T value (or T level) - For a specific soil, the maximum average annual soil loss expressed as tons per acre per year that will permit current production levels to be maintained economically and indefinitely; the soil loss tolerance level. T values range from 2 to 5 tons per acre per year. According to the 1992 national resources inventory, about 63 million acres of highly erodible cropland are still eroding at more than their T value, including 21 million acres that are still eroding at three times T.

Taking endangered or threatened species - "Taking," in layman’s terms, means killing or removing a plant or animal of a species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), or seriously damaging its chances of reproduction. Except under specified circumstances, taking is forbidden under the ESA. The definition of taking is one of the current issues in the ESA debate. Incidental take of a listed species is a taking which occurs in the course of some other legal activity, whether carried out by a federal or a nonfederal entity.

Takings (of property) - The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, and comparable provisions in state constitutions, bar the "taking" of private property by government unless just compensation is paid to the property owner. Initially, the Supreme Court recognized only government seizures and physical invasions of primate property as "takings." Thus, recurring flooding of a farm as the result of a government dam would probably be a taking. In 1922, the Court expanded the concept of takings to include government actions that merely restrict the economic use of private property, if that restriction is severe enough. However, the line between restrictions that take and those that do not has proved elusive; the Court repeatedly stresses that the determination is an ad hoc, case-by-case one. The agricultural community perceives a threat of takings from federal efforts to preserve wetlands and endangered species, though actual court decisions finding takings of farmland are few. The takings issue has also worked against farmers by virtue of a recent case striking down a "right to farm" law that curtailed the right of owners of residential properties adjacent to farms to sue for nuisance based on farm operations. That law was held to effect a taking of a negative easement of the adjacent properties.

Talmadge-Aiken plants - The approximately 250 meat and poultry plants in 10 states where USDA has contracted with state agency inspectors to conduct federal inspection activities. They are now formally known as Federal-State Cooperative Inspection Plants. Even though state employees are conducting the inspection in these plants, they are under the federal rather than state inspection programs.

Target price - Price levels established by past law for wheat, corn, grain sorghum, barley, oats, rice, and upland cotton. Prior to 1996, farmers participating in annual federal commodity programs received deficiency payments based on the difference between the target price and the higher of the national market price during a specified time period, or the nonrecourse loan rate. The FAIR Act of 1996 eliminated target prices and replaced deficiency payments with fixed production flexibility contract payments through 2002.

Targeted Export Assistance Program (TEA) - A program authorized by the Food Security Act of 1985 to assist U.S. producer groups in promoting exports of products adversely affected by foreign governments’ unfair trade practices. TEA is the predecessor of the Market Promotion Program (MPP), which was replaced by the Market Access Program (MAP) in 1996.

Targeting - A policy concept under which government farm program benefits would be directed toward specified groups of producers. One example of targeting might be to focus farm payments on small to medium-sized family owned and operated farms.

Tariff - A tariff is a list or schedule of taxes, while a duty is the tax imposed on a specific item. However, the terms duty and tariff have come to be used interchangeably. In international trade, these taxes must be paid to a government on selected imported or sometimes exported goods. The Harmonized Tariff Schedules of the United States (HTSUS) lists the items on which the United States levies duties. Tariffs may be protective of domestic producers (keeping domestic prices higher than world prices) or serve as revenue generators for the government. Tariffs are considered transparent trade barriers in contrast to several nontariff barriers. The Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture requires conversion of nontariff barriers to bound tariffs.

Tariff Act of 1930 - P.L. 71-361, also known as the Smoot-Hawley Act, raised U.S. import tariffs to their highest levels in history, prompting U.S. trading partners to adopt their own retaliatory trade barriers and exacerbating the Great Depression. Ensuing U.S. policies have virtually eliminated the Act’s most onerous provisions, but some elements of the amended law still serve as the authorizing vehicle for a number of general trade provisions of importance to the agricultural sector, including countervailing duties, antidumping duties, and country-of-origin labeling.

Tariff-rate quota - A trade policy tool used to protect a domestically-produced commodity or product from competitive imports. A tariff rate quota (TRQ) combines two policy instruments that nations historically have used to restrict such imports: quotas and tariffs. In a TRQ, the quota component works together with a specified tariff level to provide the desired degree of import protection. Imports entering during a specific time period under the quota portion of a TRQ are usually subject to a lower, or sometimes a zero, tariff rate. Imports above the quota’s quantitative threshold face a much higher (usually prohibitive) tariff. Currently, TRQs apply to U.S. imports of certain dairy products, beef, cotton, peanuts, sugar, certain sugar-containing products, and tobacco.

Tariff schedule - A list or schedule of duties imposed in the conduct of international trade. The Harmonized Tariff Schedules of the United States (HTSUS) lists the items on which the United States levies a duty (or tariff) and/or imposes an import or tariff rate quota. A specific duty, and/or quota amount, is assigned to each item on the schedule.

Tariffication - The process of converting nontariff trade barriers to bound tariffs. This is done under the UR agreement in order to improve the transparency of existing agricultural trade barriers and facilitate their proposed reduction.

Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 (TGA) - P.L. 73-482 (June 28, 1934) provides for the regulation of grazing on the public lands (excluding Alaska) to improve rangeland conditions and stabilize the western livestock industry. The law initially permitted 80 million acres of previously unreserved public lands of the United States to be placed into grazing districts to be administered by the Department of the Interior. As amended, the law now sets no limit on the amount of lands in grazing districts. There are currently approximately 150 million acres in grazing districts.

TCK smut - Tilletia controversa kuhnis a wheat fungus present in the Pacific Northwest. It takes on policy significance because China applies a zero tolerance on TCK spores resulting in a ban since 1974 on shipments from the Pacific Northwest. Until the summer of 1996, China accepted shipments of U.S. wheat from the Gulf coast, even if they contained traces of TCK and negotiated price discounts with the shippers to cover the cost of decontamination before the affected wheat was unloaded. But in June 1996, China rejected cargoes of U.S. wheat with traces of TCK. China and the United States since have exchanged scientific teams as part of an effort to resolve the problem.

Team nutrition - Coordinated effort by the Food and Consumer Service to implement the school meals initiative for healthy children.

Technical barriers to trade (TBTs) - A category of nontariff barriers to trade, TBTs are the widely divergent measures that countries use to regulate markets, protect their consumers, or preserve their natural resources (among other objectives), but they also can be used (or perceived by foreign countries) to discriminate against imports in order to protect domestic industries. TBTs with the greatest impact on agriculture are the various sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures designed to protect humans, animals, and plants, from diseases, pests, and other contaminants. Examples of TBTs, other than SPS measures, are rules for product weight, size, or packaging; ingredient or identity standards; mandatory labeling; shelf-life restrictions; and import testing and certification procedures. The broad term "technical barriers to trade" is frequently applied to all of these types of measures, even where they might be legitimate and consistent with bilateral or multilateral trading rules. However, trade experts widely view TBTs as having great potential for being misused by importing countries as nontransparent (disguised or unclear) obstacles to trade. (See transparency.)

Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983 (TEFAA) - P.L. 98-8 (March 24, 1983) was a supplemental appropriations act for FY1983 that among other things explicitly authorized a discretionary commodity donation effort begun in 1981 by the USDA. The initial effort was limited to disposal of excess commodities held by the Commodity Credit Corporation by donating them to states. This law also authorized funding to help states and local emergency feeding organizations with the storage and distribution costs of handling the commodities. This is the origin of the current Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983 (P.L. 98-92) as amended.

Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) - A program that evolved out of a surplus commodity donation efforts begun by the USDA in late 1981 to dispose of surplus foods (especially cheese) held by the Commodity Credit Corporation. This program was explicitly authorized by the Congress in 1983 when funding was provided to assist states with the costs involved in storing and distributing the commodities. The program originally was entitled the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program when authorized under the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983. The word "temporary" was dropped from statute and program title in the FACT Act of 1990. The acronym EFAP now is used for this program.

Tender - As a verb, tender announces the intention of delivering a notice or an actual commodity; i.e., XYZ Grain Growers, Inc., tenders six cars to North Pacific at the time of shipment for application on an open sales contract. As a noun, tender normally denotes a notice of an intent to buy. The tender usually spells out in detail quantities to be purchased, desired quality, time of shipment, country of origin, and all inspection, weighing, and payment terms. Overseas buyers usually issue tenders to ensure the maximum competition for a given piece of business. Also, the action of receiving offers, determining the best one, deciding whether, and how much, to buy, and announcing the awards of contracts. Ordinarily, a buyer reserves the right to reject any or all of the offers submitted.

Teratogen - A chemical that causes nonhereditary birth defects in a developing fetus. Teratogencity is taken into account in assessing the toxicity of pesticides and other chemicals. Both level and timing of exposure to teratogens determine health effects.

Terminal elevator - A large elevator (warehouse) facility with the capacity to transfer grain to rail cars, barges, or ships for transport to domestic or foreign markets. Terminal elevator markets are used as base locations for posted county prices.

Terminal market A central site, often in a metropolitan area, that serves as an assembly and trading place for agricultural commodities. Terminal markets are usually at or near major transportation hubs. - A metropolitan market that handles all agricultural commodities.

Terminator seeds - A descriptive term used by some for seeds that have been genetically engineered to produce a crop whose first generation produces sterile seeds, thus preventing a second generation from being grown from seeds saved from the first. This technology (currently 3 to 5 years from commercial application) was developed under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between the Agricultural Research Service and a private seed company. Supporters of the technology state that it is a way to build patent protection directly into high-value, genetically engineered crop varieties and thus recoup high research investment costs. Opponents are concerned that the technology could have harmful environmental and public health effects and argue that it would have an inequitable impact on farmers in developing countries who rely on saved seed for replanting and for developing locally adapted varieties.

Terrace - An embankment, ridge, or leveled strip constructed across sloping soils on the contour, or at right angle to the slope. The terrace intercepts surface runoff so that it can soak into the soil or flow slowly to a prepared outlet, decreasing rates of soil erosion.

The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) - Established in 1983 to provide CCC-owned foodstuffs, at no charge, to states in amounts relative to the number of unemployed and needy persons. The food is distributed by charitable organizations to eligible recipients.

Threatened species - Species listed by regulation under ESA, and are generally given a lower level of protection than endangered species.

Three entity rule - Federal law currently sets an annual cap on the amount of direct payments that a person may receive from major farm programs. A provision in this law permits a person to receive payments up to the full cap on the first farm in which the person has a substantial beneficial interest, and up to half the full cap on each of two additional farms; hence the so-called "three-entity rule."

Threshold - The lowest non-zero dose of a chemical at which a specified measurable effect occurs. Sometimes used to refer to the income level above which an applicant for food stamp benefits would be ineligible.

The TFP is one of four USDA-designed food plans specifying foods and amounts of foods to provide adequate nutrition. It is used as the basis for designing food stamp program benefits. It is the cheapest food plan and is priced monthly using the price data collected for the consumer price index (CPI). However, it is not the same as the food components of the CPI. The monthly cost of the TFP used for the food stamp program represents a national average of prices (four-person household consisting of an adult couple and two school-age children) adjusted for other household sizes through the use of a formula reflecting economies of scale. For food stamp purposes, the TFP as priced each June sets maximum benefit levels for the fiscal year beginning the following October.

Timberland - Lands that can grow annually a minimum amount of wood that can be used to produce commercial wood products; excludes lands where timber cutting is prohibited by law or by executive decision.

Timber sale - A contract for the sale of federal timber to a private purchaser with the right to cut and remove trees for an agreed-upon stumpage price; the contract includes an estimated volume of wood and an appraised stumpage price, which is the basis for competitive bidding by purchasers.

Tissue culture - The technique of growing a whole plant from a single engineered cell or piece of plant tissue.

Tobacco Price Support Program - The tobacco price support program uses a combination of marketing quotas and nonrecourse loans to keep prices stable and higher than they would be otherwise. The marketing quotas limit production in order to raise prices. Nonrecourse loans allow producers to hold tobacco stocks for long periods in order to balance supplies with market demand conditions. By law since 1982, tobacco loan program operations are required to function at no net cost to taxpayers. A no net cost assessment is collected on all leaf tobacco sold to build a reserve fund that reimburses the Commodity Credit Corporation for any losses of loan principal and interest.

Tokyo Round - The GATT negotiations formally initiated by the Tokyo Declaration in 1973 and completed in 1979. More countries were involved in the Tokyo Round than previous rounds (including many developing countries and several East European countries), and discussions were expanded to include nontariff trade barriers.

Tolerance, pesticide residue - The amount of pesticide residue allowed by regulation to remain in or on a food sold in interstate commerce. Whenever a pesticide is registered for use on a food or a feed crop, a tolerance (or exemption from the tolerance requirement) must be established. The Environmental Protection Agency establishes the tolerance levels, which are enforced by the Food and Drug Administration and USDA.

Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) - P.L. 94-469 (October 11, 1976) authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate toxic substances (any chemical that may present a risk of unreasonable harm to man or the environment). By definition, however, the Act excludes from EPA regulation under TSCA certain substances, including pesticides (as defined by and regulated under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act), tobacco or tobacco products, and any food or food additive (as defined by and regulated under the Poultry Products Inspection Act, the Federal Meat Inspection Act, the Egg Products Inspection Act, or the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act).

Trade Act of 1974 - P.L. 93-618 provided the President with tariff and nontariff trade barrier negotiating authority for the Tokyo Round of multilateral trade negotiations. It also gave the President broad authority to counteract injurious and unfair foreign trade practices. Section 201 of the Act requires the International Trade Commission to investigate petitions filed by domestic industries or workers claiming injury or threat of injury due to expanding imports. Investigations must be completed within 6 months. If such injury is found, restrictive measures may be implemented. Action under Section 201 is allowed under the GATT escape clause, GATT Article XIX. Section 301 was designed to eliminate unfair foreign trade practices that adversely affect U.S. trade and investment in both goods and services. Under Section 301, the President must determine whether the alleged practices are unjustifiable, unreasonable, or discriminatory and burden or restrict U.S. commerce. If the President determines that action is necessary, the law directs that all appropriate and feasible action within the President’s power should be taken to secure the elimination of the practice.

Trade Adjustment Assistance - Assistance provided by the Departments of Labor and Commerce to workers and firms that are adversely affected by increased imports. The Labor Department administers a program offering certified workers cash benefits for direct trade readjustment allowances and service benefits that include allocations for job search, relocation, and training. The Department of Commerce sponsors programs that provide technical services to certified firms designed to restore the economic viability of U.S. industries adversely affected by international import competition. This assistance is authorized by subchapter II of the Trade Act of 1974. The Act was amended most recently in 1993, when "transitional" assistance was approved for workers affected by increased imports from Canada or Mexico or by shifts of U.S. production to those countries as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Authority to extend trade adjustment assistance expires on June 30, 1999, but funds are appropriated to cover all of FY1999.

Trade Agreements Act of 1979 - P.L. 96-39 (July 26, 1979) provided the implementing legislation for the Tokyo Round of multilateral trade agreements in such areas as customs valuation, standards, subsidies, and government procurement.

Trade and Tariff Act of 1984 - P.L. 98-573 (October 30, 1984) clarified the conditions under which unfair trade cases under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 can be pursued. It also provided bilateral trade negotiating authority for the U.S.-Israel Free Trade Agreement and the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement, and set out procedures to be followed for congressional approval of future bilateral free trade agreements.

Trade liberalization - A term which describes the complete or partial elimination of government policies or subsidies that adversely affect trade. The removal of trade-distorting policies may be done by one country (unilaterally) or by many (multilaterally).

Trade Policy Committee - The TPC is the senior U.S. Government interagency trade committee established to provide broad guidance on trade issues. It is chaired by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and is comprised of other cabinet officers, including the Secretary of Agriculture. The Trade Policy Review Group (TPRG) which reports to the TPC is chaired by the Deputy USTR and is comprised of sub-cabinet representatives, including the Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm Services and Foreign Agriculture. The Trade Policy Staff Committee, the level at which position papers are initiated, is chaired by a Deputy Assistant USTR and has representation from other cabinet departments including USDA.

Transfer of development rights (TDR) - Property rights that may not be used on the land from which they were derived; usually they are sold from areas where uses are restricted, such as active agricultural areas, to receiving or growth areas where development is being encouraged.

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) - The name of a number of degenerative brain diseases that infect humans and animals. For example, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) infects cattle; scrapie infects sheep and goats; Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD) infects humans.

Transparency - A World Trade Organization principle stipulating that a country’s policies and regulations affecting foreign trade should be clearly communicated to its trading partners. For example, out of recognition that sanitary and phytosanitary measures may (sometimes deliberately) be unclear, arbitrary, or capricious, recent international trading agreements have provisions calling on countries to notify others, in advance, about any measures that could affect trade, to fully explain them, and to provide a means for commenting on them.

Transshipment - Refers to the primary export of U.S. farm products to certain countries (notably Canada and the Netherlands) and their further shipment to other countries. Unless there is "adjustment for transshipment," export statistics can reflect a distorted picture.

Tree Assistance Program (TAP) - A disaster assistance program, administered by the Farm Service Agency, that makes payments for lost orchard trees and vines that produce annual crops. The program has been funded on an ad hoc basis, usually by emergency supplemental appropriations. Most recently, the program was funded for losses incurred between October 1, 1997, and September 30, 1998.

Tree measurement sales - A timber sale where purchasers pay the total bid value (the estimated timber volume times the stumpage price) regardless of the volume of timber actually removed.

Trickle irrigation / drip irrigation - Method in which water drips to the soil from perforated tubes or emitters. This irrigation technology is water conserving compared to flooding, furrows, and sprinklers.

Triple base plan - Also called the flexible base plan. A proposal under which farmers who raise program crops would receive program payments only on a certain percentage of their permitted acreage. A producer participating in a federal price support program actually would have three categories of base acres for program purposes: 1) permitted acres on which deficiency payments would be made; 2) permitted acres on which no federal payments would be made, but could be planted to other crops, either specified or unspecified; 3) idled acres (those required to be set aside under acreage reduction rules) where no crops other than those for conservation could be planted. Triple base is another name for what came to be known as normal flex acres. Production flexibility contracts now have eliminated the linkage between payments and actual plantings.