Industry: Government Involvment During the Great Depression

While speaking with my seemingly omniscient grandmother quite recently, the Great Depression came up in conversation. I was totally captivated by her recollection of what life was like during those times. What was really stunning to me was that after she had finished telling me about how hard life was for her family, she then said she considered herself lucky for living in a steel town, rather than having to rely on farming as income, for the rural families took the brunt of the depression. She then said she was curious to just how bad things had to have been for country folks, if she had encountered that much hardship living in an inner-city atmosphere. Perhaps the most dynamic economic fiasco ever recorded, which affected life in every way in the United States, was the Great Depression. The main factor in this national depression was the stock market crash of 1929. The Great Depression most significantly impacted agricultural life throughout the nation. Lasting for over a decade, the Great Depression altered the lives of nearly everybody in the nation, causing a large number of people to sell most of their belongings,

Now that we have taken a look back at government agricultural agencies that were part of the New Deal, we can now take a look at agencies that exist currently that regulate and run the agricultural industry. The United States Department of Agriculture is the main federal agency that oversees the farming industry. Within the USDA there are many agencies that specialize in certain aspects of the industry. Agencies such as the Farm Service Agency (FSA), regulates federal farm loans, conservation, and price support. The loans that the FSA supplies offers direct and guaranteed farm ownership and operating loans to farmers who are temporarily unable to obtain private, commercial credit. The FSA frequently assists beginning farmers who would not be qualified otherwise (www.fsa.usda.gov). Other than the FSA, the Foreign Agriculture Service (FSA) deal with all import and export programs and trade policies (www.fas.usda.gov). Another sub-agency of the USDA is the Risk Management Agency (RMA). The RMA provides and regulates crop insurance among other things. Most of the programs of the RMA are developed at the request of the farmers. These are some of the federal government agencies that regulate the agriculture industry. There are also state agencies that provide rules, regulations, and research for their individual states.

The initial group starting this series of administrations was the AAA or Agricultural Adjustment Administration. The AAA was established in May of 1933 and its goal was to balance the price scheme of producing and purchasing a good in order to ensure that a profit was going to be made by the farmer. Its goals seemed reasonable, but in the long run proved to be a poorly devised scheme for the reparation of the current agricultural state. The primary plan of attack was to lower the supply of goods to increase the cost of those commodities. With surplus production increasing by leaps and bounds each of the years preceding, the AAA called for harsh measures to be taken. The AAA demanded six million piglets and 200,000 sow to be slaughtered as well as 10 million acres of cotton to be plowed under (Olson 9-13). Once again, landowners were given money to not plant portions of their land, but then heavily produced on the land that was being used. These payments from the government to the landowners were supposed to be distributed through the tenants as well, but the rule was rarely abided by. When money was given to the landowners, frequently, in order to keep all of the money, tenants were evicted permanently; therefore, all of the tenants and sharecroppers were negatively affected by the AAA. Even though the AAA was only trying to help out the farmers, it actually displaced many families depending on their farms (McElvaine 150). The Agricultural Adjustment Agency ceased in 1935 when the Resettlement Administration took over the duty of trying to help pull the poor farmers out of this depression.

In 1937 the FSA took the most control that had ever been established over the agricultural industry since the depression began in 1929. Other than extending loans to small farmers to increase productivity, the administration also set up farm co-operations and provided medical and dental plans for those who were participating. The amount that each farmer was allotted was used to purchase equipment, fertilizer, land, and livestock. These allotments increased annually beginning with $240 per family in 1937 and by 1940, the amounts loaned had risen to $600. The loans also went into the organization and establishment of the farm co-operations. The FSA was the most successful in escalating the standard of living of people in the agriculture industry out of the numerous groups and administrations that were formed throughout the New Deal. President Roosevelt was glad to see the Farm Security Administration help the agricultural community find its feet once again (Olson 165, 166). By 1941, the economy had

Some topics in this essay:
South Midwest, America Coolidge, Security Administration, Resettlement Administration, Administration AAA, Federal Reserve, Roosevelt Hoover, FSA Olson, Farm Board’s, Hoover Republican, agricultural industry, resettlement administration, market crash 1929, nation’s economy, farm security, crash 1929, department agriculture, market crash, security administration, stock market, farm security administration, texas department agriculture, “dust bowl”, stock market crash, life throughout nation,