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331 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. viii (1960)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0331 and id is 1 raw text is: THE THEME This volume' is aimed at contributing to a sweeping change in the focus of American agricultural policy. It aspires to a prominent place on the desks of farm editors as well as on reading lists of agricultural policy courses. It hopes to influence the agenda of farm policy conferences and to command the attention of policy-makers in Congress, the Executive, and farm organizations. It transcends- even though it draws upon-recent symposia on the farm problem.? Admirable as these efforts are, they do not try what this volume attempts: to examine farm policy in light of the radically changed situation of the United States in the world. Certain differences of interpretation among authors of articles in this volume only underscore their concurrence with the general scheme. Until recently our problems seemed essentially domestic. Even severe inter- national crises seemed temporary and did not appear to jeopardize national sur- vival. Now all this is changed. Our fate is conclusively involved with that of other nations. The next few decades seem critical in the race between population and technology. Fortunately we have immense capabilities, if we will only use them, to help underdeveloped countries. Whether the strength that we and our friends can muster will be enough this generation will probably never learn; but it is forced to the attempt by its religious convictions, by its heritage of democratic constitutionalism, and by its interest in survival. The population explosion, the rising demands and turmoil in the world, the spiraling efficiencies in mass destruc- tion all indicate that nothing less than our best effort will do. To show concretely and in detail how farm interests and farm policy relate to these transcending needs is the task of this book. Agriculture by no means monopolizes this lofty obligation, but a start must be made somewhere, and agri- culture is fitting both because of the significance of domestic farm programs for economic foreign policy and also because the miracle of farm science illumines a forbidding future. This book looks first at foreign economic policy and only later-and then briefly-at domestic farm policy. The order is deliberate. The domestic problem looms so large that it nearly blinds those concerne to everything else. It is not enough merely to catch the eyes of farm spokesmen-they must come to see their immediate problems in relation to the overriding needs of this nation and, indeed, of mankind. We must scrap the threadbare theory that the gen- eral welfare will automatically emerge if each group presses as hard as it can for its immediate interests. Therefore, we open with a discussion of American agriculture as it bears upon trade among nations. How have our farm products entered into world trade; what has been agriculture's influence on trade policy; what would a desirable and consistent trade policy be; and what implications would it have for agriculture? ' The author is indebted to T. W. Schultz for his help in crystallizing the goal and in spelling out the organization of this volume. 2William H. Nicholls (Editor), American Agriculture: Perspectives and Prospects (New York: Columbia University, The American Assembly, 1955). Iowa State University Center for Agricultural Adjustment, Problems and Policies of American Agriculture (Ames, Iowa, 1959). Joint Economic Committee, Policy for Commercial Agriculture, 85th Cong., 1st sess. (Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1957). Harold Halcrow (Editor), Modern Land Policy (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1960). viii

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