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The Geographical Review April 1998, Vol. 88 (2), pp. 241-258 MORAL GEOGRAPHY IN HIGH-PLAINS HISTORY John Opie ABSTRACT: When American society, through deliberate government action,intervenes to preserve the family farm as the locus of "good"human values and "authentic" environmental conditions,the result can be described as a moral geography. Nowhere is thisclearer than in the protection of traditional farming on the High(Great) Plains through federal funding and programs. Protectionbegan during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s; federal support cameto a close with the passage of the 1996 farm bill. These shiftsdeserve assessment of historic American interests in the protectionof an agricultural institution and of a region at risk. Keywords: agricultural ethics, family farm, farm subsidies, High Plains, public policy DR. OPIE is a professor of environmental policy at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey 07102-1982.