From any coherent policy perspective, agricultural policy in the United States is in almost total disarray. Not surprisingly, persistent and pervasive rent-seeking by well-funded lobbies explains much of the complex and often internally inconsistent initiatives that make up the complex mishmash of federal programs that fall under the umbrella of US agricultural policy.
This two-volume examination of US agricultural policies includes analyses of direct subsidy initiatives and the heavily subsidized federal crop insurance program, the long-standing sugar program and federal marketing orders that variously rely on import restrictions, constraints on domestic production, and policy-mandated price discrimination among alternative markets for the same product.
Those subsidy programs and other forms of support are deliberately structured to funnel the vast majority of their benefits to large farm businesses and, in the case of agricultural insurance, an entire segment of the insurance industry that would not otherwise exist. They do nothing to alleviate rural poverty and in most cases encourage farm and other agricultural businesses to waste some of society’s scarce resources.
Some federal programs do provide benefits for society as a whole. However, collusion among lobbies with competing interests has caused many of those programs to be inefficient.
In summary, “Agricultural Policy in Disarray” provides fascinating, detailed, and contemporary evidence of how rent-seeking by small, well-organized interest groups results in government policies that do little good and much harm. Most should be terminated or subject to major reforms.
Vincent H. Smith
Nonresident Senior Fellow
Director of Agricultural Policy Studies
Joseph W. Glauber
Nonresident Senior Fellow
