This paper develops four models depicting types and causes of rural poverty in the United States. The recent farm financial crisis has exacerbated rural poverty problems, and many farmers who were not in poverty a few years ago are now in poverty. Policy options for dealing with rural poverty...

We identify the effects of alternative explanatory variables on the propensity of U.S. farmers to cease farming, with a particular emphasis on understanding the roles of off-farm employment and federal farm program payments. Conventional ordinary least squares analysis using all counties...

Federal farm program benefits accrue disproportionately to large-scale farm operators, and continue largely because of the political influence of their beneficiaries. Some writers argue that these payments stem the movement of labor out of agriculture, ultimately reducing the pace of rural...