▪ Abstract One of the most profound changes in the United States in the past century is the
national abandonment of farming as a livelihood strategy. This change is evident both in the
exodus of Americans from farming and in the conditions faced by the farmers remaining,
most of whom are marginal producers in an increasingly concentrated industry. In this
article, we provide a retrospective account of the empirical and sociological fate of family
farmers. While sociologists have had longstanding interest in agrarian change, research on …