<P> Otherwise, Roosevelt warned, the nation faced a $1 billion deficit . The bill revealed clearly what Roosevelt had always maintained: that he was as much of a fiscal conservative at heart as his predecessor was . And like the banking bill, it passed through Congress almost instantly--despite heated protests by some congressional progressives . </P> <P> The celebrated First Hundred Days of the new administration also produced a federal program to protect American farmers from the uncertainties of the market through subsidies and production controls, the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), which Congress passed in May 1933 . The AAA reflected the desires of leaders of various farm organizations and Roosevelt's Secretary of Agriculture, Henry A. Wallace . </P> <P> Relative farm incomes had been falling for decades . The AAA included reworkings of many long - touted programs for agrarian relief, which had been demanded for decades . The most important provision of the AAA was the provision for crop reductions--the "domestic allotment" system, which was intended to raise prices for farm commodities by preventing surpluses from flooding the market and depressing prices further . The most controversial component of the system was the destruction in summer 1933 of growing crops and newborn livestock that exceeded the allotments . They had to be destroyed to get the plan working . However, gross farm incomes increased by half in the first three years of the New Deal and the relative position of farmers improved significantly for the first time in twenty years . Urban food prices went up slightly, because the cost of the grains was only a small fraction of what the consumer paid . Conditions improved for the great majority of commercial farmers by 1936 . The income of the farm sector almost doubled from $4.5 billion in 1932 to $8.9 billion in 1941 just before the war . Meanwhile, food prices rose 22% in nine years from an index of 31.5 in 1932, to 38.4 in 1941 . </P> <P> However, rural America contained many isolated farmers scratching out a subsistence income . The new deal set up programs such as the Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration to help them, but was very reluctant to help them buy farms . </P>

Why did us food exports remain strong after wwii unlike wwi