The New Grain Reserve Programs
Large stocks of grain are nothing new in this
country. During the fifties, stocks grew to particularly
burdensome levels as a result of
government programs that kept grain prices
above market clearing levels without facing
up to the controls needed to rein in the overproduction
capacity of U.S. agriculture. These
policy shortcomings were corrected in the
sixties. Yet grain stocks were still considered
excessive in the early seventies.
