SOCIOLOGY AND THE FARM CRISIS

Abstract

American agriculture is once again in a very serious financial crisis. Information pertaining to this crisis is readily available from a variety of sources. The print and electronic media have widely covered it with both human interest stories as well as broader national and regional level figures. Even Hollywood has provided several successful films portraying the tragedy of the loss of independence and dignity that coincide with the failure of a family farm. The USDA has published a stream of data on the sorry state of· U.S. agriculture, though these often conclude with optimistic expectations for 'next year.' The General Accounting Office (G.A.O.), too, has provided analyses of the crisis (1986a, 1986b). Finally, data are also available from analyses done by local states: surveys by state departments of agriculture, by Colleges of Agriculture, or by activist groups. Given the availability of such information, I will not repeat the litany of facts and figures of the crisis here, but will instead point to two apparent failures of this literature. First, though much of the literature provides a good deal of statistical detail, it lacks grounding in theoretical frameworks that might explain the crisis. We might expect and accept this from government agencies, activist groups, and economists. In fact, we might even expect it from sociology, but with respect to the latter we need not accept this poverty of theory. The second, perhaps related.Tailure of this literature is its inability to generate widespread interest in the crisis among either the general population or the broader sociological profession. This paper is addressed to these issues. Let us consider the latter problem first. :-.