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Historical Overview of U.S. Agricultural Policy . U.S. declared independence from Great Britain largely because of repressive ag policies: Homestead Act (1862) Chapter 7 pages 93-96 Knutson, Penn and Flinchbaugh. Historical Overview of U.S. Agricultural Policy (Cont.) . Morrill Act (1862)
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Historical Overview of U.S. Agricultural Policy • U.S. declared independence from Great Britain largely because of repressive ag policies: • Homestead Act (1862) Chapter 7 pages 93-96 Knutson, Penn and Flinchbaugh
Historical Overview of U.S. Agricultural Policy (Cont.) • Morrill Act (1862) • Hatch Act (1887) • Smith-Lever Act (1914)
Early Policies • Agriculture was called on to increase production for World War I • Most of the current policies we have today have their roots in the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933
Early Policies (Continued) • Farm Credit Administration (June 1933) • Soil Conservation Service (now NRCS) established in 1935 • In 1933, federal government began nutrition assistance
Agricultural Adjustment Act • Signed into law by President Roosevelt • Gave the Secretary of Ag authority to: • Financed by a processing tax • Secretary Wallace, “The present program for readjusting productive acreage to market requirements is admittedly but a temporary method of dealing with an emergency.”
Other Significant Policies • Agriculture Act of 1949 • Agricultural Act of 1956 established the Soil Bank
The “Golden Years” • Early 1970s • Bad weather • Russians • Negative real interest rate • Prices high “parity” • 73% increase in • Land values • Something Bad Had to Happen
Farm Problem • For our purposes, we will start with the 1980s • Basically one of unstable farm prices and, therefore, unstable farm income