Defending a Way of Life

The farm crisis of the 1980's precipitated much discussion from persons in all walks of life, especially in the Midwest where everyone knows someone who lost a farm or a business dependent on farming. Of special concern to the contributors to Is There a Moral Obligation to Save the Family Farm? is the decline of medium-sized farms which are operated by a family and/or extended family on a full-time basis.! It is the loss of a way of life, of farms passed from generation to generation, that is disturbing to most of the commentators who argue for the preservation offamily fanning. Economists bent on cost-benefit analyses with efficiency in dollars and cents terms are often cast as the opposition, although nobody that hardnosed is represented in this volume. On the affirmative side are those who try to give good reasons for what finally must be political and financial intervention to save a way of life that is fast-fading from American society. This collection of thirty-one essays brings together some of the best-known commentators and critics of agricultural policy, such as Wendell Berry, Gregg Easterbrook, Jim Hightower, Glenn Johnson, Richard Kirkendall, and Luther Tweeten. Expositions of the 1985 Farm Bill by Jesse Helms and of the alternative Save the Family Fann Act, by Tom Harkin, provide a useful discussion of the options Congress has considered. To my knowledge this volume is the only one of its kind, and despite my reservations about some of the essays, it should serve as a valuable source for anyone interested in the fann crisis of the 1980's. It should also serve well as a text for courses in which agricultural problems are considered. About two-thirds ofthe essays consistofpapers written for a 1985 Iowa State University Conference, and onethird are reprinted from other sources. Comstock has contributed a brief preface to each of the eight parts with additional suggested readings at the end ofeach, a general introduction, conclusion, and an index. The title notwithstanding, the essays do not constitute a sustained ethical or philosophical analysis of the question posed. Taken together, the articles do attempt to define the problems associated with family fanning in the 1980's. The volume has two apparent themes: (1) to show why failing small and mediumsized farmers cannot be assigned complete responsibility for their plight, and (2) to give positive arguments for saving these fanns and traditional rural American life. There is almost no one arguing for