Is Technology‐ridden U.S. Agriculture in a Long‐run Decline?

Abstract

Abstract. The American family farm is threatened by the combination of low, unstable commodity prices and high costs of machine and chemical technology. Overplanting, erosion, excessive taxation, and non‐farm development diminish the best cropland. Government and corporate business policy have encouraged overproduction and soil abuse. To survive, the small farmer takes a second job or joins the urban industrial proletariat. No single national organization protects agriculture or equals the effective lobbying of business and unions for their own interests. “Modern” technology often produces less per land unit than traditional labor‐intensive cultivation and costs more in terms of energy, capital, and depleted soil and natural resources. Usurious interest, archaic tax laws, and rapid rise of current technological production costs force insolvency of the small farm while facilitating expansion of giant agribusiness corporations, but technological innovation may have reached the point of diminishing returns. Meanwhile disruption of rural society continues, aggravating metropolitan overpopulation, unemployment, and social disorganization.