Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938

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 of 1938 (Pub.L. 75–430, 52 Stat. 31, enacted February 16, 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 (Agricultural Adjustment Act 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.

Provisions

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. Also, title V of the Act established the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation.

Permanent law

The 1938 Act is considered part of permanent law for commodity programs and farm income support (along with the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act and the Agricultural Act of 1949).

Superseded

Provisions of this law are often superseded by more current legislation (such as the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008). However, if the current legislation expires and new legislation is not enacted, the law reverts to the permanent provisions of the 1938 Act.

Sources

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