Abstract
The evolution of agriculture has been strongly influenced by government policies, in spite of the popular view of agriculture as a classic case of free competition. Land and resource policies were dominant in shaping the expansion of U.S. agriculture in the 18th and 19th centuries (Cochrane, 1993). Publicly financed research and extension played a crucial role in the intensification and productivity growth of U.S. agriculture from the 1860s on. Since the Great Depression, commodity programs and support policies have enabled the farm sector to withstand its tendency to oversupply. Since the 1970s, the environmental side effects of agriculture have become a major focus of government policies, and that is likely to intensify in the new millennium.
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References
Cochrane, W.W. 1993. The Development of American Agriculture: A Historical Analysis, Second Edition. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
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© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Zilberman, D. (1999). Introduction. In: Casey, F., Schmitz, A., Swinton, S., Zilberman, D. (eds) Flexible Incentives for the Adoption of Environmental Technologies in Agriculture. Natural Resource Management and Policy, vol 17. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4395-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4395-0_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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