ABSTRACT
Characteristics of the farm population are important in understanding the power of agriculture because the farm population has declined dramatically since 1920 and because less than 4 percent of the state's population is needed to produce enough food to serve many times more people than live in the state. Farmers mainly sell their crops to the market and, in turn, buy their family's food from the local supermarket. The number of farmers and farms is decreasing in Illinois while the news media continue to paint bleak pictures of the future of Illinois farming. Years of scarcity, crop losses, poor soils, erosion, and mistrust of farm advisers who administer government programs and are perceived as helpful only to the large farmers have combined to develop a conservative, insecure attitude toward farming. Illinois farmers suffered drastically, since the worth of their heavy investments in commercial fertilizers and agricultural chemicals collapsed as the drought persisted.
