Agricultural Research Service

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the principal in-house research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). ARS is one of four agencies in USDA's Research, Education, and Economics (REE) mission area. ARS is charged with extending the Nation's scientific knowledge with programs in agriculture, human nutrition, food safety, natural resources, the environment, library and information services, and other topics affecting the American people on a daily basis.

ARS supports more than 2,000 permanent scientists working on approximately 1,050 permanent research projects at more than 100 locations across the country and five foreign laboratories. The service's Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) in Beltsville, Maryland is the world's largest agricultural research complex. The service also supports more than 150 librarians, technical information specialists and other library specialists who work at the two locations of the National Agricultural Library, the Abraham Lincoln Building at the BARC, and the DC Reference Center in Washington, D.C.

The role of ARS is reflected in the Agency’s mission statement:

ARS conducts research to develop and transfer solutions to agricultural problems of high national priority and provide information access and dissemination to:

• ensure high quality, 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
• provide economic opportunities to rural citizens, communities, and society as a whole

ARS research and library and information services complement the work of state colleges and universities, agricultural experiment stations, other Federal and state agencies, and the private sector. Mechanisms for addressing state and local issues are already in place; therefore, activities within ARS focus on issues having a regional or national scope and where there is a clear Federal role. ARS also provides research and library and information services support to USDA action and regulatory agencies and to several other Federal regulatory agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.

[edit] See also

• Germplasm Resources Information Network

NPS - National Park Service 
FWS - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
BIA - Bureau of Indian Affairs 
BLM - Bureau of Land Management
MMS - Minerals Management Service
OSM - Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation, and Enforcement
USGS - U.S. Geological Survey
BR - Bureau of Reclamation
OIA - Office of Insular Affairs

Extension Service of the USDA
FSA - Farm Service Agency 
FAS - Foreign Agricultural Service 
RMA - Risk Management Agency 
FSIS - Food Safety Inspection Service 
FS - Forest Service 
NRCS - Natural Resources Conservation Service 
RBS - Rural Business-Cooperative Service 
OCD - Office of Community Development 
RHS - Rural Housing Service 
RUS - Rural Utilities Service 
FNS - Food and Nutrition Service 
CNPP - Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion 
AMS - Agricultural Marketing Service 
APHIS - Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service 
GIPSA - Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration 
ARS - Agricultural Research Service 
CSREES - Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service 
ERS - Economic Research Service 
NASS - National Agricultural Statistics Service 
ASCS - Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service 

NWS - National Weather Service 
NOS - National Ocean Service 
NGS - National Geodetic Survey 
NESDIS - National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service 
NMFS - National Marine Fisheries Service 
OAR - Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research 

EERE - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
EIA - Energy Information Administration
FERC - Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
BER - Biological and Environmental Research
EM - Office of Environmental Management

[edit] External links

• Agricultural Research Service. Retrieved on October 7, 2005.
• Image gallery. Agricultural Research Service. Retrieved on October 7, 2005. - An online catalog from the Agricultural Research Service Information Staff.