Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
Established May 1933
What various programs did Franklin Roosevelt implement in the New Deal and what were the goals of each?
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA); Provided tons of jobs for southerners, established to build dams and power plants along the Tennessee River.
Wagner Act; Guaranteed workers to have the right to form labor unions, collectively bargain, and hold strikes.
Social Security Act; Program that helped disabled, unemployed, and Americans over the age of 65 years old; they received monthly checks. (this still exists today)
Works Progress Administration; This program created millions of jobs for Americans
Who was the program (AAA) intended to help?
This program was intended to help the farmers grow crops and still make money, or grow specific crops to make money because they were in debt and couldn't afford to pay their mortgages. This was caused by droughts, over planting, and intense winds which formed what is called the Dust Bowl.
What was this program intended to do?
This program was intended to raise crop prices by lowing production by paying farmers to leave their land, killing their pigs, and other farm animals. This act gave the farmers food, clothes and sometimes even money.
New Plan for Farmers
This picture shows what the program (AAA) from the New Deal did for the farmers and what the farmers had to expect from the outcome.
Farmer receiving his check
This is a picture of a farmer receiving a check from the AAA because of his hard work. Now farmers work and are able to afford food and a home to provide for their families.
Crops
This a local market that had gotten food from a farmer to sell to others.
Does this program fall under Relief, Recovery, or Reform program of Roosevelt's New Deal?
This program falls under Recovery because taxed food processors gave the money directly to farmers as a payment for not growing food. This decreased supply so price would go up.
How successful do you believe this program was at relieving the economic crisis?
The AAA was very successful at first because it allowed the farmers to get out of debt, but then in 1936 the Supreme Court killed it and replaced it with the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936. In which this didn't help the farmers at all because it only paid them to plant grass and legumes instead of crops because they stated the crops took all the nutrients from the land. The farmers got paid more with crops then grasses and legumes.
How does this program add to your understanding of the Great Depression?
It shows me how hard it was through the whole Great Depression process. It makes me understand that the farmers had gone through some really hard times and made really tough decisions. It is just more eyeopening for me to see how hard it was for everyone.
Does this program still exist today?
Yes, because even in today's government they still pay farmers but they pay them for NOT growing specific crops. In 1963 the Supreme Court declared the AAA unconstitutional. They stated that is was illegal to levy a tax on one group (processors) just to pay it to another (farmers). In 1938, another AAA was passed without the tax, which made it acceptable according to the Supreme Court.
New Deal Programs-Agricultural Adjustment Act
Video 1
- Pays you not to plant so many crops
- Increase in demand and profit to you (as a farmer)
- Poor? This act will make an imporvment in your life.
New Deal Economics.avi
Video 2
- New Deal in detail
- Explains each program that was created in the New Deal
- Explains how it effects today's world
- Talks about what each program did during the Great Depression