U.S. Farm Policy and Small Farms

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.small farms, EU-US farm structure comparison, farm policy, payment distribution, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q12,

Fostering on the Farm: Child Placement in the Rural Midwest

Review of: Fostering on the Farm: Child Placement in the Rural Midwest , by Megan Birk

The 20th Century Transformation of U.S. Agriculture and Farm Policy

The structure of farms, farm households, and the rural communities in which they exist has evolved markedly over the last century. Historical data on a range of farm structure variables—including the value of agricultural production, commodity specialization, farming-dependent counties, and off-farm work—offer a perspective on the long-term forces that have helped shape the structure of agriculture and rural life over the past century. These forces include productivity growth, the increasing importance of national and global markets, and the rising influence of consumers on agricultural production. Within this long-term context of structural change, a review of some key developments in farm policy considers the extent to which farm policy design has or has not kept pace with the continuing transformation of American agriculture.farm policy, farm structure, policy adjustment, structural adjustment, mechanization, productivity growth, global markets, consumer stakeholders, price and income support, farm policy history, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management,

Investing in People: Assessing the Economic Benefits of 1890 Institutions

The report examines the historical USDA funding levels of 1890 institutions; discusses the outcomes of these investments and potential measurable indicators of these outcomes; and outlines a conceptual model for estimating returns to investment in education tailored to particularities of the 1890's.1890s, land grant universities, human capital, extension service, agricultural research, research funding, Labor and Human Capital, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

The emergence of federal assistance programs for migrant and seasonal farmworkers in post-World War II America

This study traces the political developments out of which federal assistance programs for migrant and seasonal farmworkers emerged in post-World War II America. These programs arose slowly over a period of three decades, built on the experience of the depression and war years and sustained through the 1950s by persistent interest groups and sympathetic individuals within government. During those decades, the political strength of both opposing and supporting forces rose and fell with the rise and fall of public sympathy for the poverty of farmworkers. Yet throughout the period, particularly in the 1950s when assistance to farmworkers foundered in the face of a powerful farm lobby and public indifference, determined individuals within government played a critical role by fostering public interest and supporting the research and planning that enabled reforms to take place quickly once public support reappeared;This study suggests that the years from 1945 to 1958 served as an incubation period during which a critique of American society's neglect of less-advantaged groups quietly but deliberately developed. This critique became the agenda available for new federal social policies when the political climate changed in 1960. Thus, the federal assistance programs for migrant and seasonal farmworkers that finally emerged in the 1960s depended for their substance on the recommendations for improving farmworker conditions developed in the late 1940s and 1950s;This study also examines the implementation of federal assistance programs for migrant and seasonal farmworkers in Iowa. Although it does not evaluate the effectiveness of Iowa's two quite different programs for migrant farmworkers, the study does illustrate that agencies which offered programs funded from federal sources managed to maintain substantial local control through creative use of overlapping federal authorities.</p

Classifying and Measuring Agricultural Support: Identifying Differences Between the WTO and OECD Systems

Most countries provide some level of support to their agricultural sectors. Because support can affect producers and consumers in other countries, a number of systems have been developed to measure agricultural support levels and classify types of support in ways that facilitate comparing them across countries. The WTO and OECD employ similar classification systems, generally addressing the same question and measuring the same programs. However, results can be surprisingly and fundamentally different, rendering comparisons inappropriate, meaningless, or even wrong. Careful attention to the sources of difference can prevent potential misunderstandings and misleading uses