Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
05/12/1933 AD enacted

US law of the New Deal era designed to boost agricultural prices by reducing surpluses.

The government bought livestock for slaughter and paid farmers subsidies not to plant on part of their land. The money for these subsidies was generated through an exclusive tax on companies which processed farm products.

The Act created a new agency, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to oversee the distribution of the subsidies.

The Agriculture Marketing Act, which established the Federal Farm Board in 1929, was seen as an important precursor to this act. The AAA, along with other New Deal programs, represented the federal government's first substantial effort to address economic welfare in the United States.

The Supreme Court later decided in United States v. Butler that the act was unconstitutional for levying this tax on the processors only to have it paid back to the farmers.

Washington, D.C.

Lattitude: 38.9072° N
Longitude: 77.0369° W
Region: North America

Modern Day United States

Events in 1933 MORE