science

Potato Control Law

Potato Control Law is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Potato Control Law rather than just read about it. In short: The Potato Control Law (1929) was based upon an economic policy enacted by U.S. President Herbert Hoover's Federal Emergency Relief Administration at the beginning of the Great Depression.

Key takeaways

Potato Control Law belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Potato Control Law to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Potato Control Law from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Potato Control Law (1929) was based upon an economic policy enacted by U.S. President Herbert Hoover's Federal Emergency Relief Administration at the beginning of the Great Depression. The policy became a formal act in 1935, and its legislative sponsors were from the state of North Carolina. Hoover's presidential successor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, signed the Act into law on August 24, 1935. The law was enforced by the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) to protect about 30,000 farmers who made their main living growing potatoes, and who feared that the potato market would be glutted by other farmers whose land had been legislatively idled by other AAA controls.

The law restricted the export of potatoes and mandated that they be used instead to provide direct relief to those in need. Because of the federal government's direct involvement in the economic affairs of American potato growers, this law was widely regarded as one of the most radical and controversial pieces of legislation enacted during the New Deal. The United States Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in 1936. The Potato Control legislation prevented individuals and companies from buying or offering to buy potatoes which were not packed in closed containers approved by the Secretary of Agriculture and bearing official government stamps. Penalties included a $1,000 fine on the first offense, and a year in jail and an additional $1,000 fine for a second offense. Farmers and brokers would not be issued the official stamps unless they paid a tax of $0.45 per bushel, or if they received tax-exemption stamps from the Secretary of Agriculture.

The law sparked considerable protest, as evident in the following 1935 declaration signed by citizens of West Amwell Township, New Jersey: That we protest against and declare that we will not be bound by the 'Potato Control Law,' an unconstitutional measure recently enacted by the United States Congress. We shall produce on our own land such potatoes as we may wish to produce and will dispose of them in such manner as we may deem proper.

Included in the 1935 Potato Control Act was a provision that created the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation, a forerunner to The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which provides commodity food items like potatoes to soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and similar organizations that serve meals to the homeless and other individuals in need.

See also Agricultural Adjustment Act Amendment of 1935 Critics of the New Deal New Deal Great Depression New Deal coalition

References

External links Peters, Gerhard; Woolley, John T. "Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Address on Receiving the 1935 Award for Distinguished Service to Agriculture, Chicago, Illinois.," December 9, 1935". The American Presidency Project. University of California - Santa Barbara. Retrieved January 1, 2016.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Potato Control Law

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Potato Control Law claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Potato Control Law before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Potato Control Law ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Potato Control Law

In research: Potato Control Law appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Potato Control Law in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Potato Control Law is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1929 in American law, History of the potato, New Deal legislation, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Potato Control Law outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Potato Control Law in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Potato Control Law means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Potato Control Law out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Potato Control Law in simple terms?

The Potato Control Law (1929) was based upon an economic policy enacted by U.S. President Herbert Hoover's Federal Emergency Relief Administration at the beginning of the Great Depression.

Why does Potato Control Law matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Potato Control Law?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Potato Control Law.