Time Essay: Time to Plant a New Farm Policy

FARMERS in the U.S. have long stood in the anomalous position of being gradually and benevolently subsidized out of existence. For the overall American economy to become ever larger, a smaller and smaller segment of its work force has had to take over the job of growing the nation's food, thus allowing the rest to use their energies in other industries. The U.S. was able to urbanize as rapidly as it did in large part because the Government helped those who chose to stay on the land to become steadily more productive. It built...

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