Major Points P. Berck 2007

Examples of 4 types

Give Away homestead act Taylor grazing Act railroad land grants

price increase target price deficiency payment loan rate remove land from production conservation reserve and earlier set-asides draw diagram and explain target-price and loan. show how conservation reserve “helps” with each of these two policies.

build infrastructure reclamation act of 1902: dams railroad land grants and incentive payments to build track—transcontinental railroad (nice book: railroad express is history of same.) rural electrification

Create Financial Institutions land bank loans to farmers for land purchase mortgages used as backing for bonds sold on Wall Street made much more money available for development of the farm sector than could ever be generated in local banks (now widely copied in the home mortgage market by both government and private banks)

Ethanol Renewable Fuels Act Must use ethanol (or other renewable fuel) in motor fuel 51c per gallon subsidy to blend ethanol into gasoline Therefore increased demand for corn Therefore higher prices and less need for price supports and other programs Therefore no nonconservation need for conservation reserve

Aside The US is not a “potted plant.” It actively intervened in the development process.