Agricultural Outcomes and Monetary Policy Actions: Strange Bedfellows or Kissin' Cousins?

United States agriculture is a success story of high productivity growth maintained over a long period of time. Nevertheless, the industry today suffers from the same problems it has always suffered from: droughts, locusts, and market disruptions. In this article, the authors explain how monetary policy can contribute to a healthy agriculture sector. The reality is that the fundamental economic forces controlling the destiny of agriculture -- high productivity growth, the hazards of nature, the low price and income elasticities of demand, and the instability of conditions in important export markets -- are things that the Federal Reserve Board can do nothing about. The main message is that the best the Fed can do to stabilize the agricultural sector is to maintain low and steady inflation.