Essay Example on Roosevelt's New Deal Programs

The Great Depression was the longest and deepest sustainable economic downturn in the United States. The stock market crashed as a result forcing the country into financial hardship. As a result, most businesses and banks collapsed. President Herbert Hoover dismissed the issue as a passing glance urging citizens to exercise patience and self-reliance. However, the crises became worse forcing a quarter of Americans into unemployment. Upon taking office, President Franklin D. Roosevelt took a series of actions to steady the economy by creating more employment opportunities. The programs referred to as the new deal aimed to reestablish prosperity in the American economy.

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The Depression adversely affected farmers leading historically low income and reduced productivity. The Agricultural Adjustment Act is one of Roosevelts New Deal programs that aimed at restoring the glory of farming. The act sought to protect farmers from selling their produce at low prices, thus, shielding farmers from incurring losses. The program attempted to balance agricultural products demand and supply to stabilize the prices and grant farmers purchasing power. The act aimed to control the supply of crops such as corn, wheat, cotton, and rice. Farmers who offered their land out of farming were to get a substantial amount of money. This would equalize supply and demand by reducing the surpluses that flooded the market. Such a marketing condition would then reestablish prices for farm produce giving farmers the purchasing power for farm commodities.

However, only a few farmers refused to take the deal by citing that the government could not tell them what to do. The program was successful as it helped revive the farming communities. During the great depression period, the Act achieved its goal by decreasing the supply of certain crops thus increasing their prices. As a result, the Agricultural Adjustment Act had a significant impact in bringing giving farmers their purchasing power back. It also formed the basis for agricultural dominance after World War II making it the most successful program of the New Deal. However, the program produced a lot of controversy as only a few of the crops were eligible for the payments. For example, livestock farming was not included in the program. Some farmers also continued to produce more due to new technologies despite receiving the payments. The program also harmed small-scale farmers by of benefiting the large plantations.

A program leading to the protection of farmers would help my community in a great way. It would enable them to produce higher yields and find markets for them. However, the protection method utilized by the Agricultural Adjustment Act would have hurt farmers in my community rather than help them. The current challenge affecting farmers is not having an excess of agricultural produce in the market but rather having increased demand for food products and reduced supply. The increase in population has led to increased food requirements increasing the need for higher production. Therefore, the best farmer protection mechanisms in my community should be based on improving the capability of farmers to produce more through research on better farming methods. The protection of markets that can help my community would involve the provision of several agricultural produce sale outlets rather than production limitation. Therefore, the Agricultural Adjustment Act would be of little assistance in the contemporary world.owever