THE PRODUCTION FUNCTION, CROP DIVERSITY, AND THE DEBATE BETWEEN CONVENTIONAL AND SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

Organizational assumptions embedded in the production function of neoc lassical economics have served to structure production agriculture in the United States for the past 100 years. The narrow focus of the prod uction function on the inputs of land, labor, capital, and management and the use of on-farm profitability as the primary definition of sust ainability have come under attack from sustainable agriculturalists, w ho argue that the social and environmental consequences of production are as important as the economic outcomes. Using diversity of crops ha rvested as an indicator of sustainability, the production function is operationalized to inform the debate between the conventional, neoclas sical model of production and the alternative, sustainable model. Cens us of agriculture data from 1978, 1982, and 1987 are used in both cros s-sectional and temporal models. Results show that increases in expend itures for equipment and machinery, prevalence of corporate farms, hig her rates of tenancy, and the prevalence of large farms are associated with lower levels of diversity at the county level. Conversely, highe r levels of diversity are found in counties with greater farm labor ex penses, where there are more medium-size farms, and where farmers are more likely to farm full-time.