Abstract
In the United States, the relationship between the agricultural sector and the federal government is complex. This chapter helps the reader to understand the complexity, its origin, and its evolution over time. The chapter explores four elements of this complexity, the values, beliefs, and myths that help shape the bond between citizens and agriculture, the rapid technological change that has reshaped agriculture over the last 250 years, the basic nature of agricultural markets, and the changing relationship between agriculture and the general population as incomes and educational levels increased.
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Notes
- 1.
Dr. Don Paarlberg also served as a special assistant to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and advised him on the Food for Peace program established in 1954. He later served as the coordinator of that program. He returned to Purdue University in 1961 but served as an informal adviser to Presidents Nixon and Ford later in his career.
- 2.
Willard Cochrane served on the faculty of the University of Minnesota for many years and was a leading agricultural economist of his generation. He was an informal advisor to Senator John F. Kennedy during Kennedy’s campaign for president and served as USDA’s Chief Economist during the Kennedy administration.
References
Cochrane, Willard W. 1993. The Development of American Agriculture: A Historical Analysis. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Paarlberg, Don. 1986. Values, Beliefs and Myths in Agricultural and Rural Policy. In Increasing Understanding of Public Problems and Policy. Chicago: Farm Foundation.
Paarlberg, Don, and Philip Paarlberg. 2000. The Agricultural Revolution of the 20th Century. Ames: Iowa State University Press.
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Mercier, S.A., Halbrook, S.A. (2020). Introduction. In: Agricultural Policy of the United States. Palgrave Studies in Agricultural Economics and Food Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36452-6_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36452-6_1
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