The USDA Homogenization Project

Floggings-Will-Continue-New-Logo

No, we are not talking dairy here..but new Department Direction ( would you think they might have other things to do, given sequestration?)

USDA symbol is the official and sole identity mark for the Department and all agency programs. Agency logos are being phased out and replaced with a standardized signature model to be adopted by all USDA agencies …

USDAlogo-1 the pdf (Bob, you might not want to read this…it’s very bureaucratic)

Turns out that a retiree says that this was tried to the Park Service a while back then rescinded due to uproar by employees and retirees.

Here are the two possibilities- 1) Don’t know how this will affect employees. Insensitivity.
2) Don’t care how this will affect employees. Intentional Irritation (with some end in mind?).

If I were a Machiavellian thinker, I would think all this was an elaborate plot by the Obama Administration to pry our achy and arthritic retiree fingers from the attachment of the stodgy to the FS being in USDA, when it would make sense and save the taxpayer beaucoup bucks to move the FS to Interior. If so, it’s working, because many retirees I’ve spoken with now see this transfer in a favorable light.

But one of my favorite things is to see the language of retirees released from the bureaucratic mush of official written statements.

From Tom Hamilton (formerly Associate Deputy Chief for R&D)
“The USDA symbol is the ultimate example of permanent deforestation.”

10 thoughts on “The USDA Homogenization Project”

  1. No, Bob, please do read this! I look forward to your comments!

    Who are the people that make that stuff up? How many of them are there, I wonder? How much do they get paid?

    Reply
    • Too late, JZ: John Marker already made me read it. Wow. Those bureaucrats! First, no White House tours for the kids and now this — I’m pretty sure sequestration isn’t working. This was pretty hilarious, though, despite the permanent documentary evidence that some USDA employees have Too Much Time on their hands and really take their PhotoShop skills seriously and to a pixelated extreme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T3_4zWMspo

      Reply
  2. The sky is falling.

    Each USDA agency (17 total), except the Forest Service, has conformed its website design and agency logo to the Borg. It can’t be long until the FS succumbs, too. The new URL is already reserved: http://www.fs.usda.gov points to the soon-to-be-dead http://www.fs.fed.us and is used by the Forest Service to post new documents, e.g., forest plans and NEPA paperwork.

    Meanwhile, over at Interior, not just the Park Service, but every other agency, too, still has its own historical logo identity (who knew the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has a logo?). And each has its own http://www.agency.gov URL, instead of USDA’s http://www.agency.usda.gov.

    Should the FS fight USDA or seek to be switched to USDI? Who cares? What difference would it make?

    Reply
  3. Andy, I care – a lot! And so does every retiree who has proudly worn the pine tree shield. While I’m not a fan of all of the current F.S. policies, I’m part of the family and that shield has been an important part of my life for 70 years, symbolizing all of the good things that the Agency has done for our nation. Shovel it under and move on… not likely!

    Reply
  4. To borrow a line from MASH, the TV show: “I don’t like it! I don’t like it AT ALL!”

    Said a general to Hawkeye and Radar, while Radar was wearing, in an officer’s club, “Corporal-Captain” insignia. It was Hawkeye’s ruse to get Radar admitted to the club, and he told the general that they were conducting a survey about the new rank.

    Replacing the US Forest Service logo seems like a bad idea at the wrong time. Where’s the “Purpose and Need” statement?

    Reply
  5. An informed W.O. source tells me that the Forest Service sought and was granted a waiver from USDA’s logo edict. The Borg has retreated . . . for now.

    Reply
    • They all cashed their checks before retreating, however, and now they’re looking for other projects suited for their “skill sets.” Who were those people, and how much did this cost? And what does sequestration have to do with it?

      Reply

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