@article{Spitze:172041,
      recid = {172041},
      author = {Spitze, R. G. F.},
      title = {The Evolution and Implications of the U.S. Food Security  Act of 1985},
      journal = {Agricultural Economics: The Journal of the International  Association of Agricultural Economists},
      address = {1987-06},
      number = {968-2016-75374},
      pages = {16},
      year = {1987},
      abstract = {The Food Security Act of 1985 sets the United States  (U.S.) policy course for
the five years, 1986-1990, in the  areas of farm product prices and farmer  incomes,
agricultural production, food aid, and trade in  agricultural products. It is clearly
an evolution of past  policy, deeply rooted in the institutional processes of  participatory
policymaking. The Act will have important  implications for not only
domestic producers, consumers,  agribusinesses, and taxpayers, but also  product
agricultural exporters and importers around the  world. Just as it was substantially.
affected by the  current loss of export markets and the economic crisis in  the
U.S. agricultural sector, its implementation and  impacts will be affected in the
future by the unpredictable  weather, macroeconomic conditions around the world,
and  international trading policies. This article examines the  development of the
policy embodied in the Act and analyzes  its primary economic implications.
Although most provisions  of the U.S. agricultural price and income policy that
had  evolved over the past half century were continued,  important changes were
made. The resulting policy closely  mirrored the preferences revealed from research
concerning  farmers and leaders of national agricultural and food  interest groups.
Primary changes from the previous 1981 Act  were: lengthening the duration to
five years; substantial  lowering of the minimum price support levels; permitting
a  gradual decline in the minimum target prices; providing for  a whole dairy herd
buyout program; establishing export  enhancement initiatives through credit,
promotion, and  export payment-in-kind (PIK); and initiating major efforts  to
increase farmland conservation and withdrawal of fragile  lands from production. Likely implications of the new Act  include: (1) lower product prices for  agricultural
producers around the world, and also farmer  incomes if there is no income
protection from national  policies; (2) a similar but a less proportionate impact
on  consumers; (3) a substantial burden on the U.S. Treasury,  and possibly those
of the other nations as well, depending  upon the type of policies followed; and
( 4) likely  intensification in the immediate future of the economic  conflicts and
negotiations between major agricultural  trading nations of the world.
Research played a vital role  in the development of the U.S. 1985 Act. Given
the  turbulent, uncertain, and important nature of the  agricultural and food sector
in the world, research is  challenged to provide more and better knowledge for
future  policymaking},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/172041},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.172041},
}