The missing link in farm policy

Excerpt

Stated purposes of U.S. agricultural policy are to provide price and income protection to farmers and to assure consumers an abundance of food and fiber at reasonable prices. But today, as the nation's leaders prepare for the 1985 farm bill, it appears the federal government is no longer able or willing to continue present levels of farm price and income protection. The government's need to reduce budget deficits, coupled with public opposition to idle cropland and payments to wealthy farmers, makes it unlikely that the next farm bill will protect farmers from overproduction.

This is no surprise. Farmers for years have proven that their ability to produce often exceeds the government's ability to protect them from overproduction. The real danger is that agricultural leaders will demand a farm bill that provides a false sense of security by suggesting that existing programs can reverse future low prices. Unfortunately, current programs and priorities cannot attract adequate appropriations to match supply with demand.

Agriculture's dilemma is that low prices do not curtail production. Instead, low prices beget more overproduction as farmers push their land and themselves to the limits to preserve a way of …