During the 1930s, there was a period of time called the Dust Bowl. During this time, there were many severe sandstorms/dust storms. These storms occurred in the Southern Plains, which was a very dry area that was prone to droughts. Unfortunately, these storms were disastrous; some people and livestock while crops were blighted. This only contributed to the growing problems caused by the Great Depression. Additionally, thousands of families were forced to leave the area to go to the East Coast. This was because many families were unable to pay their mortgages and grow crops. In the 1920s there was a good amount of rainfall and a good climate for growing crops in this region, causing more people to migrate to the Plains and start growing crops since they believed that they would be able to do so. However, long droughts started in 1930 and lasted until about 1941. Many were left homeless and causes of death included malnutrition and dust pneumonia, which occurs when the lungs are filled with dust. The migration during this time period was the largest migration in America within a short period of time. President Franklin D. Roosevelt took steps during his presidency to try to help with the situation. In the New Deal programs, one act was enacted called the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act, which granted the government the ability to pay farmers to reduce production to conserve soil and prevent erosion. This would help agriculture in the long term while also allowing the farmers to benefit, theoretically. However, there were still long-term economic impacts. There was a huge decline in land values for agricultural use and they never fully recovered. Some of the causes besides the awful farming conditions were the failure to shift to more suitable crops and the lack of credit due to the failure of banks in the region. The lack of credit did not allow farmers to shift crop production. Even years after, farmers in the region were still working in unsustainable ways, such as by using intensive irrigation and many pesticides and fertilizers. Overall, the Dust Bowl of the 1930s was a horrible time period that caused severe impacts on America which only augmented the problems of the Great Depression in the nation.
Sources:
https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/dust-bowl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl
I really liked your post and of your description of the Dust Bowl that makes it sound like a really interesting event in American history. I decided to look at some of the specifics of the event and as you said, dust went as far east as the east coast, specifically as far as New York City and the capital. Moreover, "red snow" was seen in the winter of 1934-1935 in New England from all the dust in the air. Around 500,000 people were left homeless and 3.5 million people left the Great Plains area. It's quite interesting to think of how the region might have developed differently were it not for the events before and during the Great Depression that caused it to suffer much greater than most of the US during a time that the rest of the country was already suffering the greatest disaster in US history.
ReplyDeleteSources:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/dust-bowl-surviving-dust-bowl/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl
It quite crazy to see how impactful the environment is on the everyday of the people back then. Being unable to pay their mortgages and plants crops seemed like an easy task to do. I was interested with those who had to move away, and found about the Dust Bowl Hobos, around 2 million men that had beg for food or work at various places. If a farmer was known to be nice to be hobos, they would mark that place with a sign that indicated friendliness. Moving place to place, they would hop trains, risking their lives. However, with the increase of hobo hoppers, railroad guard called "bulls" were hired, who arrested and beat any hobo caught without a ticket. Trying to find work seemed liked a very impossible thing to achieve back then.
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I find it interesting how farmers could either notoriously profit or be financially destroyed just by weather patterns. In the 1930s, farmers plowed over land that was previously held down by grass, resulting in loose soil. Then drought hit, and all that loose soil went up with the wind and the Dust Bowl was created. Today, services like Soil Conservation Service designs ways for farmers to farm sustainably, for example leaving strips of fallow land in between planted wheat (we can see this technique in Californian fields today). Trees were also planted in the northern plains to stop fast winds from blowing over them, and thus America has prevented another Dust Bowl. However, due to excessive grazing of cattle and sheep, the Sehalian zone in Africa as well as northern and western China are being depleted of their grass that holds soil down, which could possibly result in a similar situation to the American Dust Bowl.
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It is devastating to see how much farmers have suffered over time. First, after World War 1 they took a big hit because the demand for crops dramatically reduced. Then, the Depression/Dust Bowl hit. These farmers were in a poor condition and your blog post does a good job of portraying their hardships. Not only this, but as you mentioned the effects of the Dust Bowl lasted well after it ended. It just gives us a perspective on what people had to go through the Depression and how some suffered more than others.
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Reading this post made me think back to California's own droughts. One interesting thing to note is that in 2014 near the height of California's record drought, agriculture was still valued at $54 billion dollars which was around a staggering 10-15 percent of the nation's GDP. In addition, the drought actually did not affect crop prices too much as the lack of surface water was subsidized with ground water. In fact, net farm income in 2014, was recorded as the second highest in the nation's history. I guess an overall lack of water or technology to access this ground water led to much more severe consequences during the Dust Bowl.
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