Frequently individuals and organization have need of information describing the contemporary U.S. food system for presentation at various company meetings or industry conferences. The purpose of this bulletin is to provide materials and data relevant to today I s food industry in a form that can be readily used by others to create presentations of their own. The bulletin provides over 40 overheads of graphs, charts and tables often used to describe and summarize the important trends and challenges facing the food industry. The first section presents brief statements to assist with the interpretation of the information presented in each accompanying overhead and to help guide the presenter through the information. The second section contains each chart in a convenient form with the intent that they can be copied onto overhead transparencies.