Excerpts from the Foreword: ERS provides economic information to the public, Government agencies, and the Congress. Our task is to supply these groups with background for understanding the changes taking place on farms, in related agricultural industries, and in rural communities. About 300 research reports a year present our findings to the public. Over 80 of these are situation and outlook reports. In them, we report and analyze the current economic situation for food and other agricultural products, financing, marketing, demand and prices, farm income and costs. Economic research had its beginning long before ERS was formed. It started in the Department of Agriculture in 1905 with studies of farm management. Work expanded into research on marketing, prices, farm income, and farm population. This growth resulted in the organization of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics in 1922. Various organizational changes occurred until ERS was organized in 1961.
