Farm price and income policy: lessons from history

Luther Tweeten and Carl Zulauf
Additional contact information
Luther Tweeten: Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, Room 235 Ag Admin, Ohio State University, 2120 Fyffe Road, Columbus, OH 43210, Postal: Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, Room 235 Ag Admin, Ohio State University, 2120 Fyffe Road, Columbus, OH 43210
Carl Zulauf: Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, Room 235 Ag Admin, Ohio State University, 2120 Fyffe Road, Columbus, OH 43210, Postal: Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, Room 235 Ag Admin, Ohio State University, 2120 Fyffe Road, Columbus, OH 43210

Agribusiness, 2008, vol. 24, issue 2, 145-160

Abstract: U.S. farm commodity support programs encompass nearly three quarters of a century and three quarters of a trillion taxpayer dollars. One dividend from that effort is to learn lessons. Farm commodity programs have steadfastly maintained a primary objective of supporting the incomes of a relatively few producers of a relatively few commodities. Nonetheless, farm programs have not been static but have adapted to changing economic and political parameters. Changes in agricultural policy tend to coincide with extremes in the food supply-demand balance. Farm program income transfers leak from their intended beneficiaries to other asset owners. Economic rents, once institutionalized, retain political momentum that sustains the rents. The rise of pressure from the World Trade Organization to provide only non-market-distorting payments may challenge the continued viability of these lessons; however, the lessons also caution against discounting the extant political influence of the farm lobby. [EconLit N500, Q180]. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/agr.20153 Link to full text; subscription required (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:wly:agribz:v:24:y:2008:i:2:p:145-160

DOI: 10.1002/agr.20153

Access Statistics for this article

Agribusiness is currently edited by Ronald W. Cotterill

More articles in Agribusiness from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().