ABSTRACT
The Hatch Act of 1887 instructed our land-grant institutions to promote “a sound and prosperous agriculture and rural life,” a permanent agriculture, and it says their purpose should be the development and improvement of the rural home and rural life. This chapter is concerned with the land-grant collage experts have presided over the destruction of what they were mandated to preserve. They function in what has become a closed, self- serving society. The chapter shows that land-grant institutions have used the wrong standards. They have used industrial standards concerned only with speed and efficiency and have applied them as standards for agriculture. Half of the world’s land available for agriculture will be consumed by urban and industrial development by the year 2050 and population may quadruple. There is an immediate need to support innovative agricultural research in the country, to meet the winds and tides of change, and to restore and maintain the soils on which our food is grown.
