What is it about?
It argues that a major interest group battle over New Deal farm reforms was ultimately decided by market forces and not politics.
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Why is it important?
It shifts emphasis towards the Commodity Credit Corporation in New Deal farm reforms, as it was the only tool strong enough to actually raise (artificially) the price farmers got for their cotton. Even if few policymakers liked it. It shows that structural economic forces determine the limits of what reforms are ever possible.
Perspectives
Researching and writing this article reoriented my perspective on reform politics, especially the New Deal. I stumbled onto this research when my sources kept highlighting the “cotton loan” and “CCC” rather than the acreage control I expected them to. While uncovering the CCC’s origins, especially as it relates to cotton, I was struck by how few policymakers actually thought it was a good idea. They understood its downsides and wished there was another option. Accordingly, while the cotton loan was popular among farmers, policymakers had tried to design myriad alternatives. However, it was the only one that ever seemed to work, forcing policymakers to craft a farm reform scheme around the CCC rather than designing one that they actually liked.
Dr. R. Alexander Ferguson
Arizona State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Material Origins of the Farm Bill: Southern Cotton Interest Groups and the Farmer’s New Deal, Journal of Policy History, July 2026, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s0898030625100572.
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