The very first farm bill, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, was passed in 1933 as an early part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal approach in dealing with the Great Depression. The intent was to try to protect farmers from very low crop prices that accentuated the impact of the depression on a rural America quite different from what exists today. That first farm bill came at a time when there were more than 6.5 million, mostly small, farms in the U.S. In addition, over half of the U.S. population lived in rural areas. Now, approximately 85 years later, the number of U.S. farms barely exceeds 2 million with less than a quarter of the population considered rural. However, today’s average-sized farm is about three times lar...