The honey program is a

price support In economics, a price support may be either a subsidy, a production quota, or a price control, each with the intended effect of keeping the market price of a good higher than the competitive equilibrium level. In the case of a price control, a pr ...

program provided by the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

producers. Federal subsidies to the honey industry began in 1950, when demand for honey decreased following the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The program was eliminated in 1993, and re-instated in 2002.

History

In the United States, non-recourse marketing loans had long been available to support honey prices until FY1994, when the funding was suspended by provisions in annual appropriations legislation. During World War II, the United States government encouraged the production of honey, which was used as an alternative sweetener to

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

, which was strictly rationed. After the sugar rations were lifted and demand for honey fell, honey producers turned to the federal government for support. Subsidies for honey producers were included in the

Agricultural Act of 1949 The Agricultural Act of 1949 () is a United States federal law (7 U.S.C. 1431) that is known as the "permanent legislation" of U.S. agricultural policy and is, in its amended form, still in effect. The Act was enacted on October 31, 1949. The p ...

. In the 1980s, the Reagan administration and the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

unsuccessfully moved to eliminate the program. A report by the

General Accountability Office The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is a legislative branch government agency that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the supreme audit institution of the federal govern ...

found that the subsidies to beekeepers were no longer necessary to ensure the pollination of American crops. President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

proposed ending the honey program as part of his plan to reduce the national deficit. By 1991, over half of honey program subsidies went to fewer than 10% of participating beekeepers. The

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

ended the honey program in the 1993 agricultural appropriations bill. The

1996 farm bill The Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-127), known informally as the Freedom to Farm Act, the FAIR Act, or the 1996 U.S. Farm Bill, was the omnibus 1996 farm bill that, among other provisions, revises and simplifies d ...

(P.L. 104-127) repealed the statutory authority for the honey program. A Honey Recourse Loan Program was made available for the 1998 crop only through broader emergency spending authority in the FY1999 agriculture appropriations act (P.L. 105-277). In 2002, president

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

signed an agricultural appropriations bill reinstating the honey program. The

2002 farm bill The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, also known as the 2002 Farm Bill, includes ten titles, addressing a great variety of issues related to agriculture, ecology, energy, trade, and nutrition. This act has been superseded by the 2007 ...

(P.L. 107-171, Sec. 1201) made honey eligible for

marketing assistance loans Marketing assistance loans are nonrecourse loans made available to producers of loan commodities (wheat, corn, grain sorghum, barley oats, upland and extra-long staple (ELS) cotton, rice, soybeans, other oilseeds, honey, wool, mohair, dry peas, lent ...

(and

loan deficiency payments In United States agriculture policy, loan deficiency payments (LDP) are a farm income support program first authorized by the Food Security Act of 1985 (P.L. 99-198) that makes direct payments, equivalent to marketing loan gains, to producers who ag ...

, LDPs) from 2002 through 2007.

References

Citations

{{Reflist United States Department of Agriculture