The Changing Face of Agriculture

Abstract

AFTER WORLD WAR II, a great deal of America’s five million farms remained alike in many respects: they were similar in size with a fair degree of surrounding natural habitat raising a diversity of marketable crops depending on the growing region, including livestock (for meat, dairy, eggs, and fertilizer), honeybees (for pollination and honey), and other products. Agricultural policy was likewise diverse: more than one hundred commodities received some form of federal price support, mainly in the form of loans. All that would soon change in ways few could have ever predicted.