7 U.S.C. § 1421 — Price support

(a) Source. The Secretary must provide the price support authorized or required by this section through the Commodity Credit Corporation and other means available to the Secretary. (b) Authority of Secretary; factors considered. Unless this Act says otherwise, the Secretary decides or approves the amounts, terms, conditions, and extent of price-support operations. For a commodity with discretionary support, the Secretary must consider whether to provide support and its level. For a commodity with mandatory support, the Secretary must consider the level above the required minimum. The factors are: (1) the commodity's supply compared with demand; (2) the support levels for other commodities and, for feed grains, their feed value compared with corn; (3) available funds; (4) how perishable the commodity is; (5) the commodity's importance to agriculture and the national economy; (6) whether stocks bought through support operations can be disposed of; (7) the need to offset temporary losses of export markets; (8) whether producers can and will keep supply in line with demand; and (9), for upland cotton, changes in its production cost. (c) Compliance by producer; program for diverted acres. The Secretary may require a producer to follow acreage allotments, production goals, and marketing practices set by the Secretary, including legally authorized marketing quotas, as a condition for receiving price support. For a diverted-acre program, the Secretary may apply regulations by suitable geographic area. In semiarid or other areas where good farming requires a prudent feed reserve, the regulations must allow, as far as good farming requires, forage crops to be produced for storage and later use on the farm or in the farm operator's feeding operations. In areas the President declares disaster areas under the Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act [42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.], the regulations must be administered in a way that restores the area's normal agriculture as quickly as possible. (d) Time of determining levels. The support level is based on the commodity's parity price at the beginning of its marketing year or season if it is marketed on that basis. For any other commodity, it is based on the parity price on January 1. (e) Processors' assurances; payment if assurances inadequate. (1) When a price-support or surplus-removal operation for an agricultural commodity uses purchases from, loans to, or payments to processors, the Secretary must, as far as practicable, obtain assurances from the processors that the producers received or will receive the maximum benefits from the operation. (2)(A) If those assurances are not enough to make producers of sugar beets and sugarcane receive the maximum benefits within 30 days after the contract's final settlement date because the processor is bankrupt or otherwise insolvent, the Secretary must, when those producers demand payment and provide the assurances about nonpayment that the Secretary requires, pay them the maximum benefits minus benefits already received. (B) After making that payment, the Secretary (i) takes over all claims of those producers against the processor and others responsible for nonpayment, and (ii) may pursue those claims as needed to recover the unpaid benefits. (C) The Secretary must carry out this paragraph through the Commodity Credit Corporation.