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U.S. Code as of:
01/03/05
Section 1421. Price support
(a) Source
The Secretary shall provide the price support authorized or
required herein through the Commodity Credit Corporation and other
means available to him.
(b) Authority of Secretary; factors considered
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), in the case of upland cotton,
changes in the cost of producing such cotton.
(c) Compliance by producer; program for diverted acres
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 the Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act [42 U.S.C.
5121 et seq.], in such manner as will most quickly restore the
normal pattern of their agriculture.
(d) Time of determining levels
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 1 in the case of
any other commodity.
(e) Processors' assurances; payment if assurances inadequate
(1) 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.
(2)(A) If the assurances under paragraph (1) are not adequate to
cause the producers of sugar beets and sugarcane, because of the
bankruptcy or other insolvency of the processor, to receive maximum
benefits from the price support program within 30 days after the
final settlement date provided for in the contract between such
producers and processor, the Secretary, on demand made by such
producers and on such assurances as to nonpayment as the Secretary
shall require, shall pay such producers such maximum benefits less
benefits previously received by such producers.
(B) On such payment, the Secretary shall -
(i) be subrogated to all claims of such producers against the
processor and other persons responsible for nonpayment; and
(ii) have authority to pursue such claims as necessary to
recover the benefits not paid to the producers.
(C) The Secretary shall carry out this paragraph through the
Commodity Credit Corporation.
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