In Washington, DC, the US Department of Agriculture celebrated the inaugural National Bioproducts Day on March 8. The day is intended to highlight organizations and individuals working to improve sustainability within the federal government. A key component of these federal sustainability efforts is USDA’s BioPreferred® Program, which Congress created under the 2002 Farm Bill.
USDA also congratulated the four winners of the BioPreferred® Program’s “Excellence in Procurement Award” for 2022: The Department of Energy’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Christina Graves with USDA’s Forest Service; Brian McCabe with the National Park Service; and Brooke Siegel with the FBI.
The awardees reduced their respective agencies’ environmental impact by using biobased products and championing farmers in rural America.