Under the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, parity prices are used to determine support levels for only two commodities: sugar and milk. However, interest in parity prices as goals for support prices of other farm products persists in farm policy discussion because of such use in 40 years of agricultural programs, and because the term parity carries connotations of equity for agriculture in relation to other economic sectors.
This NebGuide defines what is a parity price, how it is computed, and the parity ratio
