On the Effectiveness of State Anti-Corporate Farming Laws in the United States

Authors

Rick Welsh, Clarkson University, Center for Environmental Management, Potsdam, NY 13617, USA
Chantal Line Carpentier, North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, 393 Rue St-Jacques O., Bureau 200, Montreal, Quebec H2Y 1N9, Canada
Bryan Hubbell, Innovative Strategies & Economics Group, EPA-OAQPS, MD-15, RTP, NC 27711, USA

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2001

Comments

Published in Food Policy 26 (2001) 543–548.

Abstract

Structural changes in US agriculture toward a more corporate-oriented and vertically aligned system have focused attention on the relative efficacy of the anti-corporate farming laws of nine Midwestern states. Using state-level data from a survey of agricultural lawyers and the U.S. Census of Agriculture, we find that the restrictiveness of the laws vary among states, and the relative restrictiveness of the laws have changed over time. Also, strengthening a law tends to limit acreage under non-family corporate ownership arrangements.