Bending the “Iron Triangle”

The “iron triangle” concept originated in a set of debates about power and influence in the US political system. Applied to agriculture, the iron triangle described a set of political relationships in which farmers and their representatives enjoyed a privileged position in the policy process. Although the contemporary reality is much messier than the triangle metaphor implies, agricultural policy in the United States continues to reflect the power and influence of large-scale commercial farmers and their allies in adjacent sectors such as insurance and banking. This continued dominance reflects an ongoing process of political and policy adaptation that enables the productivist core of the farm sector to retain much of its power despite broader changes in the political and economic context of US agriculture.