Barry Flinchbaugh would be spinning in his grave if he could hear you now! You're right though. Freedom 2 farm was passed as a program that U.S. farmers would plant every available acre and the government would allow prices to fall to discourage production in other countries all the while reimbursing U.S. farmers for their loss. The plan was that no other country in the world could sustain a level of payments to their farmers and other countries would stop production while U.S. farmers would make up the shortfall in production. Essentially we would run everyone else out of business. 

Before that we had set-a-sides that if my recollection serves ranged from as little as 2 percent to as high as 7 percent, except for the PIK year where we had a 4.5 billion bushel carryout of corn to digest. 

Who, you might ask was in favor of this? the large multinational seed, fertilizer and chemical companies who wanted to sell as much product to U.S. farmers as they could. Freedom 2 Farm passed in 1996, IIRC, and at that time the South American juggernauts Brazil and Argentina were mere babes.  The multinationals saw the United States as the best and longest term customers to sell their wares to. My, how the pendulum has swung.