ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with looking at agricultural policy from an economic standpoint, and to do so involves setting aside those aspects of reality that are beyond the techniques of this discipline to conceptualise or quantify. It explores what is meant by “standard of living” in the context of agricultural policy. Consideration is given to the problem of measurement and to ways of establishing the minimum standard that a modern society can tolerate for its members. Quite what the fathers of agricultural policy had in mind when they laid the framework in statements of intent such as the Treaty of Rome is open to varied interpretation, but the use of the term “standard of living” implies a broad concern with the quality of life of the agricultural population. The economic welfare of farmers and their families, as indicated by their standard of living, is determined by their level of consumption of goods and services.
