U.S. Farm Bills and Policy Reforms: Ideological Conflicts Over W ...

not just for the environment but for rural America as well, including changes in rural employment structure and economic development incentives. Throughout history, farmers have tended to produce more grain than required by demand, driving prices down. Whereas in most industries, low prices motivate producers to limit production, individual farmers working independently and on a seasonal cycle instead increase production to make their profits through volume. As such, there has been overproduction and overaccumulation of agricultural stocks at every peacetime moment in U.S. history since the Civil War, with the exception of 1900–1914 (Cochrane, 2003).

As farms have grown larger to make up in volume what they lose in price, smaller farms have become less competitive and many have gone out of business, contributing to a consolidation of farm ownership and production. Compounding this, data show that the bulk of income transfers from subsidy payments go to upper-income farmers (Offutt and Gundersen, 2005). As former small, often unsubsidized, farmers left rural areas for opportunities in the cities and as large farmers turned to more sophisticated machinery and technologies to handle larger acreages, fewer farm jobs remained in the countryside, and rural communities declined. Between 1900 and 2000, the average farm size increased by 67% and the number of farms dropped by 63%. In 1900 some 41%of the U.S. population worked in agriculture compared with 1.9% in 2000, and 60% lived in rural areas compared to 20% in 2000 (Dimitriet al., 2005).¹²

Rural development groups argue that although agricultural supports have helped stabilize some rural communities, overproduction of commodity crops has led on the whole to a decline in the number of small farmers and local businesses populating other rural communities (Center for Rural Affairs, 2007a; Sustainability Institute, 2003). Many groups (e.g., Land Stewardship Project, National Family Farm Coalition) thus looked to the 2008 farm bill to help restore options for living in the countryside, with programs to help new farmers begin farming, and stricter subsidy caps to limit support for consolidated operations and nonfarming landowners (Center for Rural Affairs, 2007a).