The Changing American Farm

Abstract

The American farm has never been as homoge neous or as stable as it appears in nostalgic recollection. Its historic emphasis on fee simple ownership by operating proprietors was nevertheless a marked departure from its feudal antecedent and remains relevant today. Farmers' desires for status and for managerial independence have not mitigated. They are subject to (1) changes, such as increase in size, that have no deep significance; and (2) other changes, such as increased dependence on nonfarm inputs, that bring more specialization of enterprise, including growing detach ment of livestock (and poultry) farming from crop farming, and that make farming more sensitive to the terms of relation ship with input-supplying as well as market industries. En croachment of those industries via vertical integration (ownership or contract) along with internal growth of some farms to larger than family size gradually shrink the domi nance of the traditional family farm. Even so, the most viable unit may be the part-time or retirement farm, which does not depend heavily on farm income. The ultimate question re lates to what national policy is to be. Past policy has been ambivalent, and no clear direction for the future is to be seen.