Actually, most
farmers oppose the idea of daylight saving time. The main
adversary of
DST in the
US is the
Farm Bureau. Why is this? Well, because farmers have to get up when the
sun rises, regardless of what their
clock says. Thus it's a major inconvenience for them to have to change their
schedule so that they can do business with the rest of the world, which is observing daylight saving time.
Daylight saving time began in the US during World War I as a way to save fuel by reducing the need for artificial light. Daylight saving time was not observed nationally again until World War II.
The Uniform Time Act of 1966 provides the basic modern framework of switching between daylight saving time and standard time, although many changes have been made over the years. In 1973, the US observed daylight saving time all year long due to some tinkering by Congress. The current system (beginning DST at 2AM on the first Sunday in April and ending it at 2AM on the last Sunday in October) was not standardized until as late as 1986.
Interestingly, when the year-round daylight saving time was tried in 1973, one of the reasons it was repealed was an increased number of school bus accidents in the morning. Even more interesting is a study in Canada from 1991 to 1992 which found that there was an eight percent jump in traffic accidents on the Monday after clocks are moved ahead. This jump was attributed to the lost hour of sleep. Earlier research had shown that even an hour's change can disrupt sleep patterns and persist for up to five days after each time shift. This confirmed it.
There are convincing arguments both for and against daylight saving time. I say, screw it. Let's all switch over to a 28 hour day.