The Executive and Farm Policy

Joseph S. Davis
Additional contact information
Joseph S. Davis: Stanford University

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1960, vol. 331, issue 1, 92-97

Abstract: The national interest requires a reversal of the costly drift of farm policy in the area involving price supports, production controls, and surplus stocks and disposals. There is a dangerous trend toward continuing rise in surplus stocks, of wheat and corn especially, in spite of heavy exports under sub sidy and special programs. Disagreements between the Execu tive and the Congress have prevented or seriously delayed desirable legislative changes, and fear of the farm vote has hampered more far-reaching proposals. In arriving at deci sions on farm policy the Executive operates under handicaps arising from tradition, politics, and intrenched ideas, practices, and vested interests. Needful changes therefore require wide support based on clearer and broader public understanding. There is urgent need for fresh penetrating reappraisals—from the viewpoint of the nation as a whole—of the real farm situa tion in perspective, of the farm programs and their impacts, and of goals appropriate to changed agricultural conditions. Materials for such reappraisals are abundant, but the task calls for vigorous new efforts within and outside the government. A specially constituted interagency committee might perform this service, but this could advantageously be paralleled by a nongovernmental undertaking reinforced by individual efforts.

Date: 1960
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000271626033100117 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:anname:v:331:y:1960:i:1:p:92-97

DOI: 10.1177/000271626033100117

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().