Informatics in the Agriculture Industry

If you have cereal in the morning, the nutritional labeling you’re bound to see on the side of the box is due to the efforts of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This is just one example of inter-agency cooperation.

The USDA is made up of 29 agencies and offices with nearly 100,000 employees who serve the American people at more than 4,500 locations across the country and abroad.¹ It is one of the more diverse agencies in the US government. Looking at it is a lot like the story of the blind man and the elephant²: your perspective depends on the specifics of what you are looking at, depending on taking a step back to see the entire picture.