The Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade (FACT) Act of 1990 — P.L. 101-624 (November 28, 1990) was a 5-year
omnibus farm bill that passed Congress and was signed into law.
This bill, also known as the 1990 farm bill, continued to move agriculture in a market-oriented direction by freezing target prices and allowing more planting flexibility.
Initial program
New titles included rural development, forestry, organic certification (
Title 21), and commodity promotion programs. The law established a
Rural Development Administration (RDA) in the USDA to administer programs relating to rural and small community development. It extended and modified the
Food Stamp Program
In the United States, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, is a Federal government of the United States, federal government program that provides food-purchasing assistance for Poverty ...
and other domestic nutrition programs and made major changes in the operation of P.L. 480. It revised existing law involving agricultural trade credits and guarantees. It also established tha
Forest Stewardship Program(FSP), the
Forest Land Enhancement Program (FLEP), the
Forest Legacy Program (FLP), and th
Urban and Community Forestry Program(UCF).
Changes
The 1990 farm bill was soon altered by the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act Amendments of 1991 (P.L. 102-237)
to correct errors and alleviate problems in implementing the law. The amendments allowed the Farm Credit Bank for Cooperatives to make loans for agricultural exports and established a new regulatory scheme and capital standards for the
Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation
The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation, also known as Farmer Mac, is a stockholder-owned, publicly traded company that was chartered by the United States federal government in 1988 to serve as a secondary market in agricultural loans such ...
(Farmer Mac). The law also established new handling requirements for eggs to help prevent food-borne illness.
Further changes
More policy changes were made by the
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) of 1993 (P.L. 103-66). This law intended to reduce federal farm spending by $3 billion over 5 years by eliminating USDA’s authority to waive minimum acreage set-aside requirements for wheat and corn, reducing deficiency payments to farmers participating in the 0/92 and 50/92 programs from 92% to 85% of the normal payment level, reducing the acreage to be enrolled in the
Conservation Reserve Program
The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a cost-share and rental payment program of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Under the program, the government pays farmers to take certain agriculturally used croplands out of produc ...
and
Wetlands Reserve Program, and requiring improvement in the actuarial soundness of the federal crop insurance program. The measure provided for a temporary moratorium on sales of synthetic bovine
growth hormone
Growth hormone (GH) or somatotropin, also known as human growth hormone (hGH or HGH) in its human form, is a peptide hormone that stimulates growth, cell reproduction, and cell regeneration in humans and other animals. It is thus important in ...
and reduced the loan rate for
soybeans
The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean. Soy is a staple crop, the world's most grown legume, and an important animal feed.
Soy is a key source of f ...
. It reduced
Market Promotion Program (MPP) funding through fiscal 1997 and provided for a series of significant MPP operational reforms. It also provided for the designation of a series of rural (and urban) empowerment and enterprise zones, eligible for special federal aid and tax credits.
See also
*
Dairy Export Incentive Program
*
Integrated Farm Management Program
References
*
External links
Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990as amended
PDFdetails
in the GPObr>Statute Compilations collection
Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990
as enacted
details
in the US Statutes at Large
* on Congress.gov
Congress.gov is the online database of United States Congress legislative information. Congress.gov is a joint project of the Library of Congress, the House, the Senate and the Government Publishing Office.
Congress.gov was in beta in 2012, and ...
{{US farm acts
United States federal agriculture legislation