Conducts research and provides information to ensure safe food and other agricultural products, assess the nutritional needs of Americans, sustain a competitive agricultural economy, enhance the natural resource base and the environment, and provide economic opportunities for rural citizens, communities, and society as a whole.

Conducts research, commodity market projections, and outlook analyses, and develops economic and statistical indicators in the following areas: farming and farm households, commodity markets, agricultural trade, food and consumer economics, nutrition and feeding programs, natural resources and the environment, and the domestic rural economy.

Maintains a worldwide agricultural market intelligence and commodity reporting service to provide U.S. farmers and traders with information on world agricultural production and trade for use in adjusting to changes in world demand for U.S. agricultural products. Reporting includes data on foreign government policies, analysis of supply and demand conditions, commercial trade relationships, and market opportunities. In addition to survey data, crop condition assessment relies heavily on computerized analyses of satellite, meteorological, agricultural, and related data. The FAS program serves as the analytical foundation for USDA's export programs and is an important source of information in trade policy efforts.

Collects, summarizes, analyzes, and publishes agricultural production and marketing data on a wide range of items including number of farms and land in farms; acreage, yield, production, and stocks of grains, hay, oilseeds, cotton, potatoes, tobacco, fruits, selected vegetables, floriculture, and selected specialty crops; inventories and production of hogs, cattle, sheep and wool, goats and mohair, mink, catfish, trout, poultry, eggs, and dairy products; prices received by farmers for products, prices paid for commodities and services, and related indexes; cold storage supplies; agricultural chemical use; and related areas of the agricultural economy. The Census of Agriculture is conducted by NASS every five years to collect information on the number of farms; land use; production expenses; value of land, buildings, and farm products; farm size; characteristics of farm operators; market value of agricultural production sold; acreage of major crops; inventory of livestock and poultry; and farm irrigation practices. The census provides national, state, and county data as well as selected data for Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.