Documentation for the Agri-Food Economic Data System (Ag-FEDS): A More Complete Accounting of the U.S. Agri-Food Economy

To expand the scope and uses of USDA, Economic Research Service’s (ERS) data products and research on the food economy and markets, USDA, ERS researchers have developed a new data product known as the Agri-Food Economic Data System (Ag-FEDS). Ag-FEDS is an integrated system of economic data that elaborates the linkages between all production and consumption activities throughout the economy. This data system improves the clarity and accuracy of agricultural and food economy data when measuring how all production is distributed among consumers, businesses, governments, and global nations. This report introduces Ag-FEDS and shares details of the models and assumptions supporting the new tool. USDA, ERS has identified official U.S. Government data and applied statistical and economic modeling best practices to produce the most complete accounting of the U.S. food economy to date. In comparison to the accounts currently used for the USDA, ERS Food Dollar Series data product, Ag-FEDS more than doubles activity and commodity coverage (from 153 to over 350 activities and commodities) and captures up to 11 percent more annual food expenditures not included in conventional food Gross Domestic Product measures. Further, Ag-FEDS disentangles and measures over 40 distinct food commodity and marketing channel supply chains and applies accounting and modeling refinements that produce more accurate measures of the activity sequences, culminating in annual food and beverage purchases. To facilitate replication, this report describes primary data sources and every calculation, written entirely in matrix algebra.