Texas Psychographic Summary

In the next 5o years farmers around the world will have to feed more people than we did the previous 100 years. Farmers are among the best stewards of the land as they realize they must protect the land in order for it to remain productive. Without someone to farm the land then we have no crops to export, which leads to no profit. As you can see the people who take time to plant and take care of the crops that make up Arkansas economy are just as important as the crops themselves.

In the United States, for the last four decades, from Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan through the two Bush Presidencies, the Republican Party won the White House by amassing large margins among white voters (Lizza.) The state of Texas has been reliably Republican since the 1970s and there are various elements to Texas political culture that can be narrowed down to three essential ideological trends: economic liberalism, or faith in the free market economy, social conservatism, or favoring traditional values and moralism, and populism, or promoting the rights and worthiness of ordinary people (Texas Political Culture.) As a result, the dominant political mood in Texas favors low taxes, minimal government services, and policies that are

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

"I believe in the future of agriculture, with a faith born not of words, but of deeds." These famous words from "The FFA Creed" by E.M. Tiffany outline the basic beliefs of FFA members and agriculturists around the world. But these values, although crucial to the sustaining of our world's ever-increasing population, are growing more and more detached from the people not involved in agriculture. Although food and fiber production has increased in recent years, providing more bushels per acre and more meat per head of cattle, the agriculture industry has come under fire due to an overwhelming majority of people being totally disconnected from the agriculture industry. Today, we'll examine the primary causes of this disconnect, the negative effects on agriculture and our society as a whole that results from it, and how you can help solve this ever-growing problem.

Over the years agriculture has nearly diminished from the workforce. Why is this happening? In fact, ever since the Industrial Revolution’s promises of “big city success” agriculture has taken a hit. Agriculture has been a foundation for the infrastructure of the United States since it’s creation. Agricultural careers are a necessity for the nation. It is important through the history, from whom it affects, the effects on the environment and people, and to find a solution to the loss of this core element.

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.

These assumptions include: farmers had to compete with industries for workers; the emancipation of slaves left farmers with no workforce, forcing them into industry jobs; and income taxes drove farmers into debt. After our hypothesis was written, we consulted Mr. Nelson on advice in moving forward. With him, we created a list of variables to focus on: taxes, land, population, and crop production. We chose to focus on Al Valorem Taxes, as a farmer’s business depends on their land. We also chose to focus on cotton production because cotton farms were the most successful and thus biggest of farms. We filtered through data from the National Archives and U.S. Census Bureau to separate data related to these variables, and then created a separate graph for each topic. After analyzing the data trends, we researched the reasons behind these trends, and then looked for other problems related to our argument that we did not include in our assumptions.

From the 1920s and into 1930s, oil fields in Oklahoma were booming in wild production. Even larger fields were opening in East Texas across the Red River, and in the Permian Basin around Odessa. Oil flooded the market, and when oil prices dropped, it was no longer profitable (pg. 219). As for the farmers, it impacted them negatively because the things that they grew or the cattle they raise would be sold for very little (pg. 219-220).

The Texas population consists of people with a variety of different cultural and racial background. The Texas population seems to be very young with an approximate 27.3 percent of the population being under the age of 18, and about 11.5 percent being over the age of 65 (U.S. Census Bureau, “Texas.”). Factors that increase the Texas population include higher birthrates, lower death rates, as well as immigration from other countries and states. The population is changing from a primarily white population as recorded during the 1990s to a projected primarily Latino population by 2050. However, Latinos were not a considered a separate ethnic group until the 1990s but were counted to the white population which consisted of European whites and the Latinos. The African- American population decreased from over 20 percent during the 1850s to below 20 percent population as of 2015. Asian- Americans are considered the smallest population in Texas at 4.5 percent (The Asian Population,” 2010 Census Briefs). Due to the changing economy and

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.

From 1880-1906, western farmers were affected by multiple issues that they saw as threats to their way of life. The main threats to the farmers were railroads, trusts, and the government, because these institutions all had the power to drastically affect the ability of the farmers to make profits. Therefore, the farmers were not wrong to feel frustration toward those institutions when the institutions caused the farmers to live lives of increasingly extreme poverty.

Farmers in America were upset due to the prices of their products going down, increasing

In the early 1990s, the farm economy in the heartland of the United States was weak. Farmers in North Dakota produced hard, amber Durham wheat and exported 75% to Italy for the production of high quality pasta. Prices for raw wheat fluctuated radically, depending on weather and growing conditions. Many farmers were having difficulty meeting payments for the expensive farm machin- ery required for crop production. Small family farms were disappearing and non-farm jobs in the area were scarce. Although consumers were paying record prices for food, many farmers felt that processors, who converted the raw grains into finished products for sale in

Organic ranchers and dairy farmers in California also feel the effects of the drought. They rely on green pasture to feed their animals a healthy diet. Due to the lack of rain, the pasture are drying up and the ranchers have to purchase supplemental organic hay from other states. In an attempt to fund the purchasing of this out of state hay, the organic farmers are selling herds to businesses for hamburger meat and the small

Growing up on a small family wheat farm in southwestern Oklahoma, I have experienced the harsh conditions of farming firsthand. The job that used to employ the largest amount of people in the United States has lost the support and the respect of the American people. The Jeffersonian Ideal of a nation of farmers has been tossed aside to be replaced by a nation of white-collar workers. The family farm is under attack and it is not being protected. The family farm can help the United States economically by creating jobs in a time when many cannot afford the food in the stores. The family farm can help prevent the degradation of the environment by creating a mutually beneficial relationship between the people producing the food and nature. The family farm is the answer to many of the tough questions facing the United States today, but these small farms are going bankrupt all too often. The government’s policy on farming is the largest factor in what farms succeed, but simple economics, large corporations, and society as a whole influence the decline in family farms; small changes in these areas will help break up the huge corporate farms, keeping the small family farm afloat.