An old maxim holds that too much of a good thing can be bad for your health. That maxim pretty well sums up U.S. agriculture's predicament in 1994. The nation's crop producers produced record harvests and livestock producers sent record amounts of meat to the nation's meat counters. The...

Agriculture's strong financial recovery after six recession years and the Agricultural Credit Act of 1987 mark a new era in farm lending. Some farm lenders are likely to gain in the new lending environment, while others may lose.

A new farm bill will be enacted in 1995, and the debate over it has already begun. With farm bills being renewed just once every five years, the 1995 bill provides a propitious opportunity to re-evaluate the current bill in light of fundamental changes to the marketplace since the adoption of...