For more than a hundred years before that, however, the hyperbolic praise of American farmers was a campaign mainstay. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the gross output of American farms is $393 billion. Why must a third of American farmers work a second job in order to make ends meet? Why do American farmers toil for months to grow grain and raise animals for our dinner plates, when the United States Department of Agriculture estimates that up to 40 percent of food is thrown into the garbage? Much like the American family farm is to the American presidential election.

Source: New York Times November 23, 2016 20:28 UTC