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USDA-AMS
USDA
AMS

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is a division of the United States Department of Agriculture, and has programs in six commodity areas: cotton, dairy, fruit and vegetable, livestock and seed, poultry, and tobacco. These programs provide testing, standardization, grading and market news services for those commodities, and oversee marketing agreements and orders, administer research and promotion programs, and purchase commodities for federal food programs. The AMS enforces certain federal laws such as the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act and the Federal Seed Act.

As of December, 2005, the agency's Microbiological Data Program monitors cantaloupe, green onions, lettuce, tomatoes and alfalfa sprouts for three types of baterial contamination.^[1]

The internal Science and Technology Program, 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. In addition, the Science and Technology Division's Plant Variety Protection Office issues certificate of protection for new varieties of sexually reproduced plants. The program also conducts a program to collect and analyze data about pesticide residue levels in agricultural commodities. It also administers the Pesticide Recordkeeping program, which requires all certified private applicators of federally restricted-use pesticide to maintain record of all applications. The records will be put into a data base to help analyze agricultural pesticide use.

AMS' Transportation and Marketing Program supplies research and technical information regarding the nation's food transportation system to producers, producer groups, shippers, exporters, rural communities, carriers, government agencies and universities. The program also administers a program involving financial grants to States for marketing improvements. In addition, the division assists in the planning and design of marketing facilities, processes, and methods in cooperation with state and local governments, universities, farmer groups, and other segments of the U.S. food industry. This program is intended to enhance the overall effectiveness of the food marketing system, provide better quality products to the consumer at reasonable cost, improve market access for growers with small-to medium-sized farms, and promote regional economic development.

1. ^ http://www.ams.usda.gov/science/MPO/quick.htm

• Agricultural Marketing Service. Retrieved on 7 October, 2005.
• Agricultural Marketing Service Meeting Notices and Rule Changes from The Federal Register RSS Feed

v • d • e  Agencies under the United States Department of Agriculture

Agricultural Marketing Service • Agricultural Research Service  • Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service  • Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion • Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service • Economic Research Service • Farm Service Agency • Federal Crop Insurance Corporation • Food and Nutrition Service • Food Safety and Inspection Service • Foreign Agricultural Service • Forest Service • Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration • National Agricultural Library • National Agricultural Statistics Service • Natural Resources Conservation Service • Risk Management Agency • Rural Development