The expert committee will develop a framework for assessing the health, environmental, and social effects (positive and negative) associated with the ways in which food is grown, processed, distributed, marketed, retailed, and consumed within the U.S. food system. In developing the framework, the committee will undertake the following activities:

1. Examine available methods, methodologies, and data that are needed to undertake comparisons and measure effects. Examples of such needs that the committee will examine are:

- Defining comparable characteristics of different configurations of elements within the food system.

- Mapping the pathways through which different configurations of elements of the food system create or contribute to health, environmental, and social effects.

- Determining the contribution of those configurations to effects relative to those from other influences.

- Characterizing the scale of effects (e.g., individual, national, etc.).

- Quantifying the magnitude and direction of effects.

- Monetizing effects, when appropriate.

- Addressing uncertainty, complexity, and variability in conducting comparisons and measuring effects.

2. Describe several examples of different configurations of elements within the food system and describe how the framework will be applied, step by step, to compare them. Examples should be drawn from different parts of the food system (production, harvest, processing, distribution, marketing, retailing, and consumption). The emphasis will be on those effects that are generally not recognized (i.e., they may not be fully incorporated into the price of food). Different configurations for the committee to consider might include: regionally-based food systems and a global food system; free-range production of poultry and caged housing practices; reduced retail presence of processed food and current availability of processed food.

3. In constructing examples, describe the strengths and weaknesses of the framework in different contextual situations and suggest how and when adjustments to the framework may lead to more accurate comparisons. The goal of the examples is to illustrate the potential utility of the framework to analyze a variety of questions and compare, measure and, in some cases, monetize the effects of different scenarios on public health, the environment, and society. The focus of these exercises should be in explaining the elements of the framework, not in attempting the analyses.

4. The committee will also identify information needs and gaps in methods and methodologies that, if filled, could provide greater certainty in the attribution and quantification of effects related to food-system configurations and improve the predictive value of the framework for evaluating how changes in and across the food system might affect health, the environment, and society.