Mandatory restrictions on agricultural production continue to be suggested as an alternative policy for reducing price-depressing surplus production, increasing farm income, and cutting farm program costs. A mandatory production control program (MPCP) can be implemented through two methods: (1) acreage allotments, which restrict individual farmers as to the number of acres that they could plant for a particular crop, and (2) marketing quotas, by which individual farmers would be restricted as to the amount of the product that they could sell to others. Both types of production controls would depend on an estimated, government-specified level of national production. Enforcing controls on production would be a problem. An MPCP would result in trade-offs between various sectors of the economy: farmers, natural resources, consumers, agribusiness, and the Federal Treasury. Although the incomes of farmers would increase in the short term, the gains might later be offset by production inefficiencies and rising consumer prices. Improving one sector could cause changes in another sector that could offset the improvement. The concept of mandatory production controls was rejected during the debate over the 1985 Food Security Act. However, high costs of the Act, continued financial stress for some farmers, and limited expansion of exports have renewed interest in revising the current law to include mandatory restrictions. Such restrictions would benefit certain sectors of the economy but hurt others. (KC)