The USDA was founded in 1862. Since then, many different services, centers, and agencies have been combined/merged and re-named before The Economic Research Service (ERS) was founded in 1981 (after the Economics, Statistics, and Cooperatives Service was renamed). This agency was a combination of the Economic Development Service and the Economic Management Support Center. However, the current initiatives of the ERS were created as a result of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics (BAE) which was founded in 1922 and was the first time data collection, research, and economic analysis were merged into a single agency.
