GPHC 2018-2019

The Second Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was an adjustment to farm subsidy policies. Ultimately, the aim of this law was to increase farmers income, as demand was decreasing and a voluntary holt in production on the part of the farmers would likely result in them not making enough to survive. The Second Agriculture Adjustment Act subsided farmers to reduce acreage and production of "staple items"  including bu not limited to pigs, cotton, tobacco, milk, rice and wheat. This list changed over time reflecting the needs of the country. The most urgent holt in production was cotton. Eventually, the farmers were essentially paid to destroy the cotton surplus in order to save the country money when the cotton surplus began to exceed the international consumption of American cotton, not including the 400,000 other acres of cotton which were planted and had not been harvested. Although it wasn't bad to burn the cotton, it was absolutely unthinkable to burn food when American

The Resettlement Administration was founded in May of 1935 with the mission of relocating struggling families, especially those in farming communities, into planned communities within cities called City Green Belts. Green Belts should have been glimmering examples of what a sustainable future could look like within cities, but this future never actually arrived. The Resettlement Administration had four branches including Rural Rehabilitation, Rural Resettlement, Land Utilization, and Suburban Resettlement. Initially, the goal of the organization was to relocate 650,000 people from 100,000,000 acres of agriculturally useless land but this plan was unfavorable to Congress and most Americans because it seemed socialistic in nature. Instead the RA moved a few thousand people from around 9,000 acres of land into what was called City Green Belts. Ultimately , Resettlement Administration was ineffective because of lack of cooperation from other government entities and lack of fu

President Roosevelt passed the Homeowners’ Refinancing Act (or Homeowners’ Loan Act) on June 13, 1933 with the intention of assisting homeowners defaulting on their mortgages. I learned from The Living New Deal all about the background and effects of this law. They explain that since the market crash of 1929 the issue of home loan defaults had become huge, especially because of the amount of large loans taken out immediately before during the Roaring Twenties. Roosevelt hoped that getting homeowners in a position to pay off their mortgages would help more that just the owners; he saw its potential to generate increased revenue for the banks they lent from, help local governments bring in additional funds from property taxes, and provide jobs through the revival of the dying construction industry.    In order to carry this out, the Homeowners’ Refinancing Act established the Homeowners’ Refinancing Corporation. The group bought up homeowners’ debts and then gave them new loans that

The Federal Housing Administration was formed in 1934 and exists to this day. It was, as The Living New Deal explains, created as part of the Federal Housing Act, which aimed to “encourage improvement in housing standards and conditions, to provide a system of mutual mortgage insurance, and for other purposes.”           Roosevelt saw it as critical that fear of home loans generated by the recent housing market crash wouldn’t cause the industry to stay shattered long after the economy recovered. As The Living New Deal explains, he was already confident his government’s introduction of the idea of long term, low interest loans would fix most of the issues present in the previous housing crash, but he knew he needed to win back trust in the market. Thus he established the Federal Housing Administration, which insured banks against losses on mortgage loans.    This was a resounding success, convincing banks to go back to loaning and enticing lenders with low interest rates. There was,

Emergency Farm Mortgage Act of April 1933 The Emergency Farm Mortgage Act, was actually an amendment to the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933. The Emergency Farm Mortgage Act helped farmers gain the ability to refinance their mortgages and buy tax-exempt bonds. Beginning In April of 1933, the Emergency Farm Mortgage Act provided 200 million dollars in loans to farmers whose land was on the verge of foreclosure. The Emergency Farm Mortgage Act, of 1933, loaned money to to many farmers who were at risk of losing their property. The act developed two programs that helped deal with the rising rate of farmers not being able to pay back their loans. The first program was run by the Federal Land Banks (FLB) which were a set of twelve banks, sponsored by the government to help loan money to these at risk farmers. The second program was run by the Land Back Commissioner (LBC) who regulated these twelve banks. These two programs had a very large impact on the issue. By the mid 1930’s,

Farm Credit Act, March 1933 The Farm Credit Act of March 1933 helped a large number of farmers survive the dangerous economic and social circumstances of the Great Depression. The Farm Credit Act helped to offer short term loans to help with crop production and it also supported farmers who were in danger of having their land foreclosed on, by extending low interest rates. Thanks to the Farm Credit Act, many farmers had the aid of twelve banks called, Banks for Cooperatives to help take advantage of these low interest rates, this is known as the Farm Credit System. There is also a thirteenth bank that manages larger agricultural organizations. The act also brought a myriad of agencies working in agricultural credit together into an organization called the Farm Credit Administration (FCA), which had organizations within it to provide loans for production and  advertisement of crops and other agricultural needs. The Farm Credit Administration is an non-government organization (NGO)

Environmental Sustainability                     If I were to enact a policy to increase environmental sustainability on a country level, I would do so by first focusing on energy usage, offering tax incentives for property owners to take steps to streamline the energy efficiency of existing buildings. If there was a noticeable decrease of power, water, and/or gas usage, (Greater than 10%) then the owner or property manager may be subject to a significant rebate. After this, I would promote high standards for energy efficiency on new buildings. With similar if not higher incentives on new construction, I believe that new buildings would be much more energy efficient. After I have enacted policies on new and existing buildings, I would turn my focus to the manufacturing sector.           When buying new cars, the most polluting factor is not the emissions created by the vehicle itself, or the fuel efficiency of it, but rather the manufacturing process. A study by Toyota concluded

As the president of any given nation focusing on environmental sustainability, my main concerns would be the conservation of biodiversity, the effects of Climate Change, and the reduction of fossil fuels. One way of increasing the biodiversity in many countries, with the exception of areas whose climate could not support heavy vegetation, is through the commission and propagation of food forests. A food forest as defined by the Beacon Food Forest Permaculture Project is “a gardening technique or land management system, which mimics a woodland ecosystem by substituting edible trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals. Fruit and nut trees make up the upper level, while berry shrubs, edible perennials and annuals make up the lower levels ( “Beacon Food Forest Permaculture Project” ).” This can also be seen in the diagrams below: Through this model of creating functional green spaces, and or partially replacing the nations current agricultural systems with this method of cultiv

Environmental Sustainability I think that the best way to address environmental sustainability is by doing so at the highest possible level of organization. This should ideally be done through international agreements. This is because when it comes to environmental sustainability, one country's actions can significantly impact other nations, especially when it comes to the topic of climate change, and to have a significant impact all countries must work together. If I was a world leader at the UN, I would work to put forward an international agreement with specific rules that all countries must follow. This would be based off of what leading climate scientists agree must be done in order to offset the effects of global climate change. I would try to have these regulations less heavily impact developing nations in the third world, as the negative economic effects of this in the short term might effect them much more heavily than it would a developed nation. I would however p