Abstract
While the “iron triangle” remains a useful metaphor for describing tight and inertial links among policymakers, invested beneficiaries, and administrative officials, the label historically applies only to the classic period of modern US agricultural policy, between the 1930s and 1960s. Only farm interests sat at the table, politicians gained little by challenging the isolated process, and outsiders had no pull. This changed after the 1960s and 1970s, when the modern farm bill combined food assistance with the traditional commodity supports, and in a post-reform Congress, where power shifted from southern committee chairs toward party caucuses and leaders. New coalitions found openings and opportunities to advance programs and to exchange strategic support. While the fundamental directions of policy, research, and extension may never have shifted radically or fundamentally, it is not historically accurate to blame an iron triangle of simple and limited interests.
