American Agriculture's Foster Child

摘要

There is an irony in U.S. agriculture today that continues to trouble me. The '95 Farm Bill - implemented in 1996 and often referred to as the "freedom-to-farm program" -gave crop producers new freedom and flexibility to plant what they want, where they want. Please understand, I have no problem with this supply-demand driven program. It's the American way. The '95 Farm Bill phased out target prices on feedgrains. That effectively took the lid off of feed commodity futures as well as acreage commitments to many crops.