Agricultural Adjustment Act Facts: Fast Fact Sheet for kids
Fast, fun facts and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)
about the Agricultural Adjustment Act
for kids.
What was the purpose of the Agricultural Adjustment Act
(AAA)? The purpose of the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
was to restore agricultural prosperity by limiting farm
production, reducing export surpluses, and raising prices
How was the Agricultural Adjustment Act
meant to help farmers? As prices rose the farmers’ income
increased, improving their lifestyle and reducing the number of
farm evictions
Why did critics dislike the Agricultural Adjustment Act? The
critics of the AAA could not accept the policy of destruction.
Others criticized the act as it did nothing to help the 3
million sharecroppers who did not own their land. But the
harshest criticism came when the policies worked and resulted in
the increase of food prices of up to 50%
Agricultural Adjustment Act
Facts for kids
The following fact
sheet contains interesting facts and information on the
purpose, effects and significance of the Agricultural Adjustment Act
as part of FDR's New Deal to combat the effects of the Great
Depression.
Facts
about the Agricultural Adjustment Act for kids
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact 1:
The Great Depression
hit the farmers hard as total farm income fell by
two-thirds between 1929 and 1932.
Prices of staple crops and livestock were extremely low
and 60% of
farms had to be re-mortgaged and by 1932 many farms were
foreclosed and sold at auction.
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact
2: The special
congressional session called during FDR's first hundred
days in office had to consider both the banking crisis
and the agricultural emergency.
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact 3:
On March 4, 1933,President
Roosevelt appointed Henry A. Wallace, the editor of the Wallace's
Farmer, as his Secretary of Agriculture.
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact 4:
Henry A. Wallace was given the
immediate task of reducing the grain and livestock surplus. Wallace
worked with Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Rexford Tugwell to
create the first major New Deal agricultural legislation, that was
called the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, aka the Farm Relief
Bill
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact 5:
The AAA was signed into law by FDR on May 12, 1933. The
purpose of the law was to help farmers by reducing production of
crops, and in so doing, raising farm prices and encouraging more
diversified farming.
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact 6:
Staple crops are the
most common foods in people's diets and include wheat,
beans, corn (maize), rice, peanuts, potatoes and oats.
Other important crops were cotton and tobacco
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact 7:
Under the AAA farm
program the government proposed to pay farmers not to
grow crops such as cotton, tobacco, wheat and corn. The
government would also pay farmers not to raise certain
type of livestock such as sheep, cattle and hogs
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact
8: Farmers were to be
given benefit payments in return for limiting the amount
of land given to planting crops and limiting the numbers
of livestock raised
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact
9: The problem was that
by the time the AAA was implemented and organized the
farmers had already planted their crops and had begun
raising the season's livestock.
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact
10: Emergency action was
required to address the problem. The agency
therefore oversaw a large-scale destruction of existing
crops and livestock in an attempt to reduce surpluses.
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact 11:
Over 6 million hogs and sows were
slaughtered in the AAA's effort to raise prices, at a cost of over
$30,000,000. Cotton farmers were paid $100 million to destroy 25% of
their cotton crop. 2 million head of cattle were slaughtered from
the Texas herds alone
Facts
about the Agricultural Adjustment Act for kids
Facts
about the Agricultural Adjustment Act for kids
The following fact
sheet continues with facts about Agricultural Adjustment Act
Facts
about Agricultural Adjustment Act for kids
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact 12:
The severe draught of 1934
further reduced output and caused prices to rise still further
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact 13:
In the two years of the AAA the
agency distributed some $700 million to farmers to restrict
production and keep farm prices high
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact 14:
During 1934 - 1935
coercive taxes on cotton and tobacco forced farmers to
cut the amounts that they marketed
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact 15:
By 1936 conditions
had dramatically improved in agriculture, farm surplus
fell greatly and food prices began to rise as did farm
income
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact 16:
In 1936 the Supreme
Court declared important sections of the 1933
Agricultural Adjustment Act invalid, and the 1936 Act
was abandoned.
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact
17: Congress promptly
responded by adopting the 1936 Soil Conservation and
Domestic Allotment Act, which encouraged conservation by
paying benefits for planting soil-building crops instead
of staple crops.
The new farm-relief act achieved crop reduction through
soil conservation practices.
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact
18: Prosperity was slowly
returning to the US but the
AAA had suffered from its many critics due to the large
price increases and the plight of tenant farmers who
became unemployed and homeless when landlords took their
fields out of production
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact 19:
The Agricultural
Adjustment Act of 1938 empowered the AAA to make loans
to farmers on staple crop yields in years of good crops.
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact
20: The 1938 law also
allowed for the storage of the surplus produce, which it
could then release in years of low yield.
Agricultural Adjustment Act Fact
21: The 1938 law
continued the policy of soil conservation was continued,
and farmers could, by a two-thirds vote, adopt
compulsory marketing quotas (as they did for cotton and
tobacco).
Facts
about Agricultural Adjustment Act for kids
Agricultural Adjustment Act - President Franklin Roosevelt Video
The article on the Agricultural Adjustment Act provides detailed facts and a summary of one of the important events during his presidential term in office. The following
Franklin Roosevelt video will
give you additional important facts and dates about the political events experienced by the 32nd American President whose presidency spanned from March 4, 1933 to April 12, 1945.
Agricultural Adjustment Act
●
Interesting Facts about AAA for kids and schools
●
Summary of the Agricultural Adjustment Act in US history
● AAA
purpose and effects on farmers
●
Franklin Roosevelt
Presidency from March 4, 1933 to April 12, 1945
●
Fast, fun facts about the AAA
●
Foreign & Domestic
policies of President Franklin Roosevelt
● Franklin Roosevelt Presidency and
Agricultural Adjustment Act for schools,
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