SECRETARY FREEMAN informs me that this increase is certain to result in a substantial rise in farm income, continuing a favorable upward trend that is steadily moving our agricultural community into full-fledged partnership in the overall prosperity of the country.
The enhanced income represents improved use of a great American resource. I am proud of the contribution that agriculture is making to the overall economy. American wheat, furthermore, is saving millions of people around the world from starvation.
The combination of expanding exports and voluntary domestic farm programs has brought us a long way in recent years. Not so long ago, we were fighting costly surpluses; now we are increasing wheat acreage in order to maintain necessary reserves.
Secretary Freeman has announced that net farm income will rise by $1 billion this year to more than $15 billion. This is an aggregate level surpassed only in the postwar years of 1947 and 1948.
On a per farm and per capita basis, net farm income will set new records this year as it did in 1965. The increase in wheat acreage announced today means that farmers can look forward with confidence to continued higher levels of income in 1967.
The strengthening of farm income will continue to be a major objective of my administration. Increased production and marketing efficiency, intelligent and cooperative operation of the Food and Agriculture Act will, I am confident, make it possible for us to reach our goal of parity of income for the adequate-sized family farm, while at the same time decreasing the real cost of an improved diet to the consumer.
Note: The statement was read by Bill D. Moyers, Special Assistant to the President, at his news conference at 12:20 a.m. on Thursday, May 5, 1966, at the White House. Mr. Moyers announced that the President had directed Secretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman to increase the wheat allotment for 1967 by 7.7 million acres, bringing the total allotment from the 1966 figure of 51.6 million acres to 59.3 million acres in 1967. See also Item 281.
The statement was not made public in the form of a White House press release.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President on the Increase in the 1967 Wheat Acreage Allotment. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/239152