Food and Agriculture Councils

The Food and Agriculture Councils (FACs) were instituted in 1982 by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to function as interagency coordinating groups on three levels: national, state, and local. The state FACs are composed of senior level officials of individual USDA agencies within each state, and in the mid-90s they played a major role in managing the reorganization of USDA's field office structure. Local FACs have consisted of USDA representatives at county or area-wide levels; and a national FAC at USDA's Washington headquarters has served as a liaison with the state and local FACs.