Has the last Farm Bill significantly altered the mechanisms of American agriculture?
Yes it has, and in a most profound way — so much so that when American farmers woke up on the morning of April 5, 1996, they found themselves in a new era for agriculture. The Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act had been signed into law the day before. This one Congressional action — giving producers the freedom to farm for the market and not the government — has set the stage for the most profound change we have seen in global agriculture since the mechanization of farming. Let’s look at some of the elements of the FAIR Act that are responsible for this profound change. As you all know, the FAIR Act calls for Production Flexibility Contracts (PFC) payments to be made to farmers over the next six years. These payments are in lieu of USDA’s past practice of mailing deficiency checks to producers. This means that, beginning with the year 2003, farmers will be totally dependent on the market for the returns they receive for what they produce. However, the FAIR Act ha
