The Eighties in America - Salem Press (2009)

often received little or nothing when their assets
were disposed of by forced sales. In some areas, farm-
ers protested mass evictions, but these protests were
ineffective, only occasionally even delaying the inev-
itable dispossessions.
In addition to the ruin experienced by individual
farmers and their families, hundreds of small rural
Canadian communities—located in areas where
farming was a mainstay of the local economy—were
devastated as well. When farmers lost their homes
and farms, they typically migrated to large cities
some distance from their former homes. The exo-
dus of hardworking farm families often tore apart
the social fabric of the small, isolated farm commu-
nities. Thousands of businesses, schools, churches,
and other social institutions closed their doors. For
many of the communities, whose existence was in
jeopardy even prior to 1980, the recession was cata-
strophic.

Further Reading
Boyens, Ingeborg.Another Season’s Promise: Hope and
Despair in Canada’s Farm Countr y.Toronto: Pen-
guin Books, 2001. Anecdotal study of the Cana-
dian farm crisis that reveals the human costs and
tragedy associated with the calamity.
Lind, Christopher.Something’s Wrong Somewhere:
Globalization, Community, and the Moral Economy of
the Farm Crisis.Halifax, N.S.: Fernwood, 1995.
This monograph examines an array of problems
associated with the farm crisis, while special atten-
tion is given to moral issues associated with the
tragedy. Revealing in regard to the impact the ca-
tastrophe had on individuals and communities.
Wilson, Barry K. Farming the System: How Politics and
Farmers Shape Agricultural Policy.Saskatoon, Sask.:
Western Producer Prairie Books, 1990. Analyzes
the Canadian agricultural crisis from both na-
tional and global perspectives. Demonstrates how
agricultural policy evolves, especially in regard to
the political environment, while revealing the im-
pact the process and decisions have on individual
farmers.
Robert R. McKay

See also Agriculture in the United States; Canada-
United States Free Trade Agreement; Farm Aid;
Farm crisis; Globalization; Income and wages in
Canada; Inflation in Canada; Natural disasters.

Agriculture in the United

States

Definition The raising and preparation of crops

and livestock for U.S. and foreign markets

Throughout the 1980’s, U.S. farmers faced difficult eco-

nomic conditions. Both the government and private organi-

zations sought to aid them, but the decade witnessed the

widespread failure of small- and medium-scale farms, the

collapse of rural communities that depended on them, and

the consolidation of American agriculture in the hands of

large-scale farming corporations.

As the 1980’s dawned, the population of the United

States surpassed 227 million people. Of those indi-

viduals, 6,051,000 considered themselves to be farm-

ers and ranchers, representing a mere 3.4 percent of

the nation’s population. They labored on 2,439,510

farms, which averaged 426 acres in size. Farmers

awoke on January 1, 1980, hoping that the decade

that lay before them would be better than the closing

years of the decade they had rung out the night be-

fore.

U.S. agriculture in the late 1970’s could only be

described as difficult. The opening years of the

1970’s had been relatively halcyon ones for the

nation’s farmers. With trade barriers lowered and

record purchases of American grain by the Soviet

Union, farm exports soared to new levels. Accord-

ingly, farm life improved dramatically for most fami-

lies: as commodity prices rose, so did incomes. With

a seemingly unquenchable foreign appetite for

American grains, the Federal Land Bank, its lending

restrictions recently removed, allowed farmers to

incur substantial debt, as did other lending institu-

tions. This practice caused land prices to rise dra-

matically, as farmers sought to cash in on a perpetu-

ally rising market. Farm incomes rose above the

national average in nine of the decade’s years. The

dreams of the 1970’s, however, were not borne out

by the realities of the 1980’s.

Problems Facing Farmers These realities started to

become clear as early as January 4, 1980, when Presi-

dent Jimmy Carter announced a series of sanctions

against the Soviet Union in retaliation for that

nation’s invasion of Afghanistan. While some be-

moaned the fact that the United States would not be

participating in the 1980 Olympics, farmers took

note of the strict embargo of grain sales to the Sovi-

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Agriculture in the United States The Eighties in America