In the United States, the largest exporter of farm products, the establishment of the Federal Farm Board in 1929 marked the first time that the US Government intervened directly to influence the prices of export crops. Legislation aimed at raising farm prices through government loans to agricultural cooperatives failed in its objectives largely because of worldwide depression, associated with declining prices, and because there was no provision for the control of production. Production control was accepted for the first time in the United States with the passage of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933. Control was based on the area planted rather than supply limitation. As production efficiency increased with the introduction of new technology and modern farming methods, the effect of restricting the area planted was partially or fully offset. Under an amendment to the 1933 act, a Grain Stabilization Board was established to provide direct subsidies for agricultural exports. In addition, a Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) was created to buy and sell agricultural commodities and make loans to farmers. The CCC became the vehicle for managing agricultural surpluses and the basis for the first structured US food aid programmes drawing from the mounting food surpluses. The scope of the CCC was widened by an amendment to the Agricultural Adjustment Act in 1935, which authorized its use of customs revenues to subsidize agricultural exports and encourage domestic production. The outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 led eventually to the passing of the Lend-Lease Act of 1941 (signed before US entry into the war in December of that year). Under this act, some $6 billion of agricultural products were shipped to the Allied powers. Although not on the same scale, similar developments took place in other industrialized countries as surpluses accumulated and disposal programmes were operated. These operated largely within a network of associated states or communities, such as the British Commonwealth, the French Community, the Portuguese overseas territories, and the Belgian, German and Italian overseas territories.
Surpluses of Agricultural Products and Global Hunger Problem
