AbstractFor many years abundant and relatively inexpensive industrial raw materials contributed to a resource environment favoring industrialization of U.S. agriculture. Their gradual depletion and rising prices now create a counter pressure. The pace of industrialization has slowed, with different manifestations in the three economies of agriculture—crops, livestock, and marketing. The economics of extractive industries, a subject long neglected, will henceforth be an integral part of the economics of agriculture. Cited here are conceptual formulations the author published in a precursor article of 1962, formulations that go back to the “empty economic boxes” and the writings of Joan Robinson.