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  Agency History
  
  The Farm Service Agency traces its beginnings to 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression. A wave of discontent brought on by mounting unemployment and farm failures had helped elect President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who promised Americans a “New Deal.”
  
  One result was the facility in 1935 of a Department of Agriculture company with familiar initials: FSA, which stood for Farm Security Administration. Originally called the Resettlement Administration, and relabelled in 1937, its initial mission was to transfer whole farm neighborhoods to locations in which it was hoped farming might be performed more profitably. But resettlement was questionable and costly, and its outcomes unclear. Other roles quickly became more vital, consisting of the Standard Rural Rehabilitation Loan Program, which provided credit, farm and home management planning and technical guidance. This was the leader of the farm loan programs of the Farmers Home Administration.
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  Another associated program was Debt Adjustment and Tenure Improvement. FSA county supervisors, in some cases with the assistance of volunteer committees of regional farmers, would work with farmers and their debtors to try to arbitrate contracts and avoid foreclosure. The concept was to reach an offer by which the bank might recover as much or more than it would through foreclosure by enabling the farmer to remain in organization.
  
  FSA also promoted co-ops and even offered medical care to poor rural households. Although the scope of its programs was limited, bad farm families who participated benefited considerably. One research study approximates that families who took part in FSA programs saw their incomes increase by 69 percent between 1937 and 1941! Annual per capita meat intake increased from 85 pounds to 447 pounds in the very same duration. Milk intake increased by more than half.
  
  In 1946 the Farmers Home Administration Act combined the Farm Security Administration with the Emergency Crop and Feed Loan Division of the Farm Credit Administration - a quasi-governmental firm that still exists today. This Act included authorities to the new Farmers Home Administration that included insuring loans made by other lenders. Later legislation recognized lending for rural housing, rural business enterprises, and rural water and garbage disposal agencies.
  
  Meanwhile, the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 had actually established the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, or AAA. The “Triple A’s” function was to stabilize farm rates at a level at which farmers could endure. The law developed state and county committees of farmers called “Triple A committees.” These committees supervise the very first federal farm program offering rate support loans to farmers to cause crop reduction.
  
  The old Triple A was built on 2 significant program departments: the Division of Production and the Division of Processing and Marketing. These were accountable for the work of product areas consisting of dairy, rice, tobacco, sugar, wheat, cotton, corn and hogs.
  
  With the passage of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 and a basic reorganization of the Department of Agriculture that October came brand-new, complicated changes in preservation, crop support and marketing legislation. Programs such as product marketing controls, and the policy of the Congress to assist farmers in acquiring parity costs and parity income, made the federal government the decision-maker for the nation’s farmers.
  
  After Pearl Harbor, the War Food Administration (WFA) was arranged to satisfy the increased requirements of a country at war. This reorganization grouped production, supply and marketing authorities under a central firm which collaborated the circulation of fundamental commodities.
  
  Following The Second World War, the authority of the WFA was terminated. In its location came the Production and Marketing Administration, which, aside from other obligations, kept a field services branch to assist in program oversight.
  
  The post-war duration of modification to peace-time production levels was nearly as hard as getting ready for war. New priorities had actually to be established, and at the exact same time, over-production of certain commodities threatened drops in farm income levels. The increased needs of war-ravaged nations helped absorb surplus production, but surpluses stayed a nagging problem for farmers and policymakers.
  
  In 1953, a reorganization of USDA again made changes in the powers and duties of its price support and supply management agency. With the changes came a new name - Commodity Stabilization Service - and an increased focus on the preservation of farm earnings. Conserving programs such as the Soil Bank were introduced to bring production in line with demand by taking land out of production for time periods ranging approximately 10 years. Community, county and state committees were officially identified for the very first time as Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation committees.
  
  The Commodity Stabilization Service became the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) in 1961, and the new name reflected the company’s stabilization and resource preservation objectives. Field activities in connection with farm programs continue to be carried out through an extensive network of state and county field offices.
  
  In 1994, a reorganization of USDA resulted in the Consolidated Farm Service Agency, relabelled Farm Service Agency in November 1995. The new FSA incorporated the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) and the farm credit portion of the Farmers Home Administration. In May 1996 FCIC ended up being the Risk Management Agency.
  
  Today, FSA’s responsibilities are organized into 5 locations: Farm Programs, Farm Loans, Commodity Operations, Management and State Operations. The agency continues to supply America’s farmers with a strong safeguard through the administration of farm commodity programs. FSA also carries out ad hoc disaster programs. FSA’s long-standing custom of saving the nation’s natural resources continues through the Conservation Reserve Program. The company offers credit to agricultural manufacturers who are unable to get personal, commercial credit. FSA locations special emphasis on providing loans to beginning, minority and females farmers and ranchers. Its Commodity Operations department purchases and provides products for use in humanitarian programs in your home and abroad. FSA programs assist feed America’s school kids and starving people around the world. Additionally, the company supports the country’s handicapped residents by purchasing products made by these persons.