General Info

The United States Department of Agriculture s Agricultural Marketing Service includes six commodity programs that include cotton, dairy, fruit and vegetable, livestock and seed, poultry and tobacco. The programs employ specialists who provide standardization, grading and market news services for those commodities. They enforce such federal laws as the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act and the Federal Seed Act. AMS commodity programs also oversee marketing agreements and orders, administer research and promotion programs and purchase commodities for federal food programs. Another AMS organization is the Science and Technology Program, which has several functions. It provides centralized scientific support to AMS programs, including laboratory analyses, laboratory quality assurance, coordination of scientific research conducted by other agencies for AMS, and statistical and mathematical consulting services. The Transportation and Marketing Program brings together a unique combination of traffic managers, engineers, rural policy analysts, international trade specialists and agricultural marketing specialists to help solve problems of U.S. and world agricultural transportation. Agricultural Marketing Service maintains an office in Phoenix.