The Economics Of American Agriculture

This book answers the questions: What is happening to American agriculture, and why? Steven C. Blank uses portfolio theory to analyze both macro- and microeconomic data that paints a clear picture of the trends in agriculture, and explains why these trends are consistent with market evolution and global economic development. He clarifies agriculture's specific role in economic development with a focus on the current and future globalizing commodity markets.The book features empirical research that demonstrates the link between farm-level investment decisions and regional and national economic trends. It shows how the dynamic environment of industrialization and globalization of agriculture is part of a continuing development that is driven by technological innovation. This all points to a future with a very different agricultural production sector and some extremely important policy choices that will face the entire country.

Advisor to President Kennedy, consultant for foreign governments, and spokesman for family farmers everywhere, Willard W. Cochrane has been a leading expert on agriculture and its problems in the United States since the 1940s. In his straightforward style Cochrane analyzes the propensity for American agriculture to produce too much and the inability of our social and economic system to make effective use of that unending abundance. He then offers his vision for American agriculture in the twenty-first century. Cochrane looks at two periods in agricultural history: 195366 and 19972002. Structurally, technologically, and organizationally the two periods are as different as night and day, but in terms of the big economic picture--too much production pressing on a limited commercial demand with resulting low farm prices and incomes--they are mirror images of each other. With this understanding, Cochrane argues that Americans no longer need to farm fragile ecosystems with intensive chemical methods, make huge payments that result in fewer farms and higher farming costs, nor bear the environmental consequences of all-out production. Instead, he outlines a bold new strategy in which we can enjoy our abundance and focus our efforts on quality of life and protecting the environment in our rural areas. Willard W. Cochrane is the author of numerous books, including The Development of American Agriculture: A Historical Analysis, and coauthor of Reforming Farm Policy: Toward a National Agenda. Richard A. Levins is a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Minnesota and the author of Willard Cochrane and the American Family Farm (Nebraska 2003).

The production of farm products; Marketing farm products; Toward an understanding of farm prices; Farmers in the national and world economies; Human; material and financial resources of agriculture; Price-income policy problems.

Agriculture today and yesterday; Agriculture in the total economic process; Dimensions of the agricultural plant; Structure of commercial farms-scale; Structure of commercial farms-type; Farm tenure and debtChanges and structural strain; Group interests in agriculture.

Agricultural economics defined; Our national economy - some basic choices; Our national economy - wealth, productivity, and income; Money and agricultural finance; The problems of agriculture and macroeconomic policy decisions; The economic setting of american agriculture; The economic history of american agriculture; The nature and scope of agricultural economics; Production of agricultural goods and the concept of supply; Consumption of agricultural products and the concept of demand; Supply, demand, and the role of market price; The concept of elasticity; Market structure: the conditions of competition; Price spreads, market levels, and marketing margins; Agricultural cooperation; Production management; Joint supply functions and derived demand; Budgeting: a management tool; The economics of land use and value.