Four alternative government farm policies were analyzed to determine their effect upon farm income and employment generation in rural areas and agriculturally related industries. A linear programming model of interregional competition was used to determine the impact of alternative farm policies on the quantity of major commodities produced, the regional location of that production, and net farm income. Divided into 150 homogeneous rural areas and 31 consuming regions, U.S. agricultural production was defined in terms of commodity demands for wheat, feedgrains, soybeans, cotton lint, and cottonseed oilmeal. The impact on income and employment generated outside agriculture and that generated specifically in the North Central Region was also examined in terms of the 4 farm policies. The policies examined were: (1) Free Market Alternative (no direct government intervention in the market either through price supports or direct payments); (2) Land Retirement Alternative (governmental price supports for feedgrains, wheat, and cotton and direct government payments to farmers for witholding part of their production); (3) and (4) Bragaining Power Alternatives A and B (under both alternatives, farmers would unite to exert control over market prices and production, the major difference being the level of farm prices which would prevail). (JC)