ABSTRACT
H. B. Breimyer argues that while farmers may collectively advocate the maintenance of agrarian policies which protect a relatively small-scale competitive agricultural sector, they often act individually, as does Congress, to keep such policies from working to their benefit. United States (US) agricultural systems and structures have adapted to the changing needs of the larger society. As technological revolutions have greatly increased the amount of food one farmer can grow, the farm population has steadily declined. Although the vast majority of farm policy and farm literature is oriented toward the commercial family farm, it is not the only agricultural system present in the US. The protectionist school is a mixed collection of interests which are generally dominated by traditional values associated with Jeffersonian Agrarianism such as hard work, family, religion, community, and the value of independent yeoman farmers as good citizens. The Civil War brought increased intervention by the US government in agricultural affairs.
