The Changing Face of Agriculture

Item #33282: "Report Hits NCSU for Ag Research."

In the long run, agricultural industrialization in North Carolina fulfilled the dream of making agriculture an efficient industry. Fewer farmers produce more food than ever before. Since 1940, the number of farmers in North Carolina has dropped from twelve percent to two percent of the population. Farming now requires millions in capital, and as a result, numerous rural families have migrated to the suburbs or cities, while many more have transitioned to part-time farming, or remained in a rural setting with a non-agricultural career.[1]

In 1972, in the wake of “total tobacco mechanization,” NC State’s newspaper, The Technician, published an article accusing NC State of not fulfilling its duty as a land-grant university. The article was based on a report by the Agribusiness Accountability Project, and claimed that “‘the tax-paid, land grant complex has come to serve an elite of private, corporate interests in rural America, while ignoring those who have the most urgent needs and the most legitimate claims for assistance.’”[2] The article recognizes that agricultural research often left small farmers and farm workers in the dust, and many of these had no other training and struggled to find work elsewhere. The report stated that “‘the focus of agricultural research is warped by the land grant community’s fascination with technology, integrated food processes, and the like. Strict economic efficiency is the goal, not people.’”[3] The report concludes by saying that agricultural research has been “‘preoccupied with efficiency and production—focus that has contributed much to the largest producers, but which has slighted the pressing needs of the vast majority of America’s farmers, and ignored the great majority of other rural people.’”[4] Agricultural research on mechanization at NC State had contributed to the success of large-scale, efficient farming, but in doing so, left many rural families behind.

Nevertheless, a reply to the article in the same issue of the Technician argues that NC State did empower small farmers and rural inhabitants, but not necessarily by ensuring their success as a farmer. The writer concedes that “numerous research programs may, in the final analysis, eliminate many jobs, or contribute to the continued deprivation of small-scale tillers of the soil.” However, the writer argues implies that “the opportunities for technical training now being offered through the nation’s burgeoning technical institute and community college programs” serve as an alternative route to success in the field of agribusiness.[5]