Corn is a basic source of food for the Nation, and corn produced in the commercial corn-producing area moves almost wholly in interstate and foreign commerce in the form of corn, livestock, and livestock products.

Abnormally excessive and abnormally deficient supplies of corn acutely and directly affect, burden, and obstruct interstate and foreign commerce in corn, livestock, and livestock products. When abnormally excessive supplies exist, transportation facilities in interstate and foreign commerce are overtaxed, and the handling and processing facilities through which the flow of interstate and foreign commerce in corn, livestock, and livestock products is directed become acutely congested. Abnormally deficient supplies result in substantial decreases in livestock production and in an inadequate flow of livestock and livestock products in interstate and foreign commerce, with the consequence of unreasonably high prices to consumers.

Violent fluctuations from year to year in the available supply of corn disrupt the balance between the supply of livestock and livestock products moving in interstate and foreign commerce and the supply of corn available for feeding. When available supplies of corn are excessive, corn prices are low and farmers overexpand livestock production in order to find outlets for corn. Such expansion, together with the relative scarcity and high price of corn, forces farmers to market abnormally excessive supplies of livestock in interstate commerce at sacrifice prices, endangering the financial stability of producers, and overtaxing handling and processing facilities through which the flow of interstate and foreign commerce in livestock and livestock products is directed. Such excessive marketings deplete livestock on farms, and livestock marketed in interstate and foreign commerce consequently becomes abnormally low, with resultant high prices to consumers and danger to the financial stability of persons engaged in transporting, handling, and processing livestock in interstate and foreign commerce. These high prices in turn result in another overexpansion of livestock production.

Recurring violent fluctuations in the price of corn resulting from corresponding violent fluctuations in the supply of corn directly affect the movement of livestock in interstate commerce from the range cattle regions to the regions where livestock is fattened for market in interstate and foreign commerce, and also directly affect the movement in interstate commerce of corn marketed as corn which is transported from the regions where produced to the regions where livestock is fattened for market in interstate and foreign commerce.

Substantially all the corn moving in interstate commerce, substantially all the corn fed to livestock transported in interstate commerce for fattening, and substantially all the corn fed to livestock marketed in interstate and foreign commerce, is produced in the commercial corn-producing area. Substantially all the corn produced in the commercial corn-producing area, with the exception of a comparatively small amount used for farm consumption, is either sold or transported in interstate commerce, or is fed to livestock transported in interstate commerce for feeding, or is fed to livestock marketed in interstate and foreign commerce. Almost all the corn produced outside the commercial corn-producing area is either consumed, or is fed to livestock which is consumed, in the State in which such corn is produced.

The conditions affecting the production and marketing of corn and the livestock products of corn are such that, without Federal assistance, farmers, individually or in cooperation, cannot effectively prevent the recurrence of disparities between the supplies of livestock moving in interstate and foreign commerce and the supply of corn available for feeding, and provide for orderly marketing of corn in interstate and foreign commerce and livestock and livestock products in interstate and foreign commerce.

The national public interest requires that the burdens on interstate and foreign commerce above described be removed by the exercise of Federal power. By reason of the administrative and physical impracticability of regulating the movement of livestock and livestock products in interstate and foreign commerce and the inadequacy of any such regulation to remove such burdens, such power can be feasibly exercised only by providing for the withholding from market of excessive and burdensome supplies of corn in times of excessive production, and providing a reserve supply of corn available for market in times of deficient production, in order that a stable and continuous flow of livestock and livestock products in interstate and foreign commerce may at all times be assured and maintained.