Their Impact on the Country and the Environment
             Farming has been a mainstay of not only American lifestyle, but throughout society as a whole. Farming has always been thought of as back breaking work, and not the typical nine to five job, nor as profitable as a white collar job on Wall Street, however, the money involved in farming is quite tremendous. Most farmers have struggled feverishly to keep their farms sustainable and their families fed. Agriculture was at one time a thriving business. In 1916 there were 32,530,000 people living on farms in the U.S. (Reische 51) This was the most at any time in the industry. During the early 1900's farming was a way of life, and many farmers were making a large profit even though the Great Depression was looming. In the 1920's there were major developments in agricultural technology. Machinery was brought into the picture and productivity increased, however the machinery was very expensive for the small farmer, and it caused a reduction in labor needs on farms as laborers were drawn to the cities for work. (Long 85) Nonetheless food demand remained high, and food prices remained low due to the advancement. However, small farmers could not afford the expensive machines, and could not compete with larger, wealthier farms. This in turn caused many small farms to merge and form larger more competitive farms. During the Great Depression unemployment was at an all time high, income was severely decreased, and a drought had aggravated the farming situation. As a result Congress passed price support legislation to help offset farmer losses and to ensure a profit to the farmers. This was the start of government farm subsidies in the U.S. There were many pieces of legislation that helped shape this policy, and many helped farmers and the economy, until the early 1980's.
             What we now have as agricultural subsidies are the products of presidential administrations from...