United States Department of Agriculture
GovernmentThe USDA collects and publishes agricultural statistics covering everything from crop yields and acreage to livestock numbers and farm income. Their National Agricultural Statistics Service conducts surveys and censuses of farms, while other divisions track commodity prices, food safety incidents, nutrition programs, and rural economic trends. The data spans historical records going back decades, making it essential for understanding agricultural markets, food supply chains, and rural America.
Pinned datasets
Food Access Research Atlas (Food Deserts)
Food deserts are neighborhoods where it's hard to get to a real grocery store. This dataset maps them for every census tract in America. It shows how far people have to travel to reach a supermarket, how many residents don't have easy access, and which groups are most affected. You also get income, poverty, and whether people have cars. It's useful for understanding where communities might struggle to buy fresh food, which matters for public health and policy.
WIC Program Monthly Participation by State Agency
How many women, babies, and kids are getting WIC benefits each month, broken down by which state agency is running the program. If you've heard that WIC enrollment dropped or surged, this is the data behind that story. It shows whether more pregnant women are signing up, whether fewer kids are enrolled, or how numbers shift month to month. Some states run the program through their health department, while tribal nations run their own separate programs, so you'll see multiple rows for some states.
Personal Food Expenditures
How much Americans spend on food each year, whether they're buying groceries or eating out. The data goes back nearly a century, so you can see how food spending has changed through recessions, booms, and shifts in dining culture. It's useful for spotting trends like whether people cook more at home during downturns or how restaurant spending bounces back after a crisis.
National School Lunch Program Participation
School lunch programs come in three types: free (for poorest families), reduced-price (for low-income families), and full-price (paid by families). This data shows how many kids used each type each year going back to 1969. It's one of the best ways to measure poverty among school kids, because pretty much every poor family uses free or reduced lunch. You can see trends like how participation jumped during recessions or how programs have grown over decades.
SNAP (Food Stamps) Annual Participation & Costs
See how many people get food stamps each year and how much the government spends on it. You can trace recessions and policy changes through the numbers. The 1990s welfare reform shows up as a drop in enrollment. The Great Recession and COVID-19 both created sharp increases. It's basically a 56-year record of who the program serves and what it costs.