In an effort to increase student readiness for college and career, many States have adopted new academic standards encouraged by education reform advocates. These standards are commonly referred to as the Common Core Standards. Schools from States that have adopted the Common Core Standards have been compelled to significantly restructure their…

This report describes how governments throughout the world manage their economies and interact with their people, with special emphasis on how the agricultural sector is affected by changing government goals, policies, and programs. Policies and programs are described using information as of July 1987. The large country policy statements include…

Agriculture generates byproducts that may contribute to the contamination of the United States' water supply. Any effective regulations to ban or restrict agricultural chemical or land use practices in order to improve water quality will affect the farm economy. Some farmers will benefit; some will not. Most agricultural pollutants reach surface…

Food production plays a central role in every national economy. In the United States, the family farm system of agriculture has added special symbolic weight to this economic role. The national debate over appropriate agricultural policies now includes more interested parties than ever before. Environmentalists, consumer advocates, taxpayers,…

Comparisons were made of commercial farmers' and Extension agents' views of the general farm situation; the effects of government price supports on farm prices; the existing market structure and acceptable ways of bargaining for increased farm product prices; and views of the general farm organizations and how they should be organized and run.…

The financial well-being of farmers varies with the local economy's dependence on farming. Farming-dependent counties (where farming contributes at least 20 percent of the county's total earnings in 1980-84), offer limited nonfarm employment opportunities. These operators earn high farm incomes but face large debts. Declining land values have…

Intended to provide teachers with an analysis of contemporary United States agriculture, this analysis begins with an overview of the farm community focusing on the income distinction between wealthy commercial farmers and other farmers. The cause of farm unrest is that earnings are too low relative to expenses. The problems of declining farm…

Farms and the people who live on them differ dramatically from one part of the United States to another. These differences are prominent both from one region to the next as well as between farms and people in the same region. The varying characteristics of agriculture and the farm population have helped shape regional experiences in the 1980s. In…

Historical events have set the stage for the current U.S. agricultural export performance. Agricultural exports in the early 1990s were as large or larger relative to the size of the agricultural sector than at any time since. A dramatic decrease in net farm income was caused by the Great Depression (1929-1932). Following passage of the…

Although soil erosion is a natural process, it has increased to the point where it far exceeds the natural formation of new soil. However, with only occasional exceptions, national agricultural and population policies have failed to take soil depletion into account. Projections of world food production always incorporate estimates of future…