ABSTRACT
The years of high-level farm stress and the loss of a large number of dairy farms affected communities as well as individual farm families. The community-level impacts included not only economic effects but social and cultural effects as well. Some impacts were apparent early but were relatively short-lived; others lagged considerably behind the farm crisis itself but were longer-lasting and significant. Economic impacts of the farm crisis were cushioned in New York by the state's diverse rural economy, which absorbed farm closings more readily than was the case in the highly agricultural portions of the Corn Belt and Great Plains. Dislocation of farm women was more serious than farm employment statistics indicate. Employment in farm-related businesses and services has decreased or remained stagnant. The informal social interaction patterns that weave farm people together in that subset of the rural community referred to as "the farm community" were more painfully affected by the economic strain on local farms.
