Bee hives, Food Safety, Organic Plots, and the Dairy. The day was concluded at BARC's historic Log Lodge.