SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Abstract

The collection of 16 papers and related discussions contained in these proceedings is an important contribution toward understand-ing the issues, options, and dilemmas in U. S. agricultural policy. No consensus nor collective policy recommendations were sought nor emerged spontaneously among the 150 economists and policy lead-ers who participated in the conference. By design, the conference focused primarily on agricultural commodity price policies and their relationships to other policies. That emphasis was chosen for two reasons. First, price policy has been the focal point of policyrelated agricultural economic research for several decades. If there is any one area of policy studies in which economists could be expected to have reached some definitive conclusions, it is that of commodity price policy. Second, it seems clear that commodity price policy issues will again dominate the debate on agricultural legislation in 1985.