An Agricultural Revolution in America

Farming and agriculture have always played a large role in American history and society. From the time the first settlers arrived in the New World from Europe, families and communities have relied on farms both big and small. Up until the 1930’s, there were few changes in the agriculture industry, but following the Great Depression and World War II, there was an explosion in farming technology, productivity, and the amount of federal government intervention. These changes led to a revolution in agriculture from about 1950 to 1970 that shaped the industry then and continues to do so today. Prior to the 1930’s, the amount of the population involved in agriculture was extremely large. Conkin writes, “At least 90 percent of the population had some tie to agriculture, even if only part time.”1 This was due to the fact that families relied on the food that they produced themselves because food could not be produced on such the large scale that we are familiar with today. In the 1800’s, one farm family could only produce enough to feed themselves and one other family. As technology progressed, so did productivity, and families did not rely on their own farming and agriculture as much. 2 Even so, agriculture continued to be America’s largest economic sector. There was a tremendous amount of work that was required to operate a farm before the explosion in agriculture technology. For the most part, the work in the fields was only done for short periods of time throughout the year because of the different growing and harvesting seasons. Conkin says that the most basic tasks of farming “particularly preparing the land for crops, planting, and harvesting” took days of working from the time the sun rose until the time it set. 3 This was very hard work, especially in Conkin’s farming village, because everything was still done manually, not with technology. In his experience, “until the eve of World War II, no one had a tractor.”4 All of the planting and