Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938
Encyclopedia
The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 (P.L. 75-430) was legislation in the United States that was enacted as an alternative and replacement for the farm subsidy policies, in previous New Deal
farm legislation (Agricultural Adjustment Act
of 1933), that had been found unconstitutional. The act revived the provisions in the previous Agriculture Adjustment Act, with the exception that the financing of the law's programs would be provided by the Federal Government and not a processor's tax, and was also enforced as a response to the success of the "Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act," which passed in 1935.
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
farm legislation (Agricultural Adjustment Act
Agricultural Adjustment Act
The Agricultural Adjustment Act was a United States federal law of the New Deal era which restricted agricultural production by paying farmers subsidies not to plant part of their land and to kill off excess livestock...
of 1933), that had been found unconstitutional. The act revived the provisions in the previous Agriculture Adjustment Act, with the exception that the financing of the law's programs would be provided by the Federal Government and not a processor's tax, and was also enforced as a response to the success of the "Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act," which passed in 1935.
Provisions
The act was the first to make price support mandatory for corn, cotton, and wheat to help maintain a sufficient supply in low production periods along with marketing quotas to keep supply in line with market demand. It established permissive supports for butter, dates, figs, hops, turpentine, rosin, pecans, prunes, raisins, barley, rye, grain sorghum, wool, winter cover-crop seeds, mohair, peanuts, and tobacco for the 1938-40 period. Also, Title V of the Act established the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. The 1938 Act is considered part of permanent law for commodity programs and farm income support (along with the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) Charter Act and the Agricultural Act of 1949). Provisions of this law are often superseded by more current legislation (such as the 2002 farm bill (P.L. 101-171)). However, if the current legislation expires and new legislation is not enacted, the law reverts back to the permanent provisions of the 1938 Act.Sources
- Dictionary of American History edited by Jamie Trustislow Adams, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940