97-905 ENR Agriculture: A Glossary of Terms, Programs, and Laws 2nd Edition June 8, 1999 Jasper Womach, Coordinator Agricultural Policy Specialist Resources, Science, and Industry Division *97-905* Principal CRS contributors to this glossary are: Jasper Womach; Geoffrey S. Becker; John Blodgett; Jean Yavis Jones; Remy Jurenas; Ralph Chite; and, Paul Rockwell. Other CRS contributors are: Eugene Boyd; Lynne Corn; Betsy Cody; Claudia Copeland; Diane Duffy; Bruce Foote; Ross Gorte; Charles Hanrahan; Martin R. Lee; Donna Porter; Jean M. Rawson; Joe Richardson; Jack Taylor; Linda Schierow; Mary Tiemann; Donna Vogt; and Jeffrey Zinn. Jasper Womach is responsible for coordination and editing of the original publication. Carol Canada coordinated and edited the second edition. Because the industry, federal programs, policy issues, and the law are continuously changing, this glossary will be updated in the future. Agriculture: A Glossary of Terms, Programs, and Laws Summary The complexities of federal farm and food programs have generated a unique vocabulary. Common understanding of these terms (new and old) is important to those involved in policymaking in this area. For this reason, the House Agriculture Committee requested that CRS prepare a glossary of agriculture and related terms (e.g., food programs, conservation, forestry, environmental protection, etc.). Besides defining terms and phrases with specialized meanings for agriculture, the glossary also identifies acronyms, agencies, programs, and laws related to agriculture that are of particular interest to the staff and Members of Congress. CRS is releasing it for general congressional use with the permission of the Committee. The approximately 1,900 items selected for inclusion in this glossary were determined in large part by Committee instructions concerning their needs, and by the informed judgment of numerous CRS experts. Time and resource constraints influenced how much and what was included. Many of the glossary explanations have been drawn from other published sources, including previous CRS glossaries, those published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies, and glossaries contained in the publications of various organizations, universities, and authors. In collecting these definitions, the compilers discovered that many terms have diverse specialized meanings in different professional settings. In this glossary, the definitions or explanations have been written to reflect their relevance to agriculture and recent changes in farm and food policies. This glossary is in alphabetical order and contains an explanation for each term with appropriate cross references. The terms shown in bold in the text of narrative explanations are included elsewhere as individual glossary terms; additionally, there are cross references to related terms. Some of the acronyms, particularly those of organizations and associations, are not followed by an explanation. The definitions and explanations are not legal in nature, but are explanatory. Hence, this document should not be used as a legal or administrative reference. For those purposes, the Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, and the Code of Federal Regulations are the more appropriate resources. Agriculture: A Glossary of Terms, Programs, and Laws AAEA — American Agricultural Economics Association. AAFCO — American Association of Feed Control Officials. AAM — American Agriculture Movement. AAMP — American Association of Meat Processors. AARCC — Alternative Agriculture Research and Commercialization Corporation. ABA — American Bakers Association. ABA — American Bankers Association. Abandoned wells — Abandoned drainage wells and abandoned water wells on vacant farmsteads are of particular concern for agriculture. Abandoned wells can present both safety risks and a direct conduit by which groundwater can be contaminated by surface runoff. A number of states have incentive and/or regulatory programs to cap or seal abandoned wells. AC — Area conservationist. ACA — Agricultural Credit Association. ACE — Agriculture in Concert with the Environment. Acid deposition / acid rain — Abnormally acidic (low pH) precipitation (or dry deposition) resulting from emissions of sulfur and nitrogen compounds that transform during chemical processes in the atmosphere. Acid deposition can affect the chemistry of soils and acidify lakes, adversely affecting forests and fish. It does not adversely affect cropland. The Clean Air Act includes a program focused on controlling precursor emissions of acid deposition—primarily sulfur oxides from coal-fired electric utilities. ACP — Agricultural Conservation Program. ACPA — American Crop Protection Association. Acquired lands — Lands in federal ownership that were obtained by the federal government through purchase, condemnation, gift, or exchange. One category of public lands . ACR — Acreage conservation reserve. Acre-foot — The volume of water that would cover one acre of land (43,560 square feet) to a depth of one foot, equivalent to 325,851 gallons of water. An acre-foot is the basic measure of agricultural water use. On average, irrigators apply almost 2 CRS-2 feet of water on each acre through the crop growing season; the amount ranges from 4 feet in the Southwest to a half foot in some eastern states. Water withdrawn for irrigation from ground and surface sources totals about 150 maf (million acre-feet) of water annually. Acreage allotment — Under provisions of permanent commodity price support law, a farm’s acreage allotment is its share, based on its previous production, of the national acreage needed to produce sufficient supplies of a particular crop. Under the FAIR Act of 1996, acreage allotments are not applicable to the contract commodities, peanuts, or sugar. However, acreage allotments still apply to tobacco. Acre — 1 acre=43,560 sq. ft.=208.7 ft.2 =0.405 hectares; or 640 acres=1 sq. mile (called a section). Acreage base (or base acres) — A farm’s average planted acreage for a specific crop over the previous five years (for wheat or feed grains) or three years (for cotton or rice), plus land not planted because of certain acreage reduction or diversion programs. Commodity acreage bases were eliminated by the FAIR Act of 1996. Acreage conservation reserve — The cropland acreage diverted from production under the acreage reduction program. Acreage diversion programs — Historically, commodity programs included provisions to reduce commodity supplies by diverting acreage to non-crop uses. Examples include paid diversion, unpaid diversion, set-aside , and acreage reduction programs. The FAIR Act of 1996 eliminated authority for the USDA to implement annual acreage reduction programs. The Conservation Reserve Program pays farmers for the long-term conversion of fragile cropland land to conserving uses and is not considered to be an acreage diversion program. Acreage limitation — With respect to commodity policy, acreage limitation might refer to planting constraints under an acreage reduction program, set-aside , or paid land diversion. In relation to water policy, it is the maximum number of acres that may be irrigated with less than full-cost water from Bureau of Reclamation projects. Generally, the acreage limitation for individuals or legal entities representing 25 people or fewer is 960 acres; however, amounts vary depending on a landowner’s legal status. Also referred to as ownership limitation, ownership entitlement, or non-full-cost entitlement. Acreage Reduction Program (ARP) — A no longer authorized annual cropland retirement program for wheat, feed grains, cotton, or rice in which farmers participating in the commodity programs (in order to be eligible for nonrecourse loans and deficiency payments) were mandated to idle a crop-specific, nationally-set portion of their base acreage during years of surplus. The idled acreage (called the acreage conservation reserve) was devoted to a conserving use. The goal was to reduce supplies, thereby raising market prices. Additionally, idled acres did not earn deficiency payments, thus reducing commodity program costs. ARP was criticized for diminishing the U.S. competitive position in export markets. The FAIR Act of 1996 did not reauthorize authority for ARPs. ARP differed from a set-aside program in that under a set-aside program reductions were based upon current year plantings, and did not require farmers to reduce their plantings of a specific crop. ACS — Alternative conservation system. Action levels — As opposed to tolerances (which are established for pesticide residues occurring as a direct result of proper usage), action levels are set for inadvertent residues resulting from previous legal use or accidental contamination. At the action level set by the Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration and USDA are required to take enforcement action against the contaminated food or agricultural commodity. The term is also used in other regulatory programs. Active ingredient — In any pesticide product, the component that kills, or otherwise controls, target pests. Pesticides are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency primarily on the basis of active ingredients. CRS-3 ACTPN — Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations . Actual Production History (APH) — A measure of an individual farmer’s annual production of a commodity over a multi- year period. The APH serves as the basis for the farmer’s “normal” crop yield in the crop insurance program. When the actual crop yield deviates by more than a certain