An Analysis of Farmers' Agricultural Policy Preferences

This paper analyzes farmers' attitudes toward competing agricultural policies. The empirical work utilizes data on Iowa farmers' opinions of four policies: continuing the current program, targeting benefits to fiscally stressed farmers, mandatory controls, and decoupling. The results show that a farmer' s financial situation, size and type of operation, education, and farm experience significantly influence his opinions. Attitudes toward mandatory controls and targeting are most sensitive, and attitudes toward continuation of the current program are least sensitive to changes in economic characteristics. Strong identifiable camps of both support and opposition are found for each policy except the current program.