TITLE III-OTHER NONBASIC AGRICULTURAL SEC. 301. The Secretary is authorized to make available through loans, purchases, or other operations price support to producers for any nonbasic commodity not designated in title If at a level not in excess of 90 per centum of the parity price for the commodity. The Secretary is authorized to make price support available under this title for the 1978 through 1981 crops of flaxseed, dry edible beans, gum naval stores, and in the case of the 1979 through 1981 crops, sugar beets and sugar cane, and for any other nonbasic commodity not designated in title II, except that such authority shall terminate with respect to any commodity, other than those listed in this sentence, at the end of any crop year in which the net outlays for the commodity exceed $50 million. (7 U.S.C. 1447.) SEC. 302. Without restricting price support to those commodities for which a marketing quota or marketing agreement or order program is in effect, price support shall, insofar as feasible, be made available to producers of any storable nonbasic agricultural commodity for which such a program is in effect and who are complying with such program. The level of such support shall not be in excess of 90 per centum of the parity price of such commodity nor less than the level provided in the following table: is: If the supply percentage as of the beginning of the marketing year The level of support shall be not less than the following percentage of the parity price: Not more than 102 More than 102 but not more than 104 Provided, That the level of price support may be less than the minimum level provided in the foregoing table if the Secretary, after examination of the availability of funds for mandatory price support programs and consideration of the other factors specified in section 401 (b), 1 The last sentence of Sec. 301 was added by Sec. 1003(a) of the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, P.L. 95-113, 91 Stat. 950, Sept. 29, 1977, effective only with respect to the 1978 through 1981 crops. Sec. 1003(b), however, adds the following restriction: "(b) The amendment made by this section to the Agricultural Act of 1949 shall not be operative in any manner with respect to any price support program in effect on the date of enactment of this Act." determines that such lower level is desirable and proper. (7 U.S.C. 1448.) SEC. 308. In determining the level of price support for any nonbasic agricultural commodity under this title, particular consideration shall be given to the levels at which the prices of competing agricultural commodities are being supported. (7 U.S.C. 1449.) TITLE IV-MISCELLANEOUS SUPPORT THROUGH CCC SEC. 401. (a) The Secretary shall provide the price support authorized or required herein through the Commodity Credit Corporation and other means available to him. (7 U.S.C. 1421(a).) FACTORS (b) Except as otherwise provided in this Act, the amounts, terms, and conditions of price support operations and the extent to which such operations are carried out, shall be determined or approved by the Secretary. The following factors shall be taken into consideration in determining, in the case of any commodity for which price support is discretionary, whether a price-support operation shall be undertaken and the level of such support and, in the case of any commodity for which price support is mandatory, the level of support in excess of the minimum level prescribed for such commodity: (1) the supply of the commodity in relation to the demand therefor, (2) the price levels at which other commodities are being supported and, in the case of feed grains, the feed values of such grains in relation to corn, (3) the availability of funds, (4) the perishability of the commodity, (5) the importance of the commodity to agriculture and the national economy, (6) the ability to dispose of stocks acquired through a price-support operation, (7) the need for offsetting temporary losses of export markets, (8) the ability and willingness of producers to keep supplies in line with demand, and (9),1 in the case of upland cotton, changes in the cost of producing such cotton. (7 U.S.C. 1421(b).) COMPLIANCE WITH ACREAGE ALLOTMENTS, GOALS AND MARKETING PRACTICES (c)2 Compliance by the producer with acreage allotments, production goals and marketing practices (including marketing quotas when authorized by law), prescribed by the Secretary, may be required as a condition of eligibility for price support. In administering any program for diverted acres the Secretary may make his regulations applicable on an appropriate geographical basis. Such regulations shall be administered (1) in semiarid or other areas where good husbandry requires maintenance of a prudent feed reserve in such manner as to permit, to the extent so required by good husbandry, the production of forage crops for storage and subsequent use either on the farm or in feeding operations of the farm operator, and (2) in areas declared to be disaster areas by the President under Public Law 875,2 Eighty-first Congress, in such manner as will most quickly restore the normal pattern of their agriculture. (7 U.S.C. 1421(c).) Clause (9) was added by the Act of April 11, 1964, P.L. 88-297, 78 Stat. 175. 2 Language in subsection (c) after the first sentence was added by section 206 of the Agricultural Act of 1954, P.L. 83-690, 68 Stat. 901, Pub. L. 875, 81st Cong., should be read as the Disaster Relief Act of 1970, 84 Stat. 1759, as therein provided, which repealed Pub. L. 81-875. DETERMINATION OF SUPPORT LEVEL (d) The level of price support for any commodity shall be determined upon the basis of its parity price as of the beginning of the marketing year or season in the case of any commodity marketed on a marketing year or season basis and as of January I in the case of any other commodity. (7 U.S.C. 1421(d).) PROCESSOR PROGRAMS (e)3 Whenever any price support or surplus removal operation for any agricultural commodity is carried out through purchases from or loans or payments to processors, the Secretary shall, to the extent practicable, obtain from the processors such assurances as he deems adequate that the producers of the agricultural commodity involved have received or will receive maximum benefits from the price support or surplus removal operation. (7 U.S.C. 1421(e).) SUPPORT AT INCREASED LEVEL SEC. 402. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Act, price support at a level in excess of the maximum level of price support otherwise prescribed in this Act may be made available for any agricultural commodity if the Secretary determines, after a public hearing of which reasonable notice has been given, that price support at such increased level is necessary in order to prevent or alleviate a shortage in the supply of any agricultural commodity essential to the national welfare or in order to increase or maintain the production of any agricultural commodity in the interest of national security. The Secretary's determination and the record of the hearing shall be available to the public. (7 U.S.C. 1422.) ADJUSTMENTS FOR GRADE, ETC. SEC. 403. Appropriate adjustments may be made in the support price for any commodity for differences in grade, type, staple, quality, location, and other factors. Such adjustments shall, so far as practicable, be made in such manner that the average support price for such commodity will, on the basis of the anticipated incidence of such factors, be equal to the level of support determined as provided in this Act. Beginning with the 1959 crop, in adjusting the support price for cotton on the basis of grade, the Secretary shall establish separate price support rates for split grades and for full grades substantially reflecting relative values.5 In determining support prices for the 1966 and 1967 crops of rice the Secretary shall, notwithstanding the foregoing or any other provision of law, use head and broken rice value factors for the various varieties which (1) are not lower than those used with respect to the 1965 crop, and (2) do not differ as between any two varieties by a greater amount than the value factors used with respect to the 1965 crop for such two varieties differed.6 (7 U.S.C. 1423.) Subsection (e) was added by section 207 of the Agricultural Act of 1954, P.L. 83-690, 68 Stat. 901. As originally enacted this section contained as its third sentence the following: "Middling seven-eighths-inch cotton shall be the Standard in this Act." This sentence was repealed effective with the 1961 crop by section 108 of the Agricultural Act of 1958, P.L. 85-835, 72 Stat. 993. The last sentence was added by the Food and Agriculture Act of 1965, P.L. 89-321, 79 Stat. 1213. This sentence was added by the Agricultural Act of 1958, P.L. 85-835, 72 Stat. 993. This sentence was added by section 802 of the Food and Agriculture Act of 1965, P.L. 89-321, 79 Stat. 1213. UTILIZATION OF SERVICES AND FACILITIES OF CCC SEC. 404. The Secretary, in carrying out programs under section 32 of Public Law Numbered 320, Seventy-fourth Congress, approved August 24, 1935, as amended, and section 6 of the National School Lunch Act may utilize the services and facilities of the Commodity Credit Corporation (including but not limited to procurement by contract), and make advance payments to it. (7 U.S.C. 1424.) NONRECOURSE LOANS SEC. 405. No producer shall be personally liable for any deficiency arising from the sale of the collateral securing any loan made under authority of this Act unless such loan was obtained through fraudulent representations by the producer. This provision shall not, however, be construed to prevent the Commodity Credit Corporation or the Secretary from requiring producers to assume liability for deficiencies in the grade, quality, or quantity of commodities stored on the farm or delivered by them, for failure properly to care for and preserve commodities, or for failure or refusal to deliver commodities in accordance with the requirements of the program. There is authorized to be included in the terms and conditions of any such nonrecourse loan a provision whereby on and after the maturity of the loan or any extension thereof Commodity Credit Corporation shall have the right to acquire title to the unredeemed collateral without obligation to pay for any market value which such collateral may have in excess of the loan indebtedness. (7 U.S.C. 1425.) ADVANCE ANNOUNCEMENT SEC. 406. The Secretary shall, insofar as practicable, announce the level of price support for field crops in advance of the planting season and for other agricultural commodities in advance of the beginning of the marketing year or season (January 1 in the case of commodities not marketed on a marketing year or season basis), but the level of price support so announced shall not exceed the estimated maximum level of price support specified in this Act, based upon the latest information and statistics available to the Secretary when such level of price support is announced; and the level of price support so announced shall not be reduced if the maximum level of price support when determined, is less than the level so announced. (7 U.S.C. 1426.) RESTRICTIONS ON SALES BY CCC SEC. 407. The Commodity Credit Corporation may sell any farm commodity owned or controlled by it at any price not prohibited by this section. In determining sales policies for basic agricultural commodities or storable nonbasic commodities, the Corporation should give consideration to the establishing of such policies with respect to prices, terms, and conditions as it determines will not discourage or deter manufacturers, processors, and dealers from acquiring and carrying normal inventories of the commodity of the current crop. The Corporation shall not sell any basic agricultural commodity or storable non "This sentence was added by section 502 of the Agricultural Act of 1958, P.L. 85-835, 72 Stat. 996. |