Historical and Institutional Perspectives on American Agricultural Development

Biological innovations played a far more important role in American agricultural development than previously thought. These innovations were essential in allowing farmers to combat pests and diseases, to move the agricultural production into new environments, and to increase farm productivity. Many biological advances, especially those aimed at fighting contagious animal diseases, required unprecedented federal government interventions to overcome the free‐rider problem and to transfer new knowledge into effective public policy. Early USDA animal disease programs significantly increased productivity and trade in the livestock sector and prevented hundreds of thousands of untimely deaths in the United States from food‐borne illnesses by 1940.