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Full-Text Articles in Agricultural and Resource Economics
Implications Of “Freedom To Farm” For Crop System Diversity In The Western Corn Belt And Northern Great Plains, Thomas Dobbs, Linda Dumke
Implications Of “Freedom To Farm” For Crop System Diversity In The Western Corn Belt And Northern Great Plains, Thomas Dobbs, Linda Dumke
Economics Staff Paper Series
The Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act (FAIR) Act of 1996, popularly known as "Freedom to Farm", represented a fundamental shift in the primary policy mechanism for supporting farm incomes in the United States (U.S.). Crop-specific "deficiency payments" were replaced by "production flexibility contract payments", scheduled to run through the year 2002 and, presumably, then terminate. The total amount available for contract payments nationwide started at $5.6 billion in fiscal year (FY) 1996, was to reach $5.8 billion in FY 1998, and was to decline to $4 billion in FY2002 (ERS, 1996, p. 1). Allocations to each contract farm are …