:''This is an article about the "Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938". For the act by the same name in 1933, see

Agricultural Adjustment Act The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was a United States federal law of the New Deal era designed to boost agricultural prices by reducing surpluses. The government bought livestock for slaughter and paid farmers subsidies not to plant on par ...

.'' The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 () was legislation in the United States that was enacted as an alternative and replacement for the farm subsidy policies, in previous New Deal farm legislation (

of 1933), that had been found unconstitutional. The act revived the provisions in the previous Agriculture Adjustment Act, with the exception that the financing of the law's programs would be provided by the Federal Government and not a processor's tax, and was also enforced as a response to the success of the

Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936 The Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act , enacted February 29, 1936) is a United States federal law that allowed the government to pay farmers to reduce production so as to conserve soil and prevent erosion. Legislative history The Act ...

Provisions and history

The act was the first to make price support mandatory for corn, cotton, and wheat to help maintain a sufficient supply in low production periods along with marketing quotas to keep supply in line with market demand. It established permissive supports for butter, dates, figs, hops, turpentine, rosin, pecans, prunes, raisins, barley, rye, grain sorghum, wool, winter cover-crop seeds, mohair, peanuts, and tobacco for the 1938-40 period. The agriculture industry changed during the 1930s due to improvements in technology and exposed the south to more modern farming methods, as well as diversifying land. Many acres normally devoted to cotton were now being used to raise cattle or used more efficiently which increased production per acre. Also, title V of the Act established the

Federal Crop Insurance Corporation The Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) is a wholly owned government corporation managed by the Risk Management Agency of the United States Department of Agriculture. FCIC manages the federal crop insurance program, which provides U.S. fa ...

Legal challenge

The constitutionality of the act was challenged in the case of ''

Wickard v. Filburn ''Wickard v. Filburn'', 317 U.S. 111 (1942), is a United States Supreme Court decision that dramatically increased the regulatory power of the federal government. It remains as one of the most important and far-reaching cases concerning the New ...

'', which reached the United States Supreme Court in 1942. The law was upheld as constitutional under the

Commerce Clause The Commerce Clause describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution ( Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and amon ...

of the United States Constitution. ''Wickard'' is considered a landmark Supreme Court case because of the Court's broad interpretation of the Commerce Clause.

Permanent law

The 1940 Act is considered part of permanent law for commodity programs and farm income support (along with the

Commodity Credit Corporation The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) is a wholly owned United States government corporation that was created in 1933 to "stabilize, support, and protect farm income and prices" (federally chartered by the CCC Charter Act of 1948 (P.L. 80-806) ...

Charter Act and the Agricultural Act of 1949).

Sources

*Dictionary of American History, ed. Jamie Trustislow Adams, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940

Provisions and history

Legal challenge

Permanent law

Sources

Footnotes

Further reading