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officials, council members, part-time mayors, even your city administrators, to know what the federal programs are," Vilsack, a former Iowa governor who is also an ex-mayor of a small town in Iowa, told The Associated Press this week. "Oftentimes these programs have matching requirements. For small communities operating by themselves, that is very difficult."
• The USDA uses U.S. Census data to find areas with poverty rates higher than 20 percent. The agency then works with local officials and community-based organizations to publicize the program and reach out to potential applicants. Included in the secretary's expected stops Tuesday is Bamberg County, home to South Carolina's fourth-highest unemployment, at 15.3 percent.
• The money has already helped Larry Harris, who has operated a small farm in South Carolina's Sumter County for about 15 years. Harris says he used to farm row crops such as soybeans and corn but, several years ago, learned of a USDA-funded program that could help him build a well to irrigate more profitable specialty vegetable crops. Harris is bound by a contract with USDA to use the well for irrigation for three years. After that, he can use the well as he sees fit.
• Other small farmers from neighboring counties have come to see his setup and get ideas for their own projects, Harris said.
• "On an acre of land, through these programs you could make more growing vegetables than you could doing row crops," he said.
• In addition to increasing profits for farmers, specialty vegetable gardens of the type Harris operates could help reduce obesity rates in poor counties by increasing residents' access to better-quality healthy foods, Vilsack said.
• In Sumter County, 74 percent of adults are considered overweight or obese, compared to South Carolina's overall rate of 67.4 percent.
• "The key to nutrition is access to foods that are healthy and nutritionally dense," Vilsack said. If farmers grow more of their own fruits and vegetables, he said, "people don't have to rely on a convenience store that has a very limited set of offerings."
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• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The South Dakota Legislature's Executive Board has chosen Republican Sen. Ryan Maher (MAH'-hur) of Isabel as its chairman and Republican Rep. Lance Carson of Mitchell as its vice-chairman.
• The board handles management issues for the Legislature in the months when the Legislature is not meeting.

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