ABSTRACT
The mechanization of agriculture currently is one of the most prominent issues on the American political agenda. The issue is now most visible in California where it has generated numerous farm worker protests, several legislative hearings, and even a headline grabbing lawsuit. Opponents of continued public support for mechanization research emphasize that the large-scale, capital-intensive technologies developed by the USDA Land Grant Complex generate serious social costs. Political economists long have argued that technological choices are political decisions primarily because they seriously affect the distribution of such important societal values as employment, income, health and safety. Such choices affect the distribution of these values because different technologies generate different costs and benefits for the various groups and classes in society. The controversy over further state support for mechanization research involves two different questions: who controls the political decisions behind agricultural research, and who benefits and loses from the mechanical innovations that come out of that research.
