Agency Datasets

This feed provides readers with information regarding partnering opportunities that are available within the USDA/ARS community.

The Agricultural Thesaurus was first released by the National Agricultural Library in 2002. The thesaurus has in depth coverage of agriculture, biology and related disciplines. It contains over 78,000 terms, including 31,000 cross references and is arranged into 17 subject categories. It is annually updated each January. There is a parallel Spanish version, called Tesauro Agri-cola.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle. LCA describes the life cycle as consecutive and interlinked stages of a product system extending from the acquisition of raw materials through materials processing, technology manufacturing/construction, technology use/maintenance/upgrade, and the technology retirement. LCA also provides a framework for understanding economic and social impacts. In an LCA, data are collected at the unit process level, intended to represent a single industrial activity, in this case the food and agriculture industry. Each single industrial activity (a) produces product and sometimes co-products; (b) uses resources from the environment; (c) uses resources from other unit processes in the technosphere; and (d) generates emissions to the environment. In an LCA, the inventory analysis combines unit process data for the life cycle and the impact assessment estimates the impact associated with activities and flows to and from the environment for the inventory. These field crop production datasets have been developed for the LCA Digital Commons in response to a national need for data representing US operations. The LCA Digital Commons database is an open access database developed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Library (NAL) for use in LCAs to support policy assessment, technology implementation decision-making, and publically disclosed comparative product or technology assertions. Field crop production data include the following processes: Residue burning; soil preparation; planting or sowing; irrigation; application, storage, and transport of fertilizers, manures, liming materials, secondary materials, and pesticides; and harvest. The LCA Digital Commons field crop production data were modeled from USDA Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) data. Models were reviewed independently.

SoyBase is the USDA-ARS soybean genetics and genomics database. Contents include the genome sequence, the genetic map (markers, QTL, etc.), metabolic pathways, transcription and expression data, mutant information, and selected analysis tools and community resources.