Programs, such as the 1981 farm bill, have enormous inertia be­ cause of vested interests established by implicit subsidies that such legislation invariably contains. Moving to a totally new policy design is, therefore, something that must be viewed realistically as a staged process. Thus, the absence of recommendations for radical change in policy design is likely a function of a recognition of the resistance to change and, importantly, a lack of agreement on what is desired for the functioning of the agricultural sector. The latter point should be emphasized. That is, if economic performance objectives cannot be articulated for the agricultural sector, then policies designed to

achieve them more efficiently and transition plans for moving from existing programs to an optimal policy design are impossible to formulate. We are left with the pedestrian task of fine tuning. With these general observations on the conference, the summary com­ ments will be in three general categories. First, in the presentations there were a number of “take home” messages; the subsequent sec­ tion will highlight some of these. Choices of points to highlight relate to their broad implications for agricultural policy and, as well, implications for timing of policy change. This section on Highlights is followed by one on options for change within the current agri­ cultural program design. As already mentioned, most of the substan­ tive suggestions for policy change were within the design of the 1981 farm bill. These options are important because it is unlikely, given the time for debate, that a wholesale change in policy design will occur in the 1985 farm bill. The final section contains a sum­ mary of suggestions for new program designs. In addition, it deals with a major shortcoming of the conference: our failure as econo­ mists to identify major categories of policy objectives. We do know these economic policy objectives. Moreover, if they are clearly ar­ ticulated, we can begin to get a sense, through past policy actions, of the implicit weights that have been placed on these objectives. This information can then be integrated into the design of new policy alternatives.