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 United States Environmental Protection Agency.

• Germplasm Resources Information Network

v • d • e Agencies under the United States Department of Agriculture

Secretary of Agriculture Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment Forest Service • Natural Resources Conservation Service Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agriculture Services Farm Service Agency • Foreign Agricultural Service • Risk Management Agency Under Secretary of Agriculture for Rural Development Rural Development Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services Food and Nutrition Service • Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety Food Safety and Inspection Service Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics Agricultural Research Service • Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service • Economic Research Service • National Agricultural Library • National Agricultural Statistics Service Under Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Agricultural Marketing Service • Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service • Federal Crop Insurance Corporation • Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration

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