--- kind: "section" citation: "7 U.S.C. § 1321" title: "7" title_heading: "Agriculture" number: "1321" heading: "Legislative finding of effect on interstate and foreign commerce and necessity of regulation" release: "119-102" date: "2026-07-12" url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/7/1321" units: - "Chapter 35 — Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938" - "Subchapter II — Loans, Parity Payments, Consumer Safeguards, Marketing Quotas, and Marketing Certificates" - "Part B — Marketing Quotas" - "Subpart ii — acreage allotments—corn" --- # §1321. Legislative finding of effect on interstate and foreign commerce and necessity of regulation [Corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) is a basic source of food for the Nation, and [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) produced in the commercial [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9)-producing area moves almost wholly in [interstate and foreign commerce](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-3) in the form of [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9), livestock, and livestock products. Abnormally excessive and abnormally deficient supplies of [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) acutely and directly affect, burden, and obstruct [interstate and foreign commerce](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-3) in [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9), livestock, and livestock products. When abnormally excessive supplies exist, transportation facilities in [interstate and foreign commerce](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-3) are overtaxed, and the handling and processing facilities through which the flow of [interstate and foreign commerce](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-3) in [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9), livestock, and livestock products is directed become acutely congested. Abnormally deficient supplies result in substantial decreases in livestock production and in an inadequate flow of livestock and livestock products in [interstate and foreign commerce](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-3), with the consequence of unreasonably high [prices](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-1-B) to consumers. Violent fluctuations from year to year in the available supply of [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) disrupt the balance between the supply of livestock and livestock products moving in [interstate and foreign commerce](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-3) and the supply of [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) available for feeding. When available supplies of [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) are excessive, [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) [prices](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-1-B) are low and farmers overexpand livestock production in order to find outlets for [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9). Such expansion, together with the relative scarcity and high price of [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9), forces farmers to [market](/usc/7/1301.md?p=b-6-B) abnormally excessive supplies of livestock in interstate commerce at sacrifice [prices](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-1-B), endangering the financial stability of producers, and overtaxing handling and processing facilities through which the flow of [interstate and foreign commerce](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-3) in livestock and livestock products is directed. Such excessive [marketings](/usc/7/1301.md?p=b-6-B) deplete livestock on farms, and livestock marketed in [interstate and foreign commerce](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-3) consequently becomes abnormally low, with resultant high [prices](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-1-B) to consumers and danger to the financial stability of [persons](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-8) engaged in transporting, handling, and processing livestock in [interstate and foreign commerce](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-3). These high [prices](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-1-B) in turn result in another overexpansion of livestock production. Recurring violent fluctuations in the price of [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) resulting from corresponding violent fluctuations in the supply of [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) directly affect the movement of livestock in interstate commerce from the range cattle regions to the regions where livestock is fattened [for market](/usc/7/1301.md?p=b-6-B) in [interstate and foreign commerce](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-3), and also directly affect the movement in interstate commerce of [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) marketed as [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) which is transported from the regions where produced to the regions where livestock is fattened [for market](/usc/7/1301.md?p=b-6-B) in [interstate and foreign commerce](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-3). Substantially all the [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) moving in interstate commerce, substantially all the [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) fed to livestock transported in interstate commerce for fattening, and substantially all the [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) fed to livestock marketed in [interstate and foreign commerce](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-3), is produced in the commercial [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9)-producing area. Substantially all the [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) produced in the commercial [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9)-producing area, with the exception of a comparatively small amount used for farm consumption, is either sold or transported in interstate commerce, or is fed to livestock transported in interstate commerce for feeding, or is fed to livestock marketed in [interstate and foreign commerce](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-3). Almost all the [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) produced outside the commercial [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9)-producing area is either consumed, or is fed to livestock which is consumed, in the [State](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-6) in which such [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) is produced. The conditions affecting the production and [marketing](/usc/7/1301.md?p=b-6-B) of [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) and the livestock products of [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) are such that, without Federal assistance, farmers, individually or in cooperation, cannot effectively prevent the recurrence of disparities between the supplies of livestock moving in [interstate and foreign commerce](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-3) and the supply of [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) available for feeding, and provide for orderly [marketing](/usc/7/1301.md?p=b-6-B) of [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) in [interstate and foreign commerce](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-3) and livestock and livestock products in [interstate and foreign commerce](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-3). The national public interest requires that the burdens on [interstate and foreign commerce](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-3) above described be removed by the exercise of Federal power. By reason of the administrative and physical impracticability of regulating the movement of livestock and livestock products in [interstate and foreign commerce](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-3) and the inadequacy of any such regulation to remove such burdens, such power can be feasibly exercised only by providing for the withholding from [market](/usc/7/1301.md?p=b-6-B) of excessive and burdensome supplies of [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) in times of excessive production, and providing a reserve supply of [corn](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-9) available [for market](/usc/7/1301.md?p=b-6-B) in times of deficient production, in order that a stable and continuous flow of livestock and livestock products in [interstate and foreign commerce](/usc/7/1301.md?p=a-3) may at all times be assured and maintained. ## Source credit (Feb. 16, 1938, ch. 30, title III, § 321, 52 Stat. 48.) ## Notes ### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries ### Inapplicability of Section Section inapplicable to 2014 through 2018 crops of covered commodities, cotton, and sugar and inapplicable to milk during period beginning Feb. 7, 2014, through Dec. 31, 2018, see section 9092(a)(1) of this title. Section inapplicable to 2008 through 2012 crops of covered commodities, peanuts, and sugar and inapplicable to milk during period beginning June 18, 2008, through Dec. 31, 2012, see section 8782(a)(1) of this title. Section inapplicable to 2002 through 2007 crops of covered commodities, peanuts, and sugar and inapplicable to milk during period beginning May 13, 2002, through Dec. 31, 2007, see section 7992(a)(1) of this title. Section inapplicable to 1996 through 2001 crops of loan commodities, peanuts, and sugar and inapplicable to milk during period beginning Apr. 4, 1996, and ending Dec. 31, 2002, see section 7301(a)(1)(A) of this title.