643 



TABLE 1.— GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT, PRIVATE FARM AND NONFARM SECTORS, SELECTED YEARS' 



[Billions of 1929 dollars] 



Years Farm Nonfarm 



1869-78 - 



1897-1901 , -- 



1936...- 



1941 



1955 



1 Source: Adapted from "Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1957," op. cit. 



Accordingly, "There is, in the mid-1960's, virtually no theoretical 

 limit to possible increases in agricultural productivity over the next 

 several years, although gains in productivity will tend to level off . . ."®* 



A contemporary analysis suggests that this leveling-off process is 

 at hand as man begins to take account of some of the adverse conse- 

 quences of farm technology. This concern for the environment — 



* * * would operate to protect and improve man's environment, to render 

 technological developments more sophisticated and more costly, to increase the 

 cost of producing food, to slow the rate of output expansion and to drive farm 

 prices upward. This, indeed, would be a new era for farmers of the developed 

 world.® 



The great expansion in U.S. agriculture during the 19th century 

 had important impacts on Europe. The industrial revolution brought 

 to that continent a population increase of more than 200 million, and 

 European agriculture was unequal to the task of feeding those in its 

 cities and industries. Accordingly : "By the close of the century, the 

 gravity point of world agriculture shifted decisively from Europe 

 to the United States: the significance of [the vast expansion of 

 acreage] brought under cultivation in the United States, in the period 

 1860-1900, was tremendous." <=« 



SOME DIPLOMATIC COXSEQUENCES OF AGRICULTURAL CHANGE 



During the 19th century, despite the progressively smaller percent- 

 age of the U.S. population engaged in agriculture, the Nation's highly 

 technological fanns became progressively more significant as a factor 

 on the world scene. Four aspects of technology related to agriculture 

 have emerged as important for present and future diplomacy : 



1. The population explosion, worldwide, will necessitate resort to 

 the best available technology on a worldwide basis, if famine is to be 

 averted. Technology employed on U.S. farms is not necessarily appro- 

 priate elsewhere; what is more likely to be needed is the building 

 of the same kinds of research institutions in developing countries that 

 were created in the United States during its initial period of growth. 

 The question remaining is whether there is time for such a long-range 

 approach. 



"^ Wayne D. Rasmussen. "Scientific Agriculture." In Melvin Kranzberg and Carroll W. 

 Pursell, Jr., ed. "Technology in Western Civilization. Volume II : Technology in the 

 Twentieth Century." (New York, Oxford University Press, 1967), page 353. 



^^Willard W. Cochrane. "American Farm Policy in a Tumultuous World." [From Min- 

 nesota Agricultural Experiment Station Misc. J. Series No. 7325.] In "Commercial Farm 

 Policy." Extension of remarks of the Hon. Donald M. Eraser. Congressional Record. (Octo- 

 ber 14, 1970), pages B 9404-9. The quotations appear at page E9406. 



<» George Borgstrom. "Food from the Sea." In Technology in Western Civilization. 

 Volume II : Technology in the Twentieth Century." Op. cit., page 424. 



