What to Do about Low Incomes in Agriculture

Abstract

HRONIC low incomes still persist as the typical situation in large parts of American agriculture. This is so now after several years of rapid growth in the general economy and after more than two decades of large-scale federal programs directed to farm price and income problems. Increasing public awareness of, and interest in, the persistence of these low incomes has now culminated in the official recognition of them at the national policy level as an important public action problem. What action holds good promise of alleviating and correcting these conditions in traditionally low-income farming areas is the problem to which this paper is directed. Instead of proposing a prescription, however, my intent is to outline and to analyze, necessarily in broad general terms, the major low-income policy alternatives now open to us, hoping that this analysis and the thought and study it may stimulate will be helpful in the development of low-income farm policies at federal, state, and local levels.