Patent ID: 7904373

Claim:
A method of facilitating the forward contracting of agricultural commodities using the Internet comprising the steps of: providing a Web server connected to the Internet; providing a centralized database system for the storage and retrieval of data; storing data in the database system relating to types and amounts of agricultural commodities desired by one or more agricultural commodity buyers and establishing a defined allocation of an amount of a type of agricultural commodity according to at least one allocation parameter, wherein at least one of the at least one allocation parameter is set to reduce risk associated with forward future contracting of agricultural commodities; in response to a command input into the system, displaying a listing of desired commodities including information related to the types, amounts or deliveries of the commodities; receiving input data from a supplier of an agricultural commodity relating to a specific type and amount of a commodity which the supplier is willing to supply to a buyer at harvest or at other times; and generating a forward contract for the sale of the specific type and amount of the commodity by the supplier to the buyer.