Discussion: Structure of Agriculture: The Policy Issue

Extract

The image of concern portrayed here regarding the future structure of agriculture is done in livid rhetoric and with a very broad brush. I share the concern of Breimyer and others regarding this issue. But, I do not think it necessary to engage in the inferential stretch required to forecast a cataclysmic set of national circumstances in order to justify considering it. I do not believe that we have devastated the continent. I do not foresee economic stagnation of the national economy, or unmanageable power accruing from an alarming skewness in private wealth distribution. I believe that we have the inventiveness to cope with the emerging energy crisis and with the depletion that is occurring in some of our key resources. I do not believe that our collective moral values will erode until we worship almost totally at the altar of science and materialism. And most important of all, I have an abiding faith that our system of government has the resiliance to adjust to the requirements of the future regardless of what these may be.