- ISBN13: 9780813192420
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
At a time when food is becoming increasingly scarce in many parts of the world and food prices are skyrocketing, no industry is more important than agriculture. Humans have been farming for thousands of years, and yet agriculture has undergone more fundamental changes in the past 80 years than in the previous several centuries. In 1900, 30 million American farmers tilled the soil or tended livestock; today there are fewer than 4.5 million farmers who feed a populati… More >>
A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929
Very interesting to read how the farm and rural areas have changed throughout the years.
Rating: 4 / 5
The book is clearly written. Readers should compare the crises in agriculture and the actions of government in the 1930’s with today’s financial crisis and especially how today’s government is trying to deal with the financial crisis.
Rating: 5 / 5
As Americans grow more concerned about where their food comes from, it is important to understand how our current agricultural system developed. Paul Conkin’s “A Revolution Down on the Farm,” a history of American agriculture since the Great Depression, provides an excellent account.
According to Conkin, new technologies allowed American agriculture to experience tremendous productivity increases after World War II. While population has grown since World War II, agricultural productivity has grown even more. The upshot of this is less hunger in the world; on the other hand, the supply of agricultural products usually far exceeds demand, as farmers (for some reason) are exceedingly bad at responding to price signals.
Conkin then explores policymakers’ efforts to address this supply-demand imbalance and assure farmers a decent income. Remarkably, he provides a readily comprehensible account of America’s various farm bills and the measures they have employed to reduce crop acreage and keep farm incomes up. Ultimately, however, technological advances outweighed the acreage reductions, pushing profit margins down and requiring many farmers to “get big” to stay in business.
Conkin’s clear history is augmented by personal recollections of his childhood on a small farm in eastern Tennessee. He also provides his own assessment of American agriculture at the end of the book. While Conkin clearly admires the productivity of modern agriculture, he also laments its human and environmental effects.
“A Revolution Down on the Farm” is a compelling read; I highly recommend it.
Rating: 5 / 5