Theme Overview: The 2014 Farm Bill- An Economic Welfare Disaster or Triumph?

The farm program components of the 2014 Agricultural Act deserve careful, thoughtful, critical assessments with respect to their potential economic benefits and costs, and their overall effects on economic welfare. Too often, perhaps, agricultural economists are accused of focusing only on the effects of farm programs on the farm and closely related sectors. However, any program should be evaluated in terms of its consequences for all of the individuals who are affected by the policies embedded in that program. These impacts are not simply limited to concerns about economic efficiency. As has been the case from the inception of debates over U.S. farm income and price support programs, equity concerns with respect to transfers of income are also important. These are the issues examined by a sequence of six articles in this new Choices theme: The 2014 Farm Bill: An Economic Welfare Disaster or Triumph?