Agriculture Adjustment Act

Through the Agriculture Adjustment Act the government asked farmers to stop farming some of their land in order to balance supply and demand. It was hoped this would increase the price they received for their crops.

Even with the CCC, WPA and art projects going strong, Iowa was still left with its decade old farm problems. Roosevelt’s answer, The Agriculture Adjustment Act, guaranteed farmers a better price for their farm products if they would agree not to grow crops on part of their land. After a long debate in Congress, the AAA finally passed. But for Mary Morton’s family, it came too late. They had already lost their farm by the time the AAA loans were made available.

At the time they lost their farm, that had between 8,000 and 10,000 bushel of corn on the farm and they sold it for about 9 cents a bushel. One year later the government came out with the 45 cent loan and if they could have had that that year, it would have saved the farm. Many farms were saved because the government came out with a 45 cent a bushel loan.