Moral Geography in high Plains History

Abstract

When American society, through deliberate government action, intervenes to preserve the family farm as the locus of “good” human values and “authentic” environmental conditions, the result can be described as a moral geography. Nowhere is this clearer than in the protection of traditional farming on the High, or Great, Plains through federal funding and programs. Protection began during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s; federal support came to a close with the passage of the 1996 farm bill. These shifts deserve assessment of historic American interests in the protection of an agricultural institution and of a region at risk.

• agricultural ethics
• family farm
• federal subsidies
• High Plains
• public policy

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John Opie

Dr. Opie is a professor of environmental policy at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey 07102–1982.