A Consumer Food Data System For 2030 And Beyond

Patterns of food consumption and nutritional intake strongly affect the population's health and well-being. The Food Economics Division of USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) engages in research and data collection to inform policy making related to the leading federal nutrition assistance programs managed by USDA's Food and Nutrition Service. The ERS uses the Consumer Food Data System to understand why people choose foods, how food assistance programs affect these choices, and the health impacts of those choices. At the request of ERS, A Consumer Food Data System for 2030 and Beyond provides a blueprint for ERS's Food Economics Division for its data strategy over the next decade. This report explores the quality of data collected, the data collection process, and the kinds of data that may be most valuable to researchers, policy makers, and program administrators going forward. The recommendations of A Consumer Food Data System for 2030 and Beyond will guide ERS to provide and sustain a multisource, interconnected, reliable data system.

Patterns of food consumption and nutritional intake strongly affect the population's health and well-being. The Food Economics Division of USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) engages in research and data collection to inform policy making related to the leading federal nutrition assistance programs managed by USDA's Food and Nutrition Service. The ERS uses the Consumer Food Data System to understand why people choose foods, how food assistance programs affect these choices, and the health impacts of those choices. At the request of ERS, A Consumer Food Data System for 2030 and Beyond provides a blueprint for ERS's Food Economics Division for its data strategy over the next decade. This report explores the quality of data collected, the data collection process, and the kinds of data that may be most valuable to researchers, policy makers, and program administrators going forward. The recommendations of A Consumer Food Data System for 2030 and Beyond will guide ERS to provide and sustain a multisource, interconnected, reliable data system.

Patterns of food consumption and nutritional intake strongly affect the population's health and well-being. The Food Economics Division of USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) engages in research and data collection to inform policy making related to the leading federal nutrition assistance programs managed by USDA's Food and Nutrition Service. The ERS uses the Consumer Food Data System to understand why people choose foods, how food assistance programs affect these choices, and the health impacts of those choices. At the request of ERS, A Consumer Food Data System for 2030 and Beyond provides a blueprint for ERS's Food Economics Division for its data strategy over the next decade. This report explores the quality of data collected, the data collection process, and the kinds of data that may be most valuable to researchers, policy makers, and program administrators going forward. The recommendations of A Consumer Food Data System for 2030 and Beyond will guide ERS to provide and sustain a multisource, interconnected, reliable data system.

For many Americans who live at or below the poverty threshold, access to healthy foods at a reasonable price is a challenge that often places a strain on already limited resources and may compel them to make food choices that are contrary to current nutritional guidance. To help alleviate this problem, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers a number of nutrition assistance programs designed to improve access to healthy foods for low-income individuals and households. The largest of these programs is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly called the Food Stamp Program, which today serves more than 46 million Americans with a program cost in excess of $75 billion annually. The goals of SNAP include raising the level of nutrition among low-income households and maintaining adequate levels of nutrition by increasing the food purchasing power of low-income families. In response to questions about whether there are different ways to define the adequacy of SNAP allotments consistent with the program goals of improving food security and access to a healthy diet, USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to conduct a study to examine the feasibility of defining the adequacy of SNAP allotments, specifically: the feasibility of establishing an objective, evidence-based, science-driven definition of the adequacy of SNAP allotments consistent with the program goals of improving food security and access to a healthy diet, as well as other relevant dimensions of adequacy; and data and analyses needed to support an evidence-based assessment of the adequacy of SNAP allotments. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Examining the Evidence to Define Benefit Adequacy reviews the current evidence, including the peer-reviewed published literature and peer-reviewed government reports. Although not given equal weight with peer-reviewed publications, some non-peer-reviewed publications from nongovernmental organizations and stakeholder groups also were considered because they provided additional insight into the behavioral aspects of participation in nutrition assistance programs. In addition to its evidence review, the committee held a data gathering workshop that tapped a range of expertise relevant to its task.

The United States is viewed by the world as a country with plenty of food, yet not all households in America are food secure, meaning access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. A proportion of the population experiences food insecurity at some time in a given year because of food deprivation and lack of access to food due to economic resource constraints. Still, food insecurity in the United States is not of the same intensity as in some developing countries. Since 1995 the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has annually published statistics on the extent of food insecurity and food insecurity with hunger in U.S. households. These estimates are based on a survey measure developed by the U.S. Food Security Measurement Project, an ongoing collaboration among federal agencies, academic researchers, and private organizations. USDA requested the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies to convene a panel of experts to undertake a two-year study in two phases to review at this 10-year mark the concepts and methodology for measuring food insecurity and hunger and the uses of the measure. In Phase 2 of the study the panel was to consider in more depth the issues raised in Phase 1 relating to the concepts and methods used to measure food security and make recommendations as appropriate. The Committee on National Statistics appointed a panel of 10 experts to examine the above issues. In order to provide timely guidance to USDA, the panel issued an interim Phase 1 report, Measuring Food Insecurity and Hunger: Phase 1 Report. That report presented the panel's preliminary assessments of the food security concepts and definitions; the appropriateness of identifying hunger as a severe range of food insecurity in such a survey-based measurement method; questions for measuring these concepts; and the appropriateness of a household survey for regularly monitoring food security in the U.S. population. It provided interim guidance for the continued production of the food security estimates. This final report primarily focuses on the Phase 2 charge. The major findings and conclusions based on the panel's review and deliberations are summarized.

For nearly a century, scientific advances have fueled progress in U.S. agriculture to enable American producers to deliver safe and abundant food domestically and provide a trade surplus in bulk and high-value agricultural commodities and foods. Today, the U.S. food and agricultural enterprise faces formidable challenges that will test its long-term sustainability, competitiveness, and resilience. On its current path, future productivity in the U.S. agricultural system is likely to come with trade-offs. The success of agriculture is tied to natural systems, and these systems are showing signs of stress, even more so with the change in climate. More than a third of the food produced is unconsumed, an unacceptable loss of food and nutrients at a time of heightened global food demand. Increased food animal production to meet greater demand will generate more greenhouse gas emissions and excess animal waste. The U.S. food supply is generally secure, but is not immune to the costly and deadly shocks of continuing outbreaks of food-borne illness or to the constant threat of pests and pathogens to crops, livestock, and poultry. U.S. farmers and producers are at the front lines and will need more tools to manage the pressures they face. Science Breakthroughs to Advance Food and Agricultural Research by 2030 identifies innovative, emerging scientific advances for making the U.S. food and agricultural system more efficient, resilient, and sustainable. This report explores the availability of relatively new scientific developments across all disciplines that could accelerate progress toward these goals. It identifies the most promising scientific breakthroughs that could have the greatest positive impact on food and agriculture, and that are possible to achieve in the next decade (by 2030).

This book takes a transdisciplinary approach and considers multisectoral actions, integrating health, agriculture and environmental sector issues to comprehensively explore the topic of sustainable diets. The team of international authors informs readers with arguments, challenges, perspectives, policies, actions and solutions on global topics that must be properly understood in order to be effectively addressed. They position issues of sustainable diets as central to the Earth's future. Presenting the latest findings, they: - Explore the transition to sustainable diets within the context of sustainable food systems, addressing the right to food, and linking food security and nutrition to sustainability. - Convey the urgency of coordinated action, and consider how to engage multiple sectors in dialogue and joint research to tackle the pressing problems that have taken us to the edge, and beyond, of the planet's limits to growth. - Review tools, methods and indicators for assessing sustainable diets. - Describe lessons learned from case studies on both traditional food systems and current dietary challenges. As an affiliated project of the One Planet Sustainable Food Systems Programme, this book provides a way forward for achieving global and local targets, including the Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition commitments. This resource is essential reading for scientists, practitioners, and students in the fields of nutrition science, food science, environmental sciences, agricultural sciences, development studies, food studies, public health and food policy.