Read the following and answer the question. In rural areas,

Last updated: 7/23/2022

Read the following and answer the question. In rural areas, often on small family farms, it is difficult to improve one's standard of living beyond basic sustenance. Farm living is dependent on unpredictable environmental conditions, and in times of drought, flood, or pestilence, survival becomes extremely problematic. Since technology enabled farm owners to use machines to accomplish the workload of several farmhands, displaced farm workers were laid off and forced to seek alternate employment in the cities. In modern times, the industrialization of agriculture has negatively affected the economy of small and middle-sized farms and strongly reduced the size of the rural labor market. The main reason for the depressed state of agriculture in the United States in the 1920's was rapid industrialization availability of cheap land for farming completed interstate highway system relaxation of immigration laws