BRANNAN PLAN

BRANNAN PLAN, a farm price support plan using direct payments to the farmer under certain conditions as a substitute for other price supports. Among the initiatives of President Harry Truman's Fair Deal, this plan was first proposed by Secretary of Agriculture Charles Brannan in April 1949. The proposal aroused considerable opposition. Its opponents characterized it as unsound and fantastically expensive. In the 1952 presidential campaign, Republicans argued that the Brannan plan was an example of Democratic profligacy. Supporters of the plan countered that it was a rational approach to income protection for agriculture and a more effective and less costly way than price supports to subsidize the farmer when assistance is needed. Although advocated in Congress a number of times, usually in amended form, the plan was never approved.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Christensen, Reo Millard. The Brannan Plan. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1959.

Dean, Virgil W. "Why Not the Brannan Plan?" Agricultural History 70 (Spring 1996).

Thomas RobsonHay/t. m.

See alsoAgriculture ; Fair Deal .

Brannan plan USA; Plan to increase food production without reducing profitability by paying farmers directly the difference between the market price and the price needed to yield a fair profit. Proposed in 1950 by Secretary of Agriculture Charles F. Brannan.