Corn, wheat, and other agricultural products can be seen for miles and miles in all directions. As you drive through, you can see farmers hard at work, combines, tractors, and bailers all working at full speed, sun up to sun down. It doesn't take long too see how much these farms must work in order to survive. The answer to this question can become very complicated. When one sells any product, economics is the dominant factor with regards to price and the quantity of one's particular product.
Many external factors play a huge role in the supply and demand of farm products.
The focus of this paper is to explore some of the factors that make farming such a hard, volatile business. In the book, the Gruber family is a good example of a small farming family. Leo is the head of the household and, therefore, spends all or most of his time working on the farm. Jeff Gruber, Leo's son, speaks of his father's work in one passage. This family was always forced to work.