Overview
- Provides a thorough foundation in the history of the agricultural policy of the United States from the colonial period to today
- Traces Farm Bill issues and content as well as other key ag-related, exploring the broad themes of trade, environment, crop insurance, and biofuels that dominate the current policy landscape
- Gives students, policymakers, and researchers a reference for historic background on agriculture policy and a roadmap to help them analyze future policy issues
- Request lecturer material: sn.pub/lecturer-material
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Agricultural Economics and Food Policy (AEFP)
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Table of contents (24 chapters)
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Front Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book serves as a foundational reference of U.S. land settlement and early agricultural policy, a comprehensive journey through the evolution of 20th century agricultural policy, and a detailed guide to the key agricultural policy issues of the early 21st century. This book integrates the legal, economic and political concepts and ideas that guided U.S. agricultural policy from colonial settlement to the 21st century, and it applies those concepts to the policy issues agriculture will face over the next generation.
The book is organized into three sections. Section one introduces the main themes of the book, explores the pre-Columbian period and early European settlement, and traces the first 150 years of U.S. agricultural policy starting with the post revolution period and ending with the “golden age” of agriculture in the early 20th century. Section two outlines that grand bargain of the 1930s that initiated the modern era of government intervention into agricultural markets and traces this policy evolution to the early days of the 21st century. The third section provides an in-depth examination of six policy issues that dominate current policy discussions and will impact policy decisions for the next generation: trade, environment/conservation, commodity checkoff programs, crop insurance, biofuels, and domestic nutrition programs.Reviews
“Today's agricultural policy students need an up-to-date, well-written text that explains the basics. Mercier and Halbrook have delivered it.” (Barry Flinchbaugh, Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics, Kansas State University)
“As a member of the House or Senate Agriculture Committees for 40 years, and Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee for two recent Farm Bills, I found this book to be both an enlightening and enjoyable read. The authors bring their years of being on the inside of agricultural policy development and implementation to life through their insightful writing.” (Tom Harkin, Former Senator, D-Iowa)
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Stephanie A. Mercier is Senior Policy Adviser at the Farm Journal Foundation, USA. From 1997 to 2011, she served as a chief economist for the Democratic staff of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Previously, she served as team leader for the Trade Policy and Programs area of the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In her nine years at ERS, she worked on both domestic commodity programs and trade policy issues. On the Hill, she covered a wide variety of issues for the Committee, among them domestic farm programs, climate change, risk management policy, international agricultural trade, agricultural development, and food aid policy.
Steve A. Halbrook is a recently retired Professor of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at the University of Arkansas. Dr. Halbrook spent most of his career in government, private industry and the not-for-profit world, at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, United StatesDepartment of Agriculture, National Dairy Promotion and Research Board and Farm Foundation. In private law practice, he represented numerous dairy cooperatives in the Midwest. In all of these roles he worked with stakeholders, public officials and social scientists across the country to find innovative ways to address issues of importance to agriculture and rural communities.Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Agricultural Policy of the United States
Book Subtitle: Historic Foundations and 21st Century Issues
Authors: Stephanie A. Mercier, Steve A. Halbrook
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Agricultural Economics and Food Policy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36452-6
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Economics and Finance, Economics and Finance (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-36451-9Published: 02 April 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-36454-0Published: 02 April 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-36452-6Published: 01 April 2020
Series ISSN: 2662-3889
Series E-ISSN: 2662-3897
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXI, 432
Number of Illustrations: 9 b/w illustrations, 11 illustrations in colour
Topics: Agricultural Economics, Public Economics, Economic History, Public Policy