The Emerging Merger of Agricultural and Environmental Policy: Building a New Vision for the Future of American Agriculture
By Michael R. Taylor
ABSTRACT
Over the past twenty years, a virtual revolution has occurred in the public policy environment surrounding American agriculture. Market liberalization has become a central theme of agricultural policy, challenging longstanding price support programs and direct income subsidies for farmers; conservation and environmental issues have moved from the periphery to the center of farm policy debates; and the public is paying increasing attention to agriculture as controversies about biotechnology, the ‘industrialization‘ of agriculture, and globalization spill over into the mass media. This revolution is just beginning. Change will continue to be propelled by domestic political pressure and by the persistent logic and momentum of the increasingly global food economy. The pressure for change will certainly challenge American agriculture, but it also provides the opportunity and impetus to formulate a new vision for agriculture - one that respects and harnesses markets, conserves our natural resources, protects the environment, and makes the United States a positive contributor to a successful global food system. This essay argues that one element of such a vision is likely to be the continued convergence of agricultural and environmental policy. It describes the forces pushing in that direction and identifies some of the critical questions that underlie the construction of a new vision for American agriculture - one that merges the economic interests of American farmers with the public interest in an environmentally and socially sustainable agricultural system.
Over the past twenty years, a virtual revolution has occurred in the public policy environment surrounding American agriculture. Market liberalization has become a central theme of agricultural policy, challenging longstanding price support programs and direct income subsidies for farmers; conservation and environmental issues have moved from the periphery to the center of farm policy debates; and the public is paying increasing attention to agriculture as controversies about biotechnology, the ‘industrialization‘ of agriculture, and globalization spill over into the mass media. This revolution is just beginning. Change will continue to be propelled by domestic political pressure and by the persistent logic and momentum of the increasingly global food economy. The pressure for change will certainly challenge American agriculture, but it also provides the opportunity and impetus to formulate a new vision for agriculture - one that respects and harnesses markets, conserves our natural resources, protects the environment, and makes the United States a positive contributor to a successful global food system. This essay argues that one element of such a vision is likely to be the continued convergence of agricultural and environmental policy. It describes the forces pushing in that direction and identifies some of the critical questions that underlie the construction of a new vision for American agriculture - one that merges the economic interests of American farmers with the public interest in an environmentally and socially sustainable agricultural system.
