Of the three USDA programs reviewed that have a nutrition education component, only one appears to lend itself immediately to cost-effective analysis—the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program. The other two programs (Nutrition Education and Training, and the Special Supplemental Food Programs for Women, Infants, and Children) are each characterized by a myriad of local education efforts which, individually, do not seem to subscribe to cost-effectiveness analyses but, collectively, may permit comparing alternative nutrition education strategies if result indicators and cost data can be assembled from selected sites.