WASHINGTON, D.C. — In 1915, a telegram was sent detailing the price of strawberries in Louisiana. That single telegraph message was the beginning of the USDA Market News.

The 100th anniversary of the first report was celebrated at the 91st annual USDA Agriculture Outlook Forum last week. Within a decade of that first Market News telegram, it has become a national network of data reports covering hundreds of commodities, said Terry Long, Fruit and Vegetables Market News director.

In the 1940s, the USDA set up the first electronic data processing center. In the 1950s, more products and truck shipping data were added to reports. As global trading expanded, air shipping and border trade was added.

In the 1990s, with international agricultural trade expanding, the USDA used the Marketing News to help other countries track their own markets. Changes to the report continue to be made. It now includes information on more than 250 organic products. In 2014, the farm bill added locally and regionally sourced food data to the report.

“The Market News provides the foundation for price discovery and risk management,” said Dave Lehman, managing director of CME Group in Chicago, which oversees the Chicago Board of Trade.

He said CME uses the data to meet regulatory requirements and conduct market surveillance.

The Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act, or LMR, addresses market structure and competitiveness while mandatory reporting by manufacturers provides transparency and input for class and component pricing in the dairy sector, Lehman said.

“The LMR is intended to provide accurate and transparent market information,” he added – it required packers to report prices and volumes for cattle, sheep and lamb and hogs.

Lloyd Day, deputy director of Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, said the impact of the Market News is felt around the world and used as a model in other countries. Meetings are held in different regions of the world to share ideas and advances, organize workshops and partner with the USDA to keep reports as accurate as possible. “We promoted the importance of accurate and timely market information … (while) enhancing the visibility and value of Market Information Systems in the member countries,” he said.

In the future, the program will develop and establish a process to ensure long-term results, politically and financially. It will promote greater support and collaboration among member countries and continue to strengthen the capacity and the functioning of the Market Information Systems, Day said.

As agriculture changes around the world with technology advances and new trade agreements, the USDA Market News will continue to evolve, adding new value to American agriculture, said Bob Young, chief economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation.