(1929) Agricultural Adjustment Act

"The goal of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, restoring farm purchasing power of agricultural commodities or the fair exchange value of a commodity based upon price relative to the prewar 1909–14 level, was to be accomplished through a number of methods. These included the authorization by the Secretary of Agriculture (1) to secure voluntary reduction of the acreage in basic crops through agreements with producers and use of direct payments for participation in acreage control programs; (2) to regulate marketing through voluntary agreements with processors, associations or producers, and other handlers of agricultural commodities or products; (3) to license processors, association, and others handling agricultural commodities to eliminate unfair practices or charges; (4) to determine the necessity for and the rate or processing taxes; and (5) to use the proceeds of taxes and appropriate funds for the cost of adjustment operations, for the expansion of markets, and for the removal or agricultural surpluses."

So the 5 key points were

1. Pay farmers not to farm there land, this is where it all started to go wrong*

2. Voluntary marketing regulations, the modern equivalent is a code of conduct

3. Regulate the food processors through licensing, this is important because the food processors are paying the tax to fund this. Which is a stealth way of taxing the public as the processors will just pass that cost on.

4. How much tax to take from the food processors

5. How to spend that tax

*leading to over 50,000,000 acres (200,000 km²) to be set aside during times of low commodity prices (1955–1973, 1984–1995) during the Ethiopian famine the US government paid farmers not the grow crops….