Farm Organizations and the National Interest

Abstract

A world-wide contest for power between the na tions of the free world and those within the Communist orbit is the dominant phenomenon within international politics today. This situation is certainly not new, but the pace is accelerating. Within the next decade or so the loyalties of the underdeveloped and uncommitted nations will be molded. Food can be a sig nificant weapon for the United States, both in terms of national interest and national morality. One major difficulty, however, is the inability of American farm organizations to see the central issue of our times and to concentrate their unified efforts upon this objective. They tend to confuse rhetoric with reality and thereby dissipate our national strength through their misunder standing of the crucial goal. A White House Conference on Farm Policy is proposed as a means for beginning the redirec tion of American farm policy. The genius of American politics seems to call for a new accommodation in view of the threatened national security and the mounting dissatisfaction with present farm policies.