<Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> United States Supreme Court cases </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> United States v. Butler </Td> </Tr> <P> The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was a United States federal law of the New Deal era designed to boost agricultural prices by reducing surpluses . The Government bought livestock for slaughter and paid farmers subsidies not to plant part of their land . The money for these subsidies was generated through an exclusive tax on companies which processed farm products . The Act created a new agency, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to oversee the distribution of the subsidies . The Agriculture Marketing Act, which established the Federal Farm Board in 1929, was seen as a strong precursor to this act . The AAA, along with other New Deal programs, represented the federal government's first substantial effort to address economic welfare in the United States . </P> <P> When President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in March 1933, the United States was in the midst of the Great Depression . "Farmers faced the most severe economic situation and lowest agricultural prices since the 1890s ." "Overproduction and a shrinking international market had driven down agricultural prices ." Soon after his inauguration, Roosevelt called the Hundred Days Congress into session to address the crumbling economy . From this Congress came the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, to replace the Federal Farm Board . The Roosevelt Administration was tasked with decreasing agricultural surpluses . Wheat, cotton, field corn, hogs, rice, tobacco, and milk and its products were designated as basic commodities in the original legislation . Subsequent amendments in 1934 and 1935 expanded the list of basic commodities to include rye, flax, barley, grain sorghum, cattle, peanuts, sugar beets, sugar cane, and potatoes . The administration targeted these commodities for the following reasons: </P>

As part of the agricultural adjustment act farmers were paid subsidies