The United States Department of Agriculture began publishing reports on supplies, demand, and prices of “over 400 fresh fruit, vegetable, nut, ornamental, and other specialty crops” in 1915 according to a strange corner of the USDA National Agricultural Library website. These “Fruit and Vegetable Market News reports” were and are published under something called the Agricultural Marketing Service and are intended to help growers, buyers, and producers navigate an often fluctuating produce market.
While market reports are still being digitally generated today by this secretive government plant propaganda outfit, the real cool stuff was made between the 1950s and the dawn of the internet. We bribed a group of school children who were on a field trip to the National Agricultural Library archives to smuggle out some of these vintage reports. Here are some of the absolute best USDA Fruit and Vegetable Market News reports from between 1954 and 1994.
10. New York City Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market Prices 1969
Starting off our countdown at number ten is the 1969 wholesale market price report for the New York City area. No one does USDA Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market Price reports in 1969 like New York does. And hey, if you can buy wholesale fruit and vegetables in New York you can buy them anywhere! Fuhgeddaboudit! Hey, I’m Federal Market News Servicing here!
9. Marketing Caribbean Basin F & V Summary 1989-90 Season
Was the Caribbean Basin part of the USDA’s jurisdiction in 1989? What even is the Caribbean Basin and what fruits and vegetables are being grown there? The answer doesn’t change how cool this report cover design is. We are on island time now.
8. St. Louis Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market Prices 1976
If you were alive in 1976 you definitely remember the St. Louis Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market Prices report. Notable here is the addition of “Fruit and Vegetable Division” and “Market News Branch” as subtitles under “United States Department of Agriculture” and “Agricultural Marketing Service” (USDA AMS FVD MNB). At the Department of Information we call this bureaucratic layer cake a delicious recipe for success.
7. Los Angeles Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market Prices 1972, 1978, & 1979
We are naming the trifecta of Los Angeles Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market Prices reports from 1972, 1978, and 1979 as the seventh best USDA market report(s) on our list. Nothing says L.A. like sunshine yellow, sky blue, and copy paper white! We did not alter these colors from the secret source from which they were stolen. Surfs up, brah!
6. Marketing Washington Pears 1987 Crop
We are giving Marketing Washington Pears 1987 Crop the six spot to celebrate some incredible stippling work on at least two pear illustrations. They duplicated the pears somehow before Adobe Photoshop existed. And for that we tip our hats.
5. Seattle Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market Prices 1971
Everyone knows the 1971 release of Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market Prices by Seattle & the Washington State Department of Agriculture was the inspiration for all of the other market reports, even though it never achieved commercial success within its short, troubled, but talented lifetime.
4. Marketing California Tomatoes 1993 and 1994
Fresh off the 1992 L.A. riots, Marketing California Tomatoes 1993 and 1994 spoke to a generation ready for real systemic change. The shackles of the Reagan era were finally broken off and a new dawn, full of promise and tomatoes, was beginning to emerge. These weren’t your parents nightshades.
3. San Francisco Wholesale Market Prices, Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, 1967
Coming in at number three is the 1967 trip taken by the San Francisco Wholesale Market Prices Fresh Fruits and Vegetables report. Noticeably different from literally every other major American city’s market report covers, this nonconforming design feels unique to the moment San Franciscan vegetable eaters must have been experiencing in the late ’60s.
2. Marketing West Mexico Vegetables 1969-70 Season
As our unpaid intern brushed off the dust of this market report out of 1969 Nogales, Arizona they wondered aloud “Why was the USDA practicing economic jurisdiction over a sovereign foreign nation’s territory in the 1960s?” and “aside from the Avocado, what other fruits and vegetables were stolen from Mexico over the years?”. Cool cover design!
1. Marketing Texas Melons 1986 Season
And finally, we are giving the number one spot to this absolutely insane report from whatever genius cowboy was working the Texas Department of Agriculture in 1986. Yeehaw, melons!
Please visit the USDA Agricultural Library in Maryland and let us know if they have a gift shop. If you can’t make it in person, enjoy browsing their digital archives online to discover more hidden Fruit and Vegetable Market News Report gems from the past.
