Cochrane has described the shape of modern agriculture as a world with highly productive, commercial farmers at one extreme and the world of poor, low-production farmers at the other. In the highly productive world, technology and farm expansion have resulted in increased yields and production on many farms. In contrast, many low-production farms provide no more than poverty level incomes for the farm operators and their families. Their problems stem largely from the fact that many of these farm operators are old, poorly educated and have limited and poor quality resources. Many have been unable to take advantage of the exploding technology and the scale economies accompanying increases in farm size. A third group, the “transition” group, forms the continuum between the two extremes. Some of its members, like young farmers just getting started, are improving their operations and moving into the “commercial world.” For others, who perhaps lack the financing or managerial capacity to compete in a modern agriculture, the transition is in the opposite direction.