AGRICULTURAL MARKETING ORDERS AND THE PROCESS AND POLITICS OF SELF-REGULATION

Agricultural marketing orders, put into operation with the initiative and approval of affected producers, are a form of supervised self-regulation. The 47 orders in effect variously authorize quantity controls, quality controls, and market support activities for fruits, vegetables, and specialty crops. Administered by producer committees under the supervision of the Agricultural Marketing Service, for most of their history they produced l i t t l e controversy. In recent years they have been attacked as anticompetitive. The impact of orders on prices, however, seems limited at best. Orderly marketing has largely replaced concern for "parity prices" as the goal of marketing orders.