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  Agency History
  
  The Farm Service Agency traces its starts to 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression. A wave of discontent brought on by mounting joblessness and farm failures had helped elect President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who promised Americans a "New Deal."
  
  One outcome was the facility in 1935 of a Department of Agriculture company with familiar initials: FSA, which meant Farm Security Administration. Originally called the Resettlement Administration, and relabelled in 1937, its original mission was to relocate entire farm communities to areas in which it was hoped farming could be brought out more successfully. But resettlement was questionable and costly, and its results uncertain. Other roles soon became more vital, including the Standard Rural Rehabilitation Loan Program, which offered credit, farm and home management preparation and technical guidance. This was the forerunner of the farm loan programs of the Farmers Home Administration.
  
  Another associated program was Debt Adjustment and Tenure Improvement. FSA county supervisors, often with the help of volunteer committees of regional farmers, would deal with farmers and their debtors to try to arbitrate agreements and avoid foreclosure. The idea was to reach an offer by which the bank could recover as much or more than it would through foreclosure by permitting the farmer to remain in business.
  
  FSA also promoted co-ops and even provided healthcare to bad rural families. Although the scope of its programs was restricted, poor farm families who participated benefited considerably. One study estimates that households who took part in FSA programs saw their earnings rise by 69 percent between 1937 and 1941! Annual per capita meat intake increased from 85 pounds to 447 pounds in the same duration. Milk consumption increased by over half.
  
  In 1946 the Farmers Home Administration Act consolidated the Farm Security Administration with the Emergency Crop and Feed Loan Division of the Farm Credit Administration - a quasi-governmental agency that still exists today. This Act added authorities to the new Farmers Home Administration that included guaranteeing loans made by other lending institutions. Later legislation established lending for rural housing, rural organization enterprises, and rural water and waste disposal firms.
  
  Meanwhile, the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 had actually developed the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, or AAA. The "Triple A's" purpose was to support farm rates at a level at which farmers could endure. The law established state and county committees of farmers called "Triple A committees." These committees supervise the first federal farm program offering rate support loans to farmers to produce crop decrease.
  
  The old Triple A was built on 2 significant program departments: the Division of Production and the Division of Processing and Marketing. These were responsible for the work of product sections consisting of dairy, rice, tobacco, sugar, wheat, cotton, corn and hogs.
  
  With the passage of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 and a general reorganization of the Department of Agriculture that October came brand-new, complicated changes in conservation, crop support and marketing legislation. Programs such as commodity marketing controls, and the policy of the Congress to help farmers in acquiring parity costs and parity earnings, made the federal government the decision-maker for the country's farmers.
  
  After Pearl Harbor, the War Food Administration (WFA) was organized to meet the increased needs of a nation at war. This reorganization organized production, supply and marketing authorities under a central company which collaborated the flow of standard commodities.
  
  Following World War II, the authority of the WFA was ended. In its location came the Production and Marketing Administration, which, aside from other obligations, kept a field services branch to aid in program oversight.
  
  The post-war period of adjustment to peace-time production levels was practically as hard as gearing up for war. New concerns had to be established, and at the same time, over-production of certain commodities threatened drops in farm earnings levels. The increased needs of war-ravaged nations helped soak up surplus production, however surpluses remained an unpleasant issue for farmers and policymakers.
  
  In 1953, a reorganization of USDA again made changes in the powers and duties of its rate assistance and supply management company. With the changes came a new name - Commodity Stabilization Service - and an increased focus on the conservation of farm income. Conserving programs such as the Soil Bank were presented to bring production in line with demand by taking land out of production for amount of times ranging as much as ten years. Community, county and state committees were formally 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 brand-new name showed the firm's stabilization and resource preservation missions. Field activities in connection with farm programs continue to be performed through a comprehensive network of state and county .
  
  In 1994, a reorganization of USDA resulted in the Consolidated Farm Service Agency, relabelled Farm Service Agency in November 1995. The brand-new FSA included the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) and the farm credit part of the Farmers Home Administration. In May 1996 FCIC became the Risk Management Agency.
  
  Today, FSA's obligations are arranged into 5 areas: Farm Programs, Farm Loans, Commodity Operations, Management and State Operations. The agency continues to supply America's farmers with a strong security web through the administration of farm commodity programs. FSA likewise executes advertisement hoc disaster programs. FSA's long-standing custom of saving the country's natural resources continues through the Conservation Reserve Program. The agency supplies credit to agricultural manufacturers who are not able to get private, business credit. FSA places special focus on offering loans to beginning, minority and females farmers and ranchers. Its Commodity Operations division purchases and delivers commodities for use in humanitarian programs at home and abroad. FSA programs help feed America's school kids and starving individuals around the world. Additionally, the firm supports the nation's handicapped people by acquiring products made by these individuals.