Higher prices benefit the farmer, and farmers needed help at this time. The problem wasn't the price of food. The problem was that a farmer couldn't afford to grow it. Let's take a step back and talk about why.

The 1910s were boom times for farmers. New innovations and innovative seed meant farms were more productive than ever. At the same time, WWI ravaged European farms. World grain prices soared -- Europe needed American grain, and American farmers benefited. Take a look at the table of wheat prices paid to farmers. In 1920, wheat hits $2.56 per bushel. That price won't be seen again for another quarter-century, in the wake of another European war.

Farmers are no fools. They know a gold rush when they see it. Thousands of people moved west, turning the Great Plains into a massive wheatfield. Acres were plowed, irrigated and sown. Speculators got into the market, offering loans and land for those who wanted to take advantage of the situation.

But no boom lasts forever. As Europe recovered, wheat prices fell. Fortunately for farmers, interest rates were low. In the big cities, they called this the Roaring Twenties. For farmers, there was no roar, but they could make ends meet because loans were cheap and easy to get.

In 1929, that changed. As the bottom fell out of the economy, interest rates spiked. The loans that had been keeping them afloat were suddenly unaffordable.

Now, here's where human nature comes into play. What do you do when you're facing bills? You work longer hours. You work harder to make ends meet.

That's exactly what farmers did. Facing bigger bills, they increased production in an effort to sell more grain and thus make more money to pay those bigger bills. This action, done on a massive scale, flooded the market. It didn't help that 1931 was a banner year for growing grain. By 1933, some farmers in the Midwest were selling corn for five to 10 cents per bushel, less than the cost of coal. It made more sense to burn the corn than sell it.

Now, remember all those loans from the 1920s? Those were coming due, and farmers couldn't pay. That meant bank foreclosures on a massive scale, and in addition to the social anger these foreclosures created among farmers, they caused banks problems as well. Banks hate to foreclose on property. When they foreclose, they have to sell that property at auction, which means they will not get their money back.

Banks need to have good loans to stay afloat. When you put money into a bank, it doesn't just sit in an account. The bank loans that money out to others, and those others pay interest to the bank. In turn, the bank pays interest on your savings account. In essence, you're loaning money to the bank so they can loan it to others. Those others get to buy their house/car/tractor, the bank makes a profit, and you get a little interest on your savings.

When people don't pay back loans on a large enough scale, that system breaks down.

Then, atop all these financial stresses, there were the social problems. Farmers were angry about the foreclosures. Those who didn't move away from the Great Plains en masse sometimes attacked judges or the people who came to foreclose upon their farms. There was a huge populist movement in American politics at this time. If you've seen the headlines from Greece recently, imagine that in the United States' heartland.

That, in short, is why the U.S. government needed to help farmers: Stability. Farmers were at the bottom of the whole American economic pyramid. With that system shaken up, stabilizing farmers would stabilize the rest of the economy.

your generally right but your assuming FDR was looking out for the consumer of farm goods with these regulations when in fact this was a (de facto) subsidy program to farmers aka the producers of agricultural products.

to ensure a certain price and the indirect price control increases farm profits per acre.