Abstract

The Last Farm Crisis

The article discusses the plight of U.S. farmers in the backdrop of the food-related politics and recent government's policies on agriculture. The contemporary triumph of free-market capitalism has revealed to farmers, it not to other Americans, the bitter consequences. Farmers can see themselves being reduced from their mythological status as independent producers to a subservient and vulnerable role as sharecroppers or franchisees. The control of food production, both livestock and crops, is being consolidated not by the government but by a handful of giant corporations. While farmers and ranchers suffered three years of severely depressed prices at the close of the 1990s, the corporations enjoyed soaring profits from the same line of goods.