information used in calculating food supplies comes from a variety of government and private sources on farm production stocks some processed products including manufactured dairy the national agricultural statistics service nass usda data flour fats oils come current industrial reports census bureau compiles trade customs marketing sugar use finally ers uses associa tion when they are available appropriate usefulness disappearance estimates measure mov ing through channels for domestic consump neither direct actual con sumption nor quantity ingested like many time series useful as indica tors trends over other words this indicates whether americans average suming more or less various foods to level consumption country show year changes major permit calculation approximate nutrient tent supply establish long term statistical analyses
