Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T07:35:21.006Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Last Farm Bill?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2017

Barry J. Barnett
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

“Farm bill” is a colloquial term for omnibus legislation that authorizes various government programs related to agriculture, food, and rural areas. Some of these programs have their roots in New Deal legislation. Others were initially authorized after the New Deal and subsequently included in farm bills. Some debate exists about exactly which omnibus legislation was the precursor of modern-day farm bills. However, since at least 1973, farm bills have included titles related to farm programs, trade, rural development, farm credit, conservation, agricultural research, food and nutrition programs, and marketing. Beginning in 2008, crop insurance-authorizing language was also included in the farm bill.

Farm bills generally have a life of approximately five years. In the case of farm support programs (typically authorized in Title 1), the farm billtemporarily amends permanent legislation. When the farm bill expires, theseprograms revert to permanent legislation (from the 1930s and 1940s) unless a new farm bill is adopted that again temporarily amends permanent legislation. The permanent legislation would put in place price supports, at extremely high levels, for many agricultural commodities, distorting markets and greatly increasing federal costs. The specter of reverting to permanent legislation has, through the years, been used by Congress to ensure that future Congresses will replace expiring farm bills with new legislation.

Type
Presidential Address
Information
Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , August 2014 , pp. 311 - 319
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Agricultural Economics Association 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barnett, B.J. “The U.S. Farm Financial Crisis of the 1980s.” Agricultural History 74(2000a): 366-80.Google Scholar
Barnett, B.J. “The U.S. Federal Crop Insurance Program.” Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics 48(2000b): 539-51.Google Scholar
Bonnen, J.T., Browne, W.P., and Schweikhardt, D.B.. “Further Observations on the Changing Nature of National Agricultural Policy Decision Processes.” Agricultural History 70(1996): 130-52.Google Scholar
Bonnen, J.T., Hedley, D.D., and Schweikhardt, D.B.. “Agriculture and the Changing Nation-state: Implications for Policy and Political Economy.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 79(1997): 1419-28.Google Scholar
Bonnen, J.T., and Schweikhardt, D.B.. “TheFuture of U.S. Agricultural Policy: Reflections on the Disappearance of the‘Farm Problem.’.” Review of Agricultural Economics 20(1998):2—36.Google Scholar
Brown, L. By Bread Alone. New York, NY: Praeger Publishers, 1974.Google Scholar
Cashman, S.D. America in the Twenties and Thirties: The Olympian Age of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. New York, NY: New York University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Coble, K.H., and Barnett, B.J.. “Why Do We Subsidize Crop Insurance?” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 95(2013): 498–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cochrane, W. Farm Prices: Myth and Reality. St. Paul, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1958.Google Scholar
Cochrane, W.. The Development of American Agriculture: A Historical Analysis. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Dimitri, C., Effland, A., and Conklin, N.. “The 20th Century Transformation of U.S. Agriculture and Farm Policy.” U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Economic Information Bulletin Number 3, June 2005.Google Scholar
Edwards, C. “Asset Fixity and Farm Organization.” Farm Economics 37(1959): 747-59.Google Scholar
Glass, A. “FDR signs Soil Conservation Act, April 27, 1935.” Politico. 2010. Internet site: www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/36362.html (Accessed December 13, 2013).Google Scholar
Hennessy, D.A., Babcock, B.A., and Hayes, D.J.. “Budgetary and Producer Welfare Effects of Revenue Insurance.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 79(1997): 1024-34.Google Scholar
Johnson, G.L. “Supply Functions—Some Facts and Notions.” Agricultural Adjustment Problems in a Growing Economy. Heady, E.O., Diesslin, H.G., Jensen, H.R., Johnson, G.L. (eds). Iowa City, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1958.Google Scholar
Johnson, G.L., and Quance, C.L.. The Overproduction Trap in U.S. Agriculture: a Study of Resource Allocation from World War I to the late 1960s. Baltimore, MD: Resources for theFuture by the Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972.Google Scholar
Skees, J.R., Black, J.R., and Barnett, B.J.. “Designing and Rating an Area Yield Crop Insurance Contract.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 79(1997): 430-38.Google Scholar
Strange, M. Family Farming: A New Economic Vision. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Ubilava, D., B.J., Barnett K.H., Coble, and Harri, A.. “The SURE Program and Its Interactions with Other Federal Farm Programs.” Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 36(2011): 630-48.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. “Farm Income and Wealth Statistics.” Internet site: www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/farm-income-and-wealth-statistics/value-added-years-by-state.aspx (Accessed December 18, 2013).Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Agriculture “Farm Household Income and Char acteristics.” Internet site: www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/farm-household-income-and-characteristics.aspx (Accessed February 27, 2014).Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service. “Quick Stats.” U.S. Department of Agriculture. Internet site: http://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/ (Accessed February 27, 2014).Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau. “American Fact Finder.” Internet site: http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk (Accessed February 27, 2014).Google Scholar