How can I import data from ASCII (ISO/IEC 8859-1) to my Rails/PGSQL database?

Question

I am trying to use data from the USDA found here: http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=23634

ASCII (8.6Mb) - This file contains the SR26 da

Answer 1

Using the tips from @craig-ringer I've created a script to migrate the original USDA Nutrition Database files to postgreSQL.

Is it very rough at the moment, but should help to get started.

Check it out here: https://github.com/rlucha/usda-nutrition-database-migration