ABSTRACT

Agricultural units have gotten so big and so expensive to own and operate that few can afford them as hobbies any more. Agricultural operations have gotten so big, and so expensive to own and operate, that federal farm programs can do little by themselves to support the farm economy. If US agricultural policy is at a crossroad, it is a choice between making further progress toward a market-based economy or reversing directions and returning to a rigidly controlled and heavily subsidized farm sector. Economists are projecting relatively stable demand conditions in agricultural markets for the remainder of the 1980s. Another factor is the strong export market for feed grains and soybeans, which has caused many farmers to give up their livestock operations. When farmers and ranchers are confronted with the charges of the animal welfare movement, they tend to defend themselves by claiming that as livestock producers they naturally have the welfare of animals at heart.