There exists a question as to whether United States society and its agricultural system will continue to follow the long-term trend of Western civilization or move in a new direction. The "modernization trend" of Western civilization has 4 components: scientification of knowledge, secularization of human values, industrialization of human activity, and, most importantly, economic rationality. This trend greatly contrasts a potential cultural transformation characterized by greater insistence on self-determination, greater emphasis on the quality of life, a movement toward "appropriate technology", greater acceptance of an ecological ethic, and a widespread search for transcendental meanings. Among the many challenges to this new movement are some relevant to rural life: overwhelming world food problems and the exodus from cities. If agriculture follows this new direction, there will be smaller and small aglomerations of farms, smaller communities located near food production, and more participation in food production. If, however, rural agriculture follows the trend of Western civilization, the results will be fewer and fewer farmers, larger and larger farms, a growing dominance of economics over rural life, and institutionalized agriculture. In the very near future, agriculture will be characterized by both trends. (SB)