"What seemed like a hodgepodge eventually cohered into a whole. The government never took over agriculture, but the government didn’t leave it alone, either. It shaped a feedback loop of experiment and learning and encouragement for farmers across the country. The results were beyond what anyone could have imagined. Productivity went way up, outpacing that of other Western countries. Prices fell by half. By 1930, food absorbed just twenty-four per cent of family spending and twenty per cent of the workforce. Today, food accounts for just eight per cent of household income and two per cent of the labor force. It is produced on no more land than was devoted to it a century ago, and with far greater variety and abundance than ever before in history."
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/12/14/091214fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=3#ixzz0ZhhRVRUu
My first reaction was Gawande's attempt to parallel USDA's attempts to help farmers with the pilot projects in the health care bill and the general situation of health care in the US with the situation in agriculture in 1900 were far-fetched. But he's a persuasive writer. I recommend the article.
PS: He has perhaps the first interview with an extension agent ever to appear in the New Yorker.
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