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<p>This dissertation examines federal farm policy between 1933 and 1965 and its implementation
in North and South Carolina. It argues that restricted economic democracy in the
Farm State - the full array of agriculture regulations, programs, and agencies associated
with the federal government - enabled policy makers to adhere strictly to the principles
of progressive farming and parity in the development and implementation of farm policies.
These ideals emphasized industrialized, commercial farming by ever-larger farms and
excluded many smaller farms from receiving the full benefit of federal farm aid.
The resulting programs, by design, contributed significantly to the contraction of
the farm population and the concentration of farm assets in the Carolinas. They also
steered rural economic development into the channels of agribusiness as a strategy
to manage the consequences of those policies. The processes and programs that drove
the smallest farms out of business in the early post-war era were beginning to threaten
even larger, commercial farming enterprises by the 1960s. In this context, the economic
and political interests of farmers became separate from and oppositional to those
of industry or consumers and removed incentives to seek common ground. The unwavering
pursuit of commercial farming and agribusiness prevented diversified rural development
in the Carolinas and contributed to uneven distributions of prosperity in the region.
</p><p>Using the methodologies of policy, business, and social history, this work
draws upon evidence from a wide variety of sources including the papers of government
farm agencies, correspondence of farmers, political office holders, and personnel
of the USDA. It also consults the farm press and local press, the writings of farm
policy leaders, and Congressional hearings and reports. These documents provide a
multifaceted perspective on the development and implementation of farm programs in
the Carolinas and offers a new look at the contested process through which farm policy
was made and implemented in the post war period.</p>
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