ets. However, over the course of the 1980’s, the loss
of the Soviet market would prove to be the prover-
bial drop in the bucket of the economic crisis facing
farmers.
Throughout the 1970’s, developing nations made
large purchases of American grains, but over the
early years of the 1980’s, the picture changed in a va-
riety of ways. Some nations that had relied almost ex-
clusively on the United States for their agricultural
imports turned their attention to other sources,
fearing that their own imports might someday be
embargoed. Other developing nations had deeply
indebted themselves to the United States and, un-
able to meet repayment schedules, had to stop pur-
chasing from the nation altogether. Moreover, the
value of the American dollar rose relative to other
currencies in the early 1980’s. This made U.S. com-
modities, including grain, more expensive for other
countries to buy, lessening demand and contribut-
ing to a surplus of grain on the American market.
Thus, during the early 1980’s, the once buoyant
American agricultural economy started to sink. WithThe Eighties in America Agriculture in the United States 35
Creditors auction off the farm machinery of farmer Roger Escher, center left, as Escher asks his fellow farmers not to bid during a forced
property sale in Washington County, Iowa, in 1985. Many farmers lost their farms during the 1980’s.(AP/Wide World Photos)