The 1996 Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act (FAIR) contained important breaks with a tradition of crop-by-crop subsidies dating back to the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933. Farmers with recorded base acres were given the opportunity (which nearly all accepted) to sign a...

Changing the Rules for Agricultural Trade

The paper is divided into three sections: a discussion of the major provisions of the FAIR act of 1996 [Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996]; a review of the political forces leading up to it; and a discussion of reforms that could extend the incipient agenda that it represents.

Comprehensive federal agricultural legislation occurs in the United States (US) on a five-year schedule. While year-to-year changes in agricultural policy do occur, the period 1991-93 has been less eventful than many previous ones. What changes have occurred to affect the course of the...