How Nutrition Arises as a Focus for USDA Research, Economics, and Education

Often nutrition is defined at USDA as the federal food assistance programs, but dietary guidance, nutrition research, and nutrition education emerged through provisions in various previous farm bills. The nutrition research programs at USDA were created and continually supported by the farm bill. USDA like other federal agencies have focused on a campaign to arrest obesity in America and these efforts filter out through communities through extension, land grant programs, and other USDA programs. The Economic Research Service has conducted numerous studies that examined the effectiveness of food assistance programs and have determined what it costs to purchase a healthy diet. The 2007 farm bill also created the National Institute for Food and Agriculture which consolidated the major research programs and began a competitive orientation for this research. The upcoming farm bill will certainly continue the strong support for research as fundamental to the competitiveness and strategic success of the broad range of domestic and international food, nutrition, and agriculture programs.