Several major events combined to make 1977 a year of special importance for food and agriculture policy. A new administration seeking to place its imprimatur on policy entered the White House, new omnibus farm and food legislation was enacted, and commodity production controls were reinstituted for the first time since 1973. In the intervening years, the economic and political environment had become vastly different from that prevailing in previous times when the use of such controls had become almost routine. The process by which the executive branch reached the decision to again impose controls on the production of wheat is the subject of this report. It identifies the participants, describes their roles, examines their analytical and informational contributions, and critiques the adequacy of the overall process.