The Commodity Credit Corporation is born (1933)
On October 17, 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression, the federal government created the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to stabilize farm income and commodity prices. Initially incorporated under the Reconstruction Finance Corporation’s authority and later made permanent by Congress in 1948, the CCC became the financial engine behind U.S. farm policy.
What the CCC changed was not merely accounting—it changed leverage for producers. Through price-support loans, government purchases, storage and disposition of surplus stocks, and later export credit guarantees, the CCC put a floor under volatile markets and gave producers working capital when private credit was scarce or expensive. Over time, it has financed a wide range of farm bill programs: income support and conservation payments, disaster assistance, and trade facilitation tools. Even in the modern era, the CCC has underwritten emergency responses and special initiatives during trade disruptions and natural disasters, underscoring how a 1933 innovation still anchors farm finance and risk management today.
The oil embargo reshapes farm costs and practices (1973)
On October 17, 1973, Arab oil producers imposed an embargo that sent energy prices sharply higher and rippled through American agriculture. Diesel fuel, propane for grain drying, and natural gas–linked nitrogen fertilizer costs all surged, squeezing margins just as producers were expanding after the early-1970s commodity boom.
The shock accelerated a set of long-lived changes on the farm. Producers experimented with reduced- and no-till systems to cut fuel passes across fields, improved on-farm grain handling to limit drying needs, and paid closer attention to input efficiency—from field operations to fertilizer timing. The 1973 energy jolt also helped spur policy and private-sector interest in domestic biofuels later in the decade, reshaping the energy–agriculture nexus. While many forces contributed to the tumultuous 1970s and the later 1980s farm financial crisis, the embargo’s cost pressures were a defining inflection point that farmers still recognize in today’s risk calculations.
Earthquake stress-tests California’s farm supply chain (1989)
At 5:04 p.m. Pacific on October 17, 1989, the 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake struck the Central Coast and San Francisco Bay Area—one of the nation’s most important produce, dairy, and wine regions—right in the middle of fall harvest and shipping seasons. While the quake is often remembered for urban damage, its agricultural impacts were immediate and instructive.
Power outages and facility damage interrupted packing and cold storage in parts of Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. Highway closures and port disruptions temporarily slowed the flow of lettuce, broccoli, and other cool-season vegetables, and some wineries in the Santa Cruz Mountains reported barrel and tank losses. The episode catalyzed investments in seismic anchoring of tanks and racking, backup power for critical cold-chain assets, and transportation contingency planning. In the decades since, those resiliency upgrades have helped the region manage wildfires, storms, and grid instability with fewer downstream losses for producers and buyers.
Government reopens, farm services restart after a shutdown (2013)
On October 17, 2013, the federal government reopened after a 16-day shutdown, allowing the U.S. Department of Agriculture to bring critical services back online. Field offices resumed farm loan processing and disaster assistance; conservation program work restarted; and statistical agencies returned to publishing the market-moving data that farmers, grain elevators, processors, and traders use to make daily decisions.
The outage highlighted how public information—from crop progress to supply-and-demand estimates—and routine service delivery underpin liquidity and coordination in agricultural markets. It also prompted new business-continuity planning across co-ops, merchandisers, and lenders to navigate future data gaps and administrative delays.
Why mid-October matters on the farm, year after year
Beyond single red-letter dates, October 17 typically falls at a pivotal moment in the production calendar. Across much of the Corn Belt and Delta, corn and soybean harvests are well underway. Cotton picking advances across the South. Rice harvest nears the finish line in Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and California. Sugar beet, potato, and specialty crop harvests push hard in the Upper Midwest and Northwest as frost windows approach. In the Plains, producers are planting and establishing winter wheat while watching soil moisture and temperatures. Livestock operations are balancing forage, feed purchases, and fall calf runs against storage capacity and price signals.
This seasonal convergence concentrates labor, fuel, drying capacity, transportation, and storage needs—making the lessons embedded in today’s historical anniversaries especially relevant: manage energy risk, reinforce infrastructure, diversify financing options, and keep reliable data flowing.
The throughline
From the CCC’s creation in 1933 to the 1973 energy shock, a 1989 natural disaster, and the 2013 restart of federal farm services, October 17 has repeatedly intersected with moments that reshaped costs, cash flow, logistics, and information in American agriculture. Each episode carries the same message for producers and ag businesses in 2025: resilience is built ahead of time—through balanced balance sheets, diversified markets, efficient inputs, hardened infrastructure, and strong partnerships up and down the supply chain.