USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) website screenshot

USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS)

The USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the principal in-house research agency of the US Department of Agriculture. ARS conducts research to develop and implement solutions to agricultural problems that affect Americans every day. Research areas include crop protection, animal health, food safety, natural resource management, sustainable agriculture, and nutrition. ARS provides public data access through FoodData Central (nutrition data) and the Ag Data Commons (agricultural research datasets repository with CKAN/DKAN API).

USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) publishes 3 APIs on the APIs.io network: Datasets API, Food Search API, and Foods API. Tagged areas include Federal Government, Agriculture, Food Safety, Nutrition, and Open Data.

The USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 2 Spectral governance rulesets.

USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS)’s developer surface includes authentication, engineering blog, and 3 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub
40.9/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 34/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6
AccessFreemiumSelf serve⚡ Free to try
3 APIs
Federal GovernmentAgricultureFood SafetyNutritionOpen DataResearch

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6
Composite quality — 40.9/100 · thin
Contract Quality 14.5 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 2.6 / 20
Commercial Clarity 7.9 / 20
Operational Transparency 4.1 / 13
Governance 7.0 / 12
Discoverability 6.5 / 10
Agent readiness — 34/100 · agent aware
Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18
Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10
MCP Server 0 / 12
Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10
Idempotency 0 / 9
Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8
Request/Response Examples 7 / 7
Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7
Typed Event Surface 0 / 6
Agent Skills 0 / 5
Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4
Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3
A2A Agent Card 0 / 8
Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4
Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/usda-agricultural-research-service-ars-: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 3

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Datasets API

Dataset metadata search and retrieval

USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Food Search API

Search foods by keywords or other criteria

USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Foods API

Retrieve food records by FDC ID

Open Collections 2

Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).

USDA Ag Data Commons CKAN API

OPEN COLLECTION

USDA FoodData Central API

OPEN COLLECTION

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Usda Agricultural Research Service Ars Plans Pricing

3 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Usda Agricultural Research Service Ars Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Usda Agricultural Research Service Ars Finops

FINOPS

Semantic Vocabularies 1

JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.

Usda Agricultural Research Service Ars Context

3 classes · 17 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 2

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) API Rules

5 rules · 3 warnings 2 info

SPECTRAL

USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) API Rules

7 rules · 2 errors 3 warnings 2 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 1

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

USDA FoodData Central Food Item

11 properties

JSON SCHEMA

JSON Structure 1

JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.

Usda Ars Food Item Structure

0 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Examples 2

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Usda Ars Search Datasets Example

2 fields

EXAMPLE

Usda Ars Search Foods Example

2 fields

EXAMPLE

Security Posture 2

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Usda Agricultural Research Service Ars Authentication

apiKey · 2 schemes

SECURITY

Usda Agricultural Research Service Ars Domain Security

TLSv1.2 · HSTS · DNSSEC · DMARC

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Usda Agricultural Research Service Ars Agentic Access

12 operations · 3 acting

12 operations · 3 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess
AgenticAccess

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity
DomainSecurity
 Authentication
Authentication

Company 2

The organization behind the API

LinkedIn
LinkedIn
 Blog
Blog

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑ 
aid: usda-agricultural-research-service-ars-
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/usda-agricultural-research-service-ars-/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/usda-agricultural-research-service-ars--agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/usda-agricultural-research-service-ars--domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/usda-agricultural-research-service-ars--authentication.yml
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/usda-ars
- url: http://www.ars.usda.gov/rss
  type: Blog
apis:
- aid: usda-agricultural-research-service-ars-:usda-agricultural-research-service-ars--datasets-api
  name: USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Datasets API
  description: Dataset metadata search and retrieval
  humanURL: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/api-guide/
  tags:
  - Datasets
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/usda-agricultural-research-service-ars--datasets-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/api-guide/
  - type: Portal
    url: https://agdatacommons.nal.usda.gov
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://data.nal.usda.gov/about-ag-data-commons
- aid: usda-agricultural-research-service-ars-:usda-agricultural-research-service-ars--food-search-api
  name: USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Food Search API
  description: Search foods by keywords or other criteria
  humanURL: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/api-guide/
  tags:
  - Food Search
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/usda-agricultural-research-service-ars--food-search-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/api-guide/
  - type: Portal
    url: https://agdatacommons.nal.usda.gov
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://data.nal.usda.gov/about-ag-data-commons
- aid: usda-agricultural-research-service-ars-:usda-agricultural-research-service-ars--foods-api
  name: USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Foods API
  description: Retrieve food records by FDC ID
  humanURL: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/api-guide/
  tags:
  - Foods
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/usda-agricultural-research-service-ars--foods-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/api-guide/
  - type: Portal
    url: https://agdatacommons.nal.usda.gov
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://data.nal.usda.gov/about-ag-data-commons
name: USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
tags:
- Federal Government
- Agriculture
- Food Safety
- Nutrition
- Open Data
- Research
kind: contract
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: false
  label: Freemium · Self-serve signup
  confidence: high
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/usda-agricultural-research-service-ars-.png
access: 3rd-Party
created: '2024-11-21'
modified: '2026-05-19'
position: Consuming
description: The USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the principal in-house research agency of the US Department of
  Agriculture. ARS conducts research to develop and implement solutions to agricultural problems that affect Americans every
  day. Research areas include crop protection, animal health, food safety, natural resource management, sustainable agriculture,
  and nutrition. ARS provides public data access through FoodData Central (nutrition data) and the Ag Data Commons (agricultural
  research datasets repository with CKAN/DKAN API).
features:
- Food Nutrition Data (FoodData Central)
- Agricultural Research Datasets (Ag Data Commons)
- Germplasm Resources (GRIN)
- Plant Variety Protection
- Soil Health Data
- Genomics and Bioinformatics Tools
useCases:
- Nutrition research and dietary analysis
- Food labeling and composition analysis
- Agricultural research data discovery
- Plant genetics and germplasm research
- Food safety assessment
- Sustainable agriculture research
- Climate and soil health monitoring
integrations:
- data.gov
- Ag Data Commons
- FoodData Central
solutions:
- Food and Nutrition Research
- Agricultural Data Discovery
- Crop and Animal Genetics Research
github:
- https://github.com/USDA-ARS
- https://github.com/usda-ars-gbru
- https://github.com/usda-ars-nwrc
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
specificationVersion: '0.19'