From the late 1940s to the early 1970s, farmers in the Corn Belt
transformed their region into a new, industrial powerhouse of
large-scale production, mechanization, specialization, and
efficiency. Many farm experts and implement manufacturers had urged
farmers in this direction for decades, but it was the persistent
labor shortage and cost-price squeeze following WWII that prompted
farmers to pave the way to industrializing agriculture. Anderson
examines the changes in Iowa, a representative state of the Corn
Belt, in order to explore why farmers adopted particular
technologies and how, over time, they integrated new tools and
techniques. In addition to the impressive field machinery, grain
storage facilities, and automated feeding systems were the less
visible, but no less potent, chemical technologies-antibiotics and
growth hormones administered to livestock, as well as insecticide,
herbicide, and fertilizer applied to crops. Much of this new
technology created unintended consequences: pesticides encouraged
the proliferation of resistant strains of plants and insects while
also polluting the environment and threatening wildlife, and the
use of feed additives triggered concern about the health effects to
consumers. In Industrializing the Corn Belt, J. L. Anderson
explains that the cost of equipment and chemicals made
unprecedented demands on farm capital, and in order to maximize
production, farmers planted more acres with fewer but more
profitable crops or specialized in raising large herds of a single
livestock species. The industrialization of agriculture gave rural
Americans a lifestyle resembling that of their urban and suburban
counterparts. Yet the rural population continued to dwindle as
farms required less human labor, and many small farmers, unable or
unwilling to compete, chose to sell out. Based on farm records,
cooperative extension reports, USDA publications, oral interviews,
trade literature, and agricultural periodicals, Industrializing the
Corn Belt offers a fresh look at an important period of
revolutionary change in agriculture through the eyes of those who
grew the crops, raised the livestock, implemented new technology,
and ultimately made the decisions that transformed the nature of
the family farm and the Midwestern landscape.
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