USDA Ends Report Access for Media

In a surprise move that caught media outlets flatfooted, USDA announced Tuesday that the agency would end its more than a century-old practice of "lockup" events ahead of the release of USDA reports, such as the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) and crop and livestock production reports. Agency officials told reporters the decision was mainly due to an inherent "latency advantage" that some news outlets were providing to trading customers, which allowed those traders to make high volumes of trades within the first one to two seconds following the report's release.That creates an unfair advantage to those traders versus the public at large, said Robert Johansson, USDA chief economist.Providing media access at the same time as the general public "levels the playing field and makes the issuance of the reports fair to everyone involved," Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a news release sent after the call with reporters and media representatives. Perdue was not part of the media call.