Agriculture Reform Act

Former president George Washington once said, “Agriculture is the most healthful, most useful, and most noble employment of man,” (George Washington Quote). Since Washington’s presidency, countless advancements and developments within the agricultural industry have allowed the United States to grow, develop, and become one of the most prosperous countries in the entire world. Nevertheless, this prosperity is also marked by several key historical events, such as the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions, which have caused the core values and traditions that this great nation was built on to slowly disappear. Today, the majority of Americans have no knowledge, understanding, or appreciation for the agricultural industry, causing them to take for granted the basic necessities they rely on each day. This disconnection has created a gap between producers and consumers, which is known as

Times have changed, and so has the family, the community and our environment. And these changes have impacted our lives and earth immeasurably. This is where the factor greed comes in to play, the need for more. This need for more called for extensive measures, measures like fertilizers, pesticides and equipment to work the ground and harvest the crops became necessity. Agriculture became a booming business that did not and still does not promote the well-being of the employee nor the individual let alone the family unit and community. Since 1950 an average farm size has doubled, but the number of laborers decreased substantially and the number of small local farmers has been cut in half. Farmers have been forced to become more efficient and there 's been a reliance on greater chemicals and technology, which has become very extensive and expensive. Sadly, what has been short term expansion has become a long-term threat (Trautmann, 2012). This greed driven increase has led to subtle damaging ramifications that most people are ignorant to. Their needs are being met as quality is being forsaken. Our environment is being squandered. Selfishness abounds.

Although a 2002 agriculture law superseded many parts of FAIRA, acreage was still increased because of the growing demand for corn in animal feed, the need for corn in ethanol manufacturing, and the increased possibility to make food with corn byproducts. These seem to be good and fair reasons to focus our efforts on increasing output, however, the same issue arises: the more corn that is made, the less stable a livelihood farming becomes, regardless of the subsidies that the federal government provides.

Following the Civil War, a second industrial revolution in America brought many changes to the nation’s agriculture sector. The new technologies that were created transformed how farmers worked and the way in which the sector functioned. Agriculture expanded and became more industrial. Meanwhile government policies, or lack of them for a while, and hard economic conditions put difficult strains on farmers and their occupation. These changes in technology, economic conditions, and government policy from 1865 to 1900 transformed and improved agriculture while leaving farmers in hardship.

Preview: Due to this trend we are seeing the aging of American Farmers and the spreading of misconceptions in our society.

In the late 19th century, many factors affected agriculture in the United States as small farms transitioned to large farms. Technology, government policy, and economic conditions greatly influenced the way agriculture functioned in America. Farmers were exposed to advanced agricultural machinery and suffered from poor economic conditions due to a lack of government intervention. As production of crops increased thanks to the advancements in agriculture and processing, the prices of food dropped, leading to the eventual downfall of American farmers. In addition, the government was rooting for the success of the national economy, even if that meant choosing to neglect the struggling farmers and workers that made that success possible.

In the time period between 1865 and 1900 technology,government policy,and economic conditions really changed American agriculture. The technology made farming more efficient,and more profitable. Government policies both helped and hindered farmers with helping them transport their products,but they also “stole” from the farmers to help make the government more money. The economic conditions helped farmers with selling more products,and helping cities grow;along with starving families almost to death. All of these coming together really changed American agriculture.

Martin Jr. argue that the Agricultural Adjustment Act was instrumental in improving lives of farmers in southern United States and was effective in ending the downturn in farming economics occurring in the early 1930s. The main goal of the Agricultural Adjustment Act was to fix the farming crisis by raising crop prices, and it is indisputable that the Act succeeded in this. For example, the price of wheat almost doubling from 55.1 cents per bushel in 1932 to 106.0 in 1935, only three years (See Appendix). This was also evident in many other crops such as cotton and peanuts. From this evidence, it is obvious that the Act did achieve its goal of increasing crop

Yet it wasn’t a change that could have been made overnight. Once the Stock Market Crash in October 1929, the collapse in industrial production and the financial crisis of 1931 led to a great depth depression in agriculture and more in industrial production (Kindleberger 70). There is without a doubt that were having difficulties prior to the Stock Market Crash, with falling prices, rising stocks, inability to sustain borrowing, and the necessity to maintain debt service (91). To begin with, farm debt was serious that the total farm mortgages in the United States had risen from $3.3 billion in 1910 to $6.7 billion in 1920 and $9.4 billion in 1925 (84). National agricultural policies attempted to reduce production of certain crops and animals products, though the initial motivation was to raise prices, increase farm income and stimulate the depression economy (Hornbeck 1480).

In the past farming was a way to provide food to the family, but in a growing market economy it was becoming more important in the 1860s and 1870s to have money in order to purchase food, clothing, and supplies for the family. That money could also be used to keep the farm running and producing more goods and making more money. However, farming was as competitive as ever. During the Civil War the demand for crops like cotton was high so farmers started producing even more cotton. After the war, the supply of cotton stayed the same but the demand for it lowered, dropping the prices and putting many farmers in debt. The invention of railroads connected many states together making bigger, interstate markets instead of simple local markets; making it even more difficult

The Agricultural Adjustment Act in Great Depression Era in 1933 was a the United States federal law, part of the New Deal, which reduced agricultural production by paying farmers subsidies not to plant on part of their land and to kill off excess livestock. Its purpose was to reduce crop surplus in order to effectively raise the value of crops. This act represented a transformation about government’s role playing in the country. Before the period, the government only taxed import or export; it didn’t touch economy. But the AAA showed that government started to have power to change its economy.

Policies and funding support should enable farmers to provide a wider range of benefits and be accessible for long periods of time. We should avoid policies that focus on supporting one benefit, often at the expense of others.

My friends, I would to take a few minutes to discuss agriculture in this great nation. It has been 14 years since we have heard the cannons boom from Great War, and since then economic stability of our nation has no doubt stumbled on distress. For all the farmers listening, I speak for the people of the United States when I say thank you greatly for the enormous contributions you made to the war effort. You produced a record amount of crops and livestock, all of which aided the men fighting in Europe and the people at home. While the end of the war marked the beginning of a new era, life on the farm began to deteriorate. During the 20s we saw farm and crop prices drop so low. We saw farmers overproducing to pay for their lifestyle and

Erosion removes the surface soils, containing most of the organic matter, plant nutrients, and fine soil particles, which help to retain water and nutrients in the root zone where they are available to plants. Thus it affects the productivity of plants. The remaining, the subsoil, tends to be less fertile, less absorbent and less able to retain pesticides, fertilizers, and other plant nutrients. There are over 17,000 soil types recognized worldwide. They vary widely in structure, erodibility, fertility, and ability to produce crops. A generalized soil profile for a humid, temperate climate is showed. When the natural vegetation is cleared for agriculture, soils become exposed to erosion and loss of soil fertility. The removal of the above-ground natural

Each year we lose land to erosion. In the last 40 years the world has lost ⅓ of its arable land to erosion. Topsoil erosion is the number 2 biggest environmental problem, next to population growth. Yet it is one of the biggest no one cares because it is “just dirt.” Some scientists think that in the next 60 years we will run out of topsoil to grow food on. It is important that the world has topsoil because it provides most of the nutrients that plants, and is necessary for growing all of the food the world needs.