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1933 Agriculture Adjustment Act
During the Great Depression, farmers were suffering income loss at a high level. One of FDR's responses was the AAA. This bill was enacted to raise the prices of agricultural goods by attempting to reduce the surplus of goods each year. This goal was achieved by paying farmers subsidies for the surplus crops and buying the surplus livestock. -
1938 Agriculture Adjustment Act
In 1938, the AAA of 1933 was found to be unconstitutional due to the fact it taxed agriculture processors unfairly to create revenue for its programs. This AAA was funded by the federal government instead. In addition to this, this AAA required the bill to be updated every 5 years. The Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936 was also built into this act, which allowed the government to allot subsides for preserving soil and preventing soil erosion. -
1996 Farm Bill
The 1996 Farm bill also known as the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 was the first major change to the farm bill since it started. This act was passed to have the income of farmers to be determined by the free market system. In other words, they no longer received government subsidies directly. In order for farms to receive payments based on low market prices or crop damage, they now had to enroll in a crop insurance program. -
2014 Farm Bill
The 2014 covered a wide area of topics. It cut funding for SNAP by $8 billion but increased spending for food banks by $200 million. It placed a cap on subsidy amounts and ended direct payment subsidies, which were paid even when the farmers were not growing crops, completely saving $5 billion annually. Spending on crop insurance was increased costing an estimated $5.7 billion during the period of 2014-2023
