Mohair is a fabric or yarn made from the hair of the Angora goat. Both durable and resilient, mohair is lustrous with high sheen, and is often blended to add these qualities to a textile. Mohair takes dye exceptionally well. It feels warm in winter due to excellent insulating properties, while moisture-wicking keeps it cool in summer. It is durable, naturally elastic, flame-resistant and crease-resistant. It is considered a luxury fiber, like cashmere, alpaca, angora, and silk, but is more expensive than most sheep's wool.
The Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) is the foreign affairs agency with primary responsibility for the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) overseas programs – market development, international trade agreements and negotiations, and the collection of statistics and market information. It also administers the USDA's export credit guarantee and food aid programs and helps increase income and food availability in developing nations by mobilizing expertise for agriculturally led economic growth. The FAS mission statement reads, "Linking U.S. agriculture to the world to enhance export opportunities and global food security," and its motto is "Linking U.S. Agriculture to the World."
The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) is a wholly owned United States government corporation that was created in 1933 to "stabilize, support, and protect farm income and prices". The CCC is authorized to buy, sell, lend, make payments, and engage in other activities for the purpose of increasing production, stabilizing prices, assuring adequate supplies, and facilitating the efficient marketing of agricultural commodities.
The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 was legislation in the United States that was enacted as an alternative and replacement for the farm subsidy policies, in previous New Deal farm legislation, that had been found unconstitutional. The act revived the provisions in the previous Agriculture Adjustment Act, with the exception that the financing of the law's programs would be provided by the Federal Government and not a processor's tax, and was also enforced as a response to the success of the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936.
The Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996, known informally as the Freedom to Farm Act, the FAIR Act, or the 1996 U.S. Farm Bill, was the omnibus 1996 farm bill that, among other provisions, revises and simplifies direct payment programs for crops and eliminates milk price supports through direct government purchases.
In different administrative and organizational forms, the Food for Peace program of the United States has provided food assistance around the world for more than 60 years. Approximately 3 billion people in 150 countries have benefited directly from U.S. food assistance. The Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance within the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the U.S. Government's largest provider of overseas food assistance. The food assistance programming is funded primarily through the Food for Peace Act. The Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance also receives International Disaster Assistance Funds through the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) that can be used in emergency settings.
In the United States, the farm bill is comprehensive omnibus bill that is the primary agricultural and food policy instrument of the federal government. Congress typically passes a new farm bill every five to six years.
The agricultural policy of the United States is composed primarily of the periodically renewed federal U.S. farm bills. The Farm Bills have a rich history which initially sought to provide income and price support to US farmers and prevent them from adverse global as well as local supply and demand shocks. This implied an elaborate subsidy program which supports domestic production by either direct payments or through price support measures. The former incentivizes farmers to grow certain crops which are eligible for such payments through environmentally conscientious practices of farming. The latter protects farmers from vagaries of price fluctuations by ensuring a minimum price and fulfilling their shortfalls in revenue upon a fall in price. Lately, there are other measures through which the government encourages crop insurance and pays part of the premium for such insurance against various unanticipated outcomes in agriculture.
The Agricultural Act of 1956 created the Soil Bank Program, addressed the disposal of Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) inventories of surplus stocks, contained commodity support program provisions, and contained forestry provisions. The Soil Bank Act authorized short- and long-term removal of land from production with annual rental payments to participants. The Acreage Reserve Program, for wheat, corn, rice, cotton, peanuts, and several types of tobacco, allowed producers to retire land on an annual basis in crop years 1956 through 1959 in return for payments. The Conservation Reserve Program allowed producers to retire cropland under contracts of 3, 5, or 10 years in return for annual payments. The Soil Bank Act was repealed by Section 601 of the Food and Agriculture Act of 1965. The Conservation Reserve portion of the Soil Bank was a model for the subsequent Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), enacted in 1985.
The Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 1973 was the 4-year farm bill that adopted target prices and deficiency payments as a tool that would support farm income but reduce forfeitures to the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) of surplus stocks. It reduced payment limitations to $20,000 for all program crops. The Act might be considered the first omnibus farm bill because it went beyond simply authorizing farm commodity programs. It authorized disaster payments and disaster reserve inventories; created the Rural Environmental Conservation Program; amended the Food Stamp Act of 1964, authorized the use of commodities for feeding low income mothers and young children (the origin of the Commodity Supplemental Food Program; and amended the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act of 1972.
The Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust (BEHT) is a strategic grain reserve held by the United States for the benefit of other countries. It can contain commodities and cash held in trust to supplement food aid made available under programs created by Public Law 480, the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954. The Trust can hold up to 4 million metric tons of wheat, corn, sorghum, and rice. Since 2008, the Trust has held no grain, and holds only cash.
In United States federal agricultural policy, the term commodity programs is usually meant to include the commodity price and income support programs administered by the Farm Service Agency and financed by the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC). The commodities now receiving support are:
- those receiving Direct and Counter-cyclical Program (DCP) payments, specifically wheat, corn, grain sorghum, barley, oats, upland cotton, rice, soybeans and other oilseeds, and peanuts;
- those eligible for nonrecourse marketing assistance loans, which includes the previous mentioned commodities plus wool, mohair, honey, dry peas, lentils, and small chickpeas; and
- those having other unique support, including sugar, and milk.
The Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade (FACT) Act of 1990 — P.L. 101-624 was a 5-year omnibus farm bill that passed Congress and was signed into law.
The Amendments to the National Wool Act Pub. L. 103-130, 107 Stat. 1368-1369 (1993), signed into law November 1, 1993, phased out wool and mohair price supports at the end of 1995.
The Sheep Promotion, Research, and Information Act of 1994 enabled domestic sheep producers and feeders and importers of sheep and sheep products to develop, finance, and carry out a nationally coordinated program for sheep and sheep product promotion, research, and information. The program is funded as a commodity checkoff program.
In United States agricultural policy, the payment limitation refers to the maximum annual amount of farm program benefits a person can receive by law.
The National Wool Act of 1954 provided for a new and permanent price support program for wool and mohair to encourage increased domestic production through incentive payments.
The McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program (IFEP) is a food aid program authorized in the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 which provides for the donation of U.S. agricultural commodities and associated financial and technical assistance to carry out preschool and school feeding programs in foreign countries. Maternal, infant, and child nutrition programs also are authorized under this program. It is named after former U.S. Senators George McGovern and Bob Dole, who advocated in the U.S. Congress for its passage.
In United States agricultural policy, a marketing loan repayment provision is a loan settlement provision, first authorized by the Food Security Act of 1985, that allowed producers to repay nonrecourse loans at less than the announced loan rates whenever the world price or loan repayment rate for the commodity were less than the loan rate. Marketing loan provisions became mandatory for soybeans and other oilseeds, upland cotton, and rice and were permitted for wheat, corn, grain sorghum, barley, oats, and honey under amendments made by the 1990 farm bill. The 1996 farm bill retained the marketing loan provisions for wheat, feed grains, rice, upland cotton, and oilseeds. The 2002 farm bill continued marketing assistance loans and expanded their application to wool, mohair, dry peas, lentils, and small chickpeas.
The incentive payments are direct payments made under the National Wool Act to producers of wool and mohair, which were similar to deficiency payments made to producers of grains and cotton. The incentive payment rate was the percentage needed to bring the national average return to producers up to the annually set national support price. Each producer's direct payment was the payment rate times the market receipts. Producers with higher market receipts got larger support payments. This created an incentive to increase output and to improve quality.
