Since the Great Depression, lobbying by farmers has proved particularly lucrative but has threatened to detach agricultural production from the objective of efficiently producing food for consumers. Today, farm policy consists of an array of subsidies, regulations, spending programs, and land-use restrictions which are widely blamed for the increased cost of food, environmental degradation, fiscal burdens, and the failure of global trade negotiations.

For several decades, AEI has brought together researchers to assess the impact of existing farm programs and to help provide the analytical underpinning for future reform efforts. This year, prior to a new round of legislation, AEI commissioned twenty-one working papers from the nation’s leading agricultural economists to evaluate the legitimacy of specific rationales for government intervention in the marketplace.

Contributing authors will present their findings at this AEI event.