ABSTRACT
Documenting the socioeconomic consequences of the farm crisis from a regional perspective presented numerous methodological and substantive challenges. To conduct a regional survey that would be sensitive to the diverse set of issues within each subregion or state, collaborators in each of the 12 North Central states were solicited. Each of the Agriculture Experiment Station Directors in the region was contacted and asked to appoint someone from their faculty to serve as a collaborator on the project. Farming is one of the few occupations where sampling is done based upon employment status. The Iowa Agricultural Statistics Service agreed to assist in the coordination of the data collection and processing. Questionnaires were returned by the respondents in postage-paid envelopes to the Agricultural Statistics Service in their state. The Iowa Agricultural Statistics Service keypunched and verified the data, and assembled the data set.
