Lugar Revisited -- By USDA Economist's Farm Income Outlook

August 23, 1999

USDA economist Mitchell Morehart looks at the $7.4 billion farm aid package passed by the Senate and finds it will increase 1999 total net farm income well above last year's level and the average level of the 1990s. That was part of the argument posed by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-IN) during the Senate debate on the package.

Lugar contended that the Senate should consider that without any assistance, farm income would approximate the level of recent years. USDA projected net farm income this year of almost $44 billion may be a bit less than that of 1998, but it still would be close to the average of $45.5 billion for the 1990s, Lugar said.

Moreheart's assessment is included in this month's Agricultural Outlook to be available via the Internet by mid-week: http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/reports/erssor/economics/ao-bb/1999/ao264s.asc.

Other articles in the August Agricultural Outlook include an "anatomy of a merger" -- Cargill's acquisition of Continental Grain. James MacDonald reviews the economic issues that help explain the outcome of the merger.

The publication also considers The North American Free Trade Agreement's (NAFTA) effect on U.S., Canadian and Mexican markets, and the changing structure of Mexico's pork industry.