Agency Structure
The Agency's work is structured among four Divisions:
The Food Economics Division conducts economic
research on policy issues of importance to the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. Specific areas of expertise include:
- Food consumption
- Food safety
- Food assistance
- Household food security
- Diet and health
- Structure of the food sector
- Retail food prices
The Division's analysis of food policy issues ensures that
consumers' perspectives are represented in policy discussions. The
impact of policy on low-income individuals and households is of
particular interest.
The Division is also responsible for conducting studies and
evaluations of the Nation's food assistance and nutrition programs.
In addition to intramural research, the Food Assistance and
Nutrition Research Program (FANRP) funds a portfolio of extramural
research topics designed to meet the critical information needs of
program managers, policy officials, the research community, and the
public. Information on the competitive grants and
cooperative agreements programs can be obtained from the ERS
website:
Food Economics Division Staff Work in the Following Specialty
Areas:
- Consumer economics
- Household behavior/family economics
- Market structure and pricing
- Food Assistance program evaluation
The Information Services
Division manages and directs agencywide information
technology and communication activities.
To support the ERS mission, the Division:
- Builds and maintains a powerful analytic and communications
environment
- Delivers modern information technologies and resources to the
desktops of ERS staff
- Trains ERS staff to take maximum advantage of those
technologies and resources
- Develops and maintains information and data dissemination
systems to deliver the agency's products in an effective,
efficient, and timely manner
- Publishes agency-sponsored research reports and
periodicals
The Information Services Division integrates the various
electronic and traditional print media used to disseminate ERS's
products to its clientele into a streamlined delivery system,
including ERS's Internet site. In addition, ERS' internal website
provides its staff with electronic access to internal information
resources and data systems.
The Market and Trade
Economics Division conducts economic research and analysis
on U.S. and global economic and policy factors affecting the
structure and performance of agricultural markets and trade. The
Division monitors market indicators; provides mid- to long-term
forecasts of agricultural market conditions; and assesses the
technological, economic, policy, and institutional forces that
influence U.S. and world agricultural markets. With strong
country/regional and commodity market expertise, the research
program provides science-based knowledge and analytic expertise for
informed public policy and program decisions.
Specific research topics include:
- Analyzing and managing farm risk
- Developing conceptual and empirical economic frameworks to
analyze the "unfinished business" and "new" issues for agriculture
in the World Trade Organization
- Assessing field crop biotechnology and implications for market
structure, pricing, and trade
- Quantifying economic implications of regional market
integration
- Examining economic implications of industrialization and
concentration in agriculture
- Reassessing global macroeconomic linkages to U.S.
agriculture
- Enhancing capacity for commodity price forecasting and
projections
Market and Trade Economics Division staff work in the following
specialty areas:
- Commodity and food markets
- International economics
- Market structure and pricing
- Production economics
- Comparative economic systems
The Resource and Rural
Economics Division conducts research in three areas:
- The interactions among natural resources, environmental
quality, and agricultural production and consumption
- The economics of agricultural research and development and
technological change
- The structure and financial performance of the agricultural
sector and the rural economy
Specific topics include:
- Conservation and environmental programs
- Global resources
- Agricultural research and productivity
- Technology and sustainability
- Trade and the environment
- Production practices and the environment
- Land use
- Water use and management
- Farm structure
- Farm finance and farm sector performance
- Demographic change in rural areas
- Rural labor and credit markets
Resource and Rural Economics Division staff work in the
following specialty areas:
- Credit, finance, and risk
- Industrial organization
- Natural resource/environmental economics
- Production economics/farm management
- Labor and demographics
- Rural and regional economics
- Welfare and poverty economics
- Research and development/technological change