From Yahoo's Social Science directory I picked the link to Business and Economy: Companies. Then I clicked on Companies. This link offers various sub-links to other domains such as advertising, agriculture, auctions, books, child care, communication and media services, entertainment, environment, food, funeral homes, government, maps, and many more. I chose the agriculture link since I was raised in an agriculture society. It led me to the Information Services for Agriculture (ISA). The ISA's Home Page offers its own search engine: ISA Agriculture Information Search System where more then 4.5000 agriculturally relevant documents are archived. It also offers weather information, market information, and other agricultural sites.

I decided to review the ISA's services first. The ISA basically provides information services to the agriculture community. Their mission is to guarantee the long-term sustainability, productivity, and profitability of agriculture. In general, the ISA offers effective methods to communicate farm and pest management, crop production, safety, product use information for growers, retailers, distributors, etc. The ISA cooperates with extension services, universities, and government agencies. While reading the document about the ISA, its tone/style appeared as if they try to sell/advertise themselves. Its readability level was definitely designed for the agrarian individual, and for people who buy and sell agricultural produce.

Next, I clicked on Market Information. This link contains market news from several sites such as: USDA Market Wire Service - future grain prices; USDA Market Wire Service - future livestock prices; Closing Futures for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade from the Iowa State Cooperative Extension; markets arranged by state and city; USDA Fruit and Vegetable Prices - terminal market prices, and more. I reviewed some of those sites but I couldn't understand/decipher the figures e.g. weight measures, cost, etc.

I decided to use ISA's search engine and my query was, "cotton and Israel." Unfortunately the search applies only to cities and states in the United States.

Although I couldn't understand the document's figures I believe that such information is valuable for people in the agriculture community. Farmers can use this information in order to estimate their annual yields, maintain their plantation and live-stock growth, and use alternative/innovative ideas to maintain their farms. More importantly, weather information and market conditions are crucial to the financial security of the farm.

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