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Abstract
The external environment confronting both farmers and policymakers obviously has changed dramatically over the past 3 years. Grain surpluses in the hands of the government have disappeared~ drought has cut crop production in several important areas, and the news media have rediscovered the fact that a high proportion of the world's population subsists on diets which even in good crop years are-only marginally adequate. In the U, S., food prices, and especially the prices of grains, have risen to levels thought highly improbable only 3 or 4 years ago. Does the new environment call for equally dramatic shifts in policy? This is the question I have been asked to discuss.