Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938
Long title | An Act to provide for the conservation of national soil resources and to provide an adequate and balanced flow of agricultural commodities in interstate and domestic commerce and for other purposes. |
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Enacted by | the 75th United States Congress |
Effective | February 16, 1938 |
Citations | |
Public law | 75-430 |
Statutes at Large | 52 Stat. 31 |
Codification | |
Titles amended | 7 U.S.C.: Agriculture |
U.S.C. sections created | Chapter 35 § 1281 |
Legislative history | |
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- 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.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 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.[1] 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,[2] and was also enforced as a response to the success of the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936.[3]
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.[4] Also, title V of the Act established the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation.
Legal challenge
The constitutionality of the act was challenged in the case of Wickard v. Filburn, which reached the United States Supreme Court in 1942. The law was upheld as constitutional under the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. Wickard is considered a landmark Supreme Court case because of the Court's broad interpretation of the Commerce Clause.[5]
Permanent law
The 1940 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).
Sources
- Dictionary of American History, ed. Jamie Trustislow Adams, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940
Footnotes
- ^ Peters, Gerhard; Woolley, John T. "Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Statement on Signing the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938.," February 16, 1938". The American Presidency Project. University of California - Santa Barbara. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
- ^ "Unit 7B". Archived from the original on December 14, 2010. Retrieved February 10, 2011.
- ^ Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 75–430, 52 Stat. 31, enacted February 16, 1938
- ^ Ferguson, James S. "The Journal of Southern History," Southern Historical Association Vol. 16, No. 4 (1950): 561-563.
- ^ James Chen, Filburn's Legacy, 52 Emory L.J. 1719 (2003).
Further reading
- Jess Gilbert, Planning Democracy: Agrarian Intellectuals and the Intended New Deal. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015.
External links
- Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 and Federal Crop Insurance Act as amended (PDF/details) in the GPO Statute Compilations collection
- v
- t
- e
- Federal Farm Loan Act (1916)
- Agricultural Adjustment Act (1933)
- Agricultural Adjustment Act Amendment of 1935
- Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936
- Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938
- Agricultural Act of 1948
- Agricultural Act of 1949
- Agricultural Act of 1954
- Agricultural Act of 1956
- Agricultural Act of 1961
- Food and Agriculture Act of 1965
- Agricultural Act of 1970
- Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 1973
- Food and Agriculture Act of 1977
- Agriculture and Food Act of 1981
- Food Security Act of 1985
- Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990
- Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996
- Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002
- Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008
- Agricultural Act of 2014
- Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018
agricultural
legislation
- Hatch Act of 1887
- Agricultural Experiment Stations Act of 1887
- Agriculture Appropriation Act of 1905
- Agricultural Appropriations Act of 1922
- Cotton Futures Act (1914)
- Cotton Futures Act (1916)
- Grain Standards Act (1916)
- Wheat Price Guarantee Act (1919)
- Future Trading Act (1921)
- Grain Futures Act (1922)
- Capper–Volstead Act (1922)
- Agricultural Marketing Act (1929)
- Farm Credit Act of 1933
- Frazier–Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act (1934)
- Bankhead–Jones Act of 1935
- Commodity Exchange Act (1936)
- Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act (1937)
- Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937
- Federal Seed Act of 1939
- Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954
- National Wool Act of 1954
- Federal Plant Pest Act of 1957
- Agricultural Fair Practices Act of 1967
- Farm Credit Act of 1971
- Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act of 1972
- Commodity Futures Trading Commission Act of 1974
- Agricultural Trade Act of 1978
- Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1980
- National Aquaculture Act of 1980
- Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act of 1983
- Extra-Long Staple Cotton Act of 1983
- Agricultural Credit Act of 1987
- Hunger Prevention Act of 1988
- Alien Species Prevention and Enforcement Act of 1992
- National Wool Act Amendments of 1993
- Federal Crop Insurance Reform and Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994
- Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998
- Agriculture Risk Protection Act of 2000