Overview
The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Farm Act) builds on previous policy and provides
a new counter-cyclical revenue program and a permanent
disaster fund for farmers. Government payments provide
an important source of income to the farm sector, but
U.S. farm policy has undergone significant changes over
the last 15 to 20 years. Beginning with the 1985 Farm
Act and continuing with farm legislation in 1990 and 1996,
a series of fundamental changes in commodity and other
agricultural policies moved the sector toward market-oriented
decisions. Against a background of low commodity prices
that spurred enactment of five supplemental emergency
assistance packages, the new farm bill adds income stabilization
provisions, among other new programs, to already existing
policies.
ERS analysts evaluate the economic effects on producers,
consumers, taxpayers, and rural communities of current
farm legislation and alternative policy instruments and
programs. This briefing room provides a background on
farm policy and an explanation of the various programs.
Also included is access to ERS analyses of the impacts
of farm policy, commodity-specific farm programs, and
commodity trade policy, highlighting the impacts of the
2008 Farm Act.
Features
2008 Farm Bill Side-By-Side (August 2008) presents a title-by-title summary of key provisions of the 2008 Act in a side-by-side comparison with previous legislation. The side-by-side includes links to related ERS publications and to analyses of previous farm acts. New features include a user's guide, an A-Z list of major provisions, and a search function.
Recommended Readings
Effects of Reducing the
Income Cap on Eligibility for Farm Program Payments
(September 2007) evaluates the effects of changing the
current $2.5-million income cap on eligibility for farm
program payments to $200,000. This change would increase
the number of farm households subject to the cap, but
the share of recipients affected would still be small.
Based on IRS tax data for 2004, about 1.2 percent of all
farm sole proprietors and about 2 percent of crop share
landlords would potentially be subject to the proposed
lower cap.
Relaxing
Fruit and Vegetable Planting Restrictions (May 2007)
finds that market effects would likely be limited and
confined to specific regions and commodities. Eliminating
these planting restrictions for commodity program participants
might enable some producers to switch from program crops
to fruit and vegetables in such areas as California, the
upper Midwest and the coastal plain in the Southeastern
States. For the full report, see Eliminating
Fruit and Vegetable Planting Restrictions: How Would Markets
be Affected? (November 2006).
See all recommended readings...
Recommended Data Products
Farm Program Acres allows
downloading and mapping of county-level farm program and
planted acreage data for nine major program crops (corn,
grain sorghum, barley, oats, wheat, rice, cotton, peanuts,
and oilseeds).
Farm Programs, Price Supports,
Participation, and Payment Rates
contains program parameters for individual commodities.
CCC
Net Outlays by Commodity and Function
provides total Commodity Credit Corporation expenditures
by commodity.
U.S. and State farm income data includes calendar-year
data on direct government payments.
Price
Support Loan and LDP Activity Reports includes data
on year-to-date and the previous 4 years of marketing
loan and loan deficiency payment expenditures.
National
and County Commodity Loan Rates provides county and
national marketing loan rates.
Season-Average Price Forecasts
provides three Excel spreadsheet models that use futures
prices to forecast the U.S. season-average price and counter-cyclical
payment rate for corn, soybeans, and wheat. Users can
view the model forecasts or create their own forecast
by inserting different values for futures prices, basis
values, or marketing weights.
WTO Agricultural Trade Policy Commitments
Database is a queriable database on implementation
of World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments organized
for comparison across countries.
U.S. WTO Domestic Support Reduction
Commitments and Notifications summarizes U.S. domestic
support notifications to the WTO.
Recent Research Developments
ERS is evaluating the impacts of farm commodity programs
on farm income and production decisions. The research
focuses on incentives created by the Average Crop Revenue
Election Program and the interactions of these payments
with other elements of agricultural programs, such as
direct payments, marketing loan benefits, and crop insurance.
This project extends research on assessment of the Farm
Act and on decoupled payments. Contact:
Edwin Young.
Glossary
Agricultural policy terms and
definitions...
Questions and Answers
Frequent questions and answers
about current and future programs...
Related Links
U.S. House of
Representatives Committee on Agriculture. Farm legislation
and legislative proposals.
U.S. Senate
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
Farm legislation and legislative proposals.
University of Arkansas, National
Agricultural Law Center. The Center's Farm
Bills page provides full text and resources for all
U.S. farm bills from 1933 to the present.
Maps and Images
Geographical Distribution of Farm
Program Characteristics provides county-level maps
on the distribution of base acres, Conservation Reserve
Program acres, and commodity program payments.
|
