Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
7
Conclusion: The Future of Agriculture in the United States
A Great Hollowing
In chapter 2, I described the growing pains of Cooperative Extension in
California, expressed especially through the reports of its director, B. H.
Crocheron, during the 1920s and 1930s. Crocheron wrote of his wish to
“unscramble” the agriculture of that time, consolidating those farms he
deemed ineffi cient into larger and more rational units. Crocheron got his
wish. U.S. agriculture in the twenty-fi rst century is a rationalized and con-
solidated system of food production; the “mess” of earlier times has been
replaced with a context where fewer than 2 percent of Americans now
work in agriculture, and yet our food production leads the world and is
unrivaled in the history of humanity. Ironically, however, the same proc-
esses that began this transformation during Crocheron's time are still at
work today, and the remaining farmers face several of the same problems
that were prevalent at the turn of the twentieth century. While the number
of Americans working in agriculture continues to shrink, and farm sizes
continue to increase, the defi nition of who is a small or marginal grower
remains in fl ux (Hallberg 2001). The slogan “get big or get out” defi nes
farming in many sectors, and the result has been not the preservation of
farming communities but instead a great hollowing.
As I write this conclusion, I make my home in central New York State,
an agricultural region far different from the Salinas Valley. Whereas the
acreage of farmland is about the same in Monterey County and the county
where I live, the corn and dairy farming of this area produce dollar reve-
nues in the tens of millions each year, nowhere near the scale and intensity
of California's multibillion-dollar vegetable industry. Furthermore, this
