Food and Nutrition is one of the largest, most essential sectors of any government around the world. The supply and demand of food products is essential in any economy, much less in any healthy and thriving community.
The issue of food and nutrition is considered as one of the most essential components of a successful community as it makes up most of a person’s daily life. The United States understands this, which is why it has created several governmental agencies that are tasked solely to support and consolidate food and nutrition-related concerns.
On top of the list is the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, otherwise known as NIFA. Established in the year 2008, the agency was specifically designed to consolidate all federally-funded agricultural research, and will be subordinate to the Department of Agriculture.
The mission of the NIFA is to “stimulate and fund the research and technological innovations that will enhance American agriculture and make it more productive and environmentally sustainable while ensuring the economic viability of agriculture and production.”
And it aims to achieve this by administering a slew of programs and initiatives like the Food Security Learning Center Program which aims to create and maintain a national, web-based clearinghouse of information on community food security concerns and common community problems related to the underlying causes of hunger and poverty, including the loss of farms and ranches, rural poverty, welfare dependency, hunger, and food access issues.
On the other hand, there also exists the United States Food and Nutrition Service, otherwise referred to as the FNS. The agency operates under the United Department of Agriculture is generally responsible for administering the country’s domestic nutrition assistance programs and initiatives.
The agency has established several projects and grant programs to achieve their primary agency mission, such as the Innovative Food Defense Program (IFDP) which mainly seeks to generate food defense tools and resources which are easily replicated and can most definitely complement, aid in the development of, or improve state, local, tribal and territorial food defense programs.
Meanwhile, there is also the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), one of the largest agencies under the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
The FDA is espcially designed to safeguard and promote public health through the regulation and supervision of food safety, tobacco products, dietary supplements, prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceutical drugs (medications), vaccines, biopharmaceuticals, blood transfusions, medical devices, electromagnetic radiation emitting devices (ERED), and veterinary products.