The Unsettling of America (1977) by Wendell Berry

When I was working on this book-from 1974 to 1977-the long agricultural decline that it deals with was momentarily disguised as a "boom. " The big farmers were getting bigger with the help of inflated land prices and borrowed money, and the foreign demand for American farm products was strong, so from the official point of view the situation looked good. The big were supposed to get bigger. Foreigners were supposed to be in need of our products. The official point of view, foreshortened as usual by statistics, superstitious theory, and wishful prediction, was utterly complacent. Then Secretary of Agriculture Earl L. Butz issued the most optimistic, the most widely obeyed, and the worst advice ever given to farmers: that they should plow "fencerow to fencerow."

That the situation was not good-for farms or farmers or rural communities or nature or the general public-was even then evident to any experienced observer who would turn aside from the preconceptions of "agribusiness" and look at the marks of deterioration that were plainly visible. And now, almost a decade later, it is evident to everyone that, at least for farmers and rural communities, the situation is catastrophic: Farmers are losing their farms, some are killing themselves, some in the madness of despair are killing other people, and rural economy and rural life are gravely stricken. The agricultural economists chart the "liquidations of assets," the "shakeouts," and the "downturns," apparently amazed that now even the large "progressive" and "efficient" farmers are in trouble.