U.S. Farm Policy and Small Farms

Mary Clare Ahearn and Anne Effland

No 52868, 111th Seminar, June 26-27, 2009, Canterbury, UK from European Association of Agricultural Economists

Abstract: We begin with a brief comparison of the size distribution of US and EU-15 farms to provide the European audience a greater context to the US issues. The EU data are from the Farm Structures Survey and the US data are from USDA’s Agriculture Resource Management Survey (ARMS). We next address the reasons for the unexpected increase in the number of small farms in the US and the possible role of government policies. We draw on ARMS to provide the distribution of commodity and conservation payments by farm size. Although limits on payments to large farms have long been addressed by the periodic US Farm Acts, payments continue to be concentrated on large farms largely because of their historical ties to farm production. The most recent 2008 Farm Act included more provisions to target program participants based on the personal characteristics of the operators and to limit payments to individuals likely to be operating large farms.

Keywords: Agricultural; and; Food; Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16
Date: 2009-08-20
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:eaa111:52868

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.52868

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