Find Rural Health Programs and Resources
The USDA has many programs and resources that can support rural communities improve their health and quality of life, but many programs do not have “health” in the title or description. To help rural community leaders and others to identify which USDA programs and resources can help improve a rural community’s health, a USDA Rural Health Inventory tool has been developed.
This tool is a curated library of active USDA’s programs and resources that support rural health. You can use the filters at the top to simplify your search in finding the programs and resources available by Sub-Agency, Program Type, or Assistance Type. Select the Rurality Requirement box to show programs and resources eligible for rural communities only.
Rural health programs are the emphasis, but this library is inclusive of all health programs.
The mission of National Program 104, Veterinary, Medical, and Urban Entomology, is to eliminate arthropod vectors and the diseases that they transmit to livestock, humans, and other animals and to nullify their economic impact.
The mission of the program is to deliver scientific information and tools to detect, control, and eradicate animal diseases that impact agriculture and public health.
Enhance the marketability of agricultural products, increase the availability of healthful foods, develop value-added food and nonfood products, and enable commercially-preferred technologies for post-harvest processing.
To provide through research, the means to ensure that the food supply is safe for consumers; and that food and feed meet foreign and domestic regulatory requirements. Food safety research seeks ways to assess, control or eliminate potentially harmful food contaminants, including both introduced and naturally occurring pathogenic bacteria, viruses and parasites, toxins and non-biological-based chemical contaminants, mycotoxins and plant toxins. Food safety is a global issue; thus, the research program involves both national and international collaborations through formal and informal partnerships. Accomplishments and outcomes are utilized in national and international strategies delivering research results and advances to regulatory agencies, commodity organizations, industry and consumers.
The mission of the Human Nutrition Program is to define the role of food and its components in optimizing health throughout the life cycle for all Americans by conducting high national priority research.
A collection of 70 charts and maps presenting key statistics on the farm sector, food spending and prices, food security, rural communities, the interaction of agriculture and natural resources, and more.
The Cost Estimates of Foodborne Illnesses data product provides detailed data about the cost of major foodborne illnesses in the United States. Estimates from 2013 have been updated to reflect the value of 2018 dollars by adjusting for inflation. Cost estimates of foodborne illnesses have been used in the past to help inform food-safety policy discussions, and these updated cost estimates will provide a foundation for the economic analysis of food safety.
Nutrient and food consumption in terms of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans’ food groups is reported for all sources and the total U.S. population, as well as by food source, age group, and household income demographics. Data is divided into 2 categories—at-home and away-from-home food.
The ERS Food Availability (Per Capita) Data System (FADS) includes three distinct but related data series on food and nutrient availability for consumption: food availability data, loss-adjusted food availability data, and nutrient availability data. The data serve as proxies for actual consumption at the national level. The food availability data series serves as the foundation for the other two series. Loss-adjusted food availability data (LAFA) are derived from food availability data by adjusting for food spoilage, plate waste, and other losses to more closely approximate actual consumption. This second data series is considered preliminary because the underlying food loss assumptions and estimates require further improvement. The nutrient availability data series calculates the daily food energy and 27 nutrients/dietary components of the U.S. food supply. This third series is no longer updated by USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP); ERS provides archived tables of this data series through 2010. Documentation is available for each of the three data series.
The SNAP Distribution Schedule Database, one component of ERS’s SNAP Policy Data Sets, has been updated to include 2018 data. The database provides the monthly distribution schedule for SNAP benefits in each of the 50 States and the District of Columbia since 1998. The database documents the first and last calendar day of distribution in the month, whether benefits are distributed on each day in that span, and the exact calendar days of distribution if distribution is not uniform. Additional information is also provided for States with more complex distribution schedules, such as variation across counties. The information in this database can facilitate research on how the receipt of SNAP benefits influences food consumption, expenditures, and other behaviors.