U.S. Agriculture: structure and change from 1982 to 1992

Abstract

In this study, U.S. agriculture is viewed as a multidimensional phenomenon varying along three distinct axes of measurement: corporate-commercial agriculture, fanning-firm agriculture, and small-farm agriculture. Data were obtained from the U.S. Census of Agriculture for the years 1982 to 1992, and transformed to improve symmetry. Multiple-indicators of the structure of agriculture were used to replicate and extend the previous work of Wimberley (I 987). Oblique principal-axis factor analysis produced pattern matrices consistent with expected dimensional structures. Factor-scores were used to estimate scales that had high reliabilities (omega coefficients > .9) and strong inter-temporal correlations for each scale across years were observed. Although the content of each scale was consistent across the three years, structural shifts in U.S. agristructure occur-red at the county level during the 1980s. Because farming is also affected by technological and environmental elements, the relationships between farm program participation, production systems, agrochemical inputs, and geographic regions with agristructure were investigated. Bivariate correlations indicated that to accurately measure agristructure, farm program participation, production systems, agrochemical inputs, and regional variations should be considered in future studies.