Agriculture and the State - (Independent Studies in Political Economy) by E C Pasour (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Here is an irreverent, insightful view of farm programs in the United States, clearly separating political rhetoric from economic reality.

Analyzing the effects of price supports, marketing orders, credit and export subsidies, and other farm programs, professor Pasour shows how they especially hurt the small farmer and victimize the general public. He also exposes current farm policies as being responsible for high food prices and the widening destruction of the environment. This book sets forth how only through abolishing the gravy train of farm subsidies and other special privileges will American consumers find relief and American agriculture achieve significant economic progress.

Despite record expenditures, government farming programs have not solved the farm problem. However, farm programs still command powerful political support. This book is a hard-hitting analysis of how farm programs have mainly benefitted large corporate farming interests at the expense of small farmers and the general public.

Review Quotes

"Agriculture and the State is informative and provocative. Pasour cuts through the complexity of U.S. farm policy and tells us how such programs work and why they exist. Providing the reader with an understandable economic framework, the book points out the inefficiencies inherent in current policies as well as the winners and losers from agricultural programs."--LEE J. ALSTON, Professor of Economics, University of Illinois

"Comprehensive in its coverage and rich in descriptive detail. One can learn a great deal from Agriculture and the State, and I will often consult it."--B. DELWORTH GARDNER, Professor of Economics, Brigham Young University

"In Agriculture and the State, Pasour has done a magnificent job of applying economic principles to current U.S. government activities in the farming sector. Its critical assessment of the cost and benefits of such government intervention should be of particular interest to serious students of economics and political science as well as journalists and others concerned with government policy. The book will make an excellent textbook for agricultural economics and should be required reading for all social science majors."--CLIFTON B. LUTTRELL, Editor Emeritus, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review

"Judgement is rare in economics and politics....In Agriculture and the State, the quality of the judgement is not impaired by conventional knowledge and information. The time has come for Pasour's easy-to-read book on the economics and politics of agriculture."--THEODORE W. SCHULTZ, Nobel Laureate in Economic Science, University of Chicago

"This skillful, readable and comprehensive book is an unapologetic, well-written argument to limit government in all aspects of agriculture."--AMERICAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE ECONOMICS

About the Author

E. C. Pasour, Jr., is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Professor Emeritus of Agricultural and Resource Economics at North Carolina State University. He is the author of Agriculture and the State: Market Processes and Bureaucracy and has contributed to numerous books including Agriculture and Energy (W. Lockeretz, ed.), and Economy, Society and Public Policy (C. Pope and L. Wimmer, eds.).

Bruce L. Gardner (1942-2008), a graduate of the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago, was Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Maryland, College Park and Interim Dean, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Maryland. He was a Senior Staff Economist on the Presidents Council of Economic Advisors and Assistant Secretary for Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture.