The Market News wing of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service is celebrating its centennial this year. Market News issues more than 250,000 reports a year on prices at hundreds of markets for cotton, fruits, vegetables and specialty crops, livestock, meats, poultry, eggs, grain and hay, milk and dairy, and tobacco. “USDA Market News reaches millions of Americans every day – from the small farmer in Arkansas to the trading floors in Chicago – to ensure that all stakeholders have the information they need when they need it,” said AMS administrator Anne Alonzo in a blog. The data “makes our nation’s commodity market one of the most transparent in the world.”
The first Market New report in 1915 was a telegraph message listing the price of strawberries in Hammond, La. One of the breakout session today at the Outlook Forum will be devoted to the 100th anniversary of the price-reporting service.