Nancy Marie Warden (nanmward@mars.utm.edu) from 208.47.6.71 at 09/25/00 08:54AM
comment
    Agriculture will definitely continue to change at an increasingly rapid rate, as can be seen through changes that have occured in the past decade. For one thing I believe that a continued decrease in the family farm will continue with more individuals who wish to remain active in prodcution agriculture looking toward corporate agriculture. This tendancy to lead toward corporate agriculture comes from the fact that it is difficult for an individual to compete with the the big name companies who have the finances to pump into their research and production programs. As the old saying goes "If you can't beat them join them" holds true for the field of agriculture. While I feel that with the decline of the family farm a period of our Southern heritage goes with it, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do in order to keep doing what you want to do. As long as there are folks who speak with a drawl like mine where f-o-u-r becomes phonetically f-o-w-r ,I feel that the South will always have something that is unexplainable that will make it the South. People tend to act as if change is only occuring south of the Mason/Dixon Line. However, this is a faulty notion. As the entire country continues to change, the South must change with the times while still holding on to the things that make it unique. I also feel that those of us born and raised in the South are (or at least the majority are) proud of the fact and thus will seek to preserve the elements of the South that we appreciate.