Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Politics Of U.S. Food Policy, Evan Murphy

CMC Senior Theses

Throughout the 20th century, American farmlands, agricultural policy, and diets have seen dramatic transformations. The number of farms in America has decreased, but the average size of farms has increased. These larger farms are increasingly more industrialized and produce a short list of profitable, subsidized commodity crops. Similarly, changes in the American diet throughout the 20th and 21st centuries have reflected these shifts in the landscape of American farmland. Simultaneous to the evolution of American farms was an increase in federal involvement in American agriculture through policy that seems to encourage these trends. Although separating out the causes from the …