The Agricultural Adjustment Act also created ethical problems. We remember that this all happened during the Great Depression where unemployment was higher than ever before, and people and their families were starving. The AAA was passed in the middle of the growing season. That means that farmers had already planted their crops and once the AAA was active, the government forced many farmers to plow over their fields. Thousands of pigs were slaughtered under this act as well. This seemed like an inhumane thing to do when all that food was being wasted amidst a starving nation.

Another ethical problem that it caused was a racial issue. In that time there were many black farmers. They too were forced to have their crops regulated by the government. The only problem was that the government seemed to overlook their needs. The only ones that received government subsidies were the white farm owners. The black community seemed to be overlooked altogether. Thousands of black farmers lost their jobs and their land with no real compensation to rely on.

There were also a lot of loopholes in the structure of the AAA. For one, there were many other people involved in farming besides the farm owners. There were sharecroppers, and all the people who worked and ran those farms. They all lost their jobs because there was nothing for them to do. The sharecroppers were supposed to receive subsidies from the government but the problem was that the government only paid the farm owners and it was up to them to give the sharecroppers their share of the money. Unfortunately the farm owner seldom did that.

On top of that, the farmers committed acts of fraud against the AAA. They would legally split up their land among their wives and sons, to receive more money from the government. This of course became a problem.