Plowshares &amp; Pork Barrels

Name: Plowshares & Pork Barrels (eBook)
Brand: Independent Institute
SKU: 361031
Price: 9.99 USD
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Plowshares & Pork Barrels

The Political Economy of Agriculture

E. C. Pasour Jr.Randall R. Rucker

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Description

Plowshares & Pork Barrels provides the historical and economic context necessary to make sense of U.S. agricultural policy and examines possible market-based alternatives that could benefit consumers and ensure the advancement of American agriculture in an increasingly interdependent global economy.

Established in 1860, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has grown without cease and is now the most entrenched of all federal agencies. The Farm Bills signed by Presidents Bill Clinton in 1996 and George W. Bush in 2002 only served to further expand this byzantine system.

Economists are nearly unanimous in their denunciation of this wasteful and pernicious web of politics. Subsidies for not growing crops are so notorious that they have been the object of biting political satire since their introduction in the 1930s. However, few books have critically analyzed government farm programs in their entirety like Plowshares & Pork Barrels.

Genres

FinancialAccountingBusiness & Economics20th CenturyUnited StatesHistoryGovernment & Business

Pages408

Released2005

LanguageEnglish

PublisherIndependent Institute

ISBN9781598131932

SellerSimon & Schuster

About the author(s)

E. C. Pasour, Jr., is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Professor Emeritus of Agricultural and Resource Economics at North Carolina State University. He is the author of Agriculture and the State: Market Processes and Bureaucracy and has contributed to numerous books including Agriculture and Energy (W. Lockeretz, ed.), and Economy, Society and Public Policy (C. Pope and L. Wimmer, eds.).

Randal R. Rucker is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Professor of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University. A contributor to numerous scholarly volumes, Professor Rucker is the author of many technical studies on natural resource and environmental issues.

Bruce L. Gardner (1942–2008), a graduate of the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago, was Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Maryland, College Park and Interim Dean, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Maryland. He was a Senior Staff Economist on the Presidents Council of Economic Advisors and Assistant Secretary for Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Reviews

"American consumers of farm products and taxpayers pay a heavy price for government policies and programs that subsidize farmers, and at the same time, regulate them in ways that stifle free trade and reduce the efficiency of agricultural production. These are the principal conclusions of a brilliantly researched and sprightly written book, Plowshares & Pork Barrels. This book is especially timely and important and I believe it will become an encyclopedic reference source for anyone wishing to better understand this vital sector of our economy."

B. Delworth Gardner, Emeritus Professor of Economics, Brigham Young University; Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics, University of California, Davis

"The superb book, Plowshares & Pork Barrels, by Pasour and Rucker, is both analytically rigorous and readable. It is the single best guide available to the historical path and complexities of U.S. agricultural policies."

Lee J. Alston, Ostrom Chair and Professor of Economics and Director of the Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University

"Plowshares & Pork Barrels is a wondrous history of farm pork and employment at the U.S. Agriculture Department."

Seattle Post Intelligencer

"Plowshares & Pork Barrels combines a detailed institutional understanding of American agricultural policy with rigorous analysis of the underlying political economy. It unravels the seemingly convoluted web of governmental programs by exposing the interests of the various groups—farmers, politicians, bureaucrats, and agribusiness ?rms—who stand to benefit. This excellent book should be read by all those interested in agricultural policy including economists, environmentalists, lawyers, political scientists, and policymakers, as well as the public at large."

Dean Lueck, Cardon Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Arizona