# USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS)

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/providers/usda-agricultural-research-service-ars-/  
**APIs profiled:** 3

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).

## Kin Score — 30.1 / 100 (thin)

Scored 2026-08-20 under rubric 0.12.0. Trend: flat (+0.0 from 30.1).

| Facet | Score |
|---|---|
| Discoverability | 64.8 |
| Contract Quality | 55.6 |
| Governance | 9.8 |
| Contract Governance | 9.8 |
| Operational Transparency | 7.9 |
| Developer Ergonomics | 14.3 |
| Commercial Clarity | 15.8 |
| Access Clarity | 15.8 |

Regulatory layer — **Government & Public Sector**: 31.5 (matched via tags).

## Agent readiness — 32.1 (agent-aware)

| Dimension | Value |
|---|---|
| Spec Presence | yes |
| Agentic Access | derived |
| Reversibility Documented | no |
| MCP Server | no |
| Auth Clarity | yes |
| Idempotency | no |
| Error Semantics | no |
| OpenAPI Examples | partial |
| Rate Limit Signal | documented |
| Event Surface Described | no |
| Agent Skills | no |
| Well Known Catalog | no |
| Consent Identity | no |
| Agent Card | no |
| Dry Run Mode | no |

## Access

Freemium · Self-serve signup — onboarding: self-serve, pricing: freemium, trial: no (confidence: high).

## APIs (3)

- **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

## Agentic access (1)

- **Usda Agricultural Research Service Ars  Agentic Access** — 12 operations · 3 acting

## Security (2)

- **Usda Agricultural Research Service Ars  Authentication** — apiKey · 2 schemes
- **Usda Agricultural Research Service Ars  Domain Security** — TLSv1.2 · HSTS · DNSSEC · DMARC

## Plans (1)

- **Usda Agricultural Research Service Ars  Plans Pricing**

## Tags

Federal-Government, Agriculture, Food Safety, Nutrition, Open Data, Research

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Profiled by [API Evangelist](https://apievangelist.com) and published on [APIs.io](https://apis.io/providers/usda-agricultural-research-service-ars-/). Scores are computed from the provider's own public artifacts under a published rubric.