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Agriculture during great depression
Agriculture during great depression
The 1929 street stock crash as well as the economic and social impact of the crash in usa
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During the depression, agricultural product prices continued to drop. When Roosevelt became president, one of the first issues he addressed was the “farm problem.” He would go and visit these poor farmers and promise some type of change. Roosevelt created the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, which brought immediate change and provided crop reduction. This Act paid farmers not to plant, in exchange for cash payments.
Out of everything that changed agriculture, the increasing economic difficulty was arguably the most powerful. With so many farms, the amount of produce rose while the prices of produce fell, in some cases, like with Cotton, prices fell over ⅛ of the original price (Doc A). Because of the extremely low prices, as low as 10 cents in some places, some farmers did not make enough to survive and promptly went out of business. Even with groups like the the Farmer's Alliance defending smaller farmers by pooling together resources and money in
The industrialization of America led to lots of new technology for farming being developed, which further drove farmers into debt. New plows and tools were created and although they made farming significantly easier, they were also very expensive. Farmers were forced to buy these tools by their landlords and they struggled to find cheaper ways to compete with larger farms. Unlike farmers earlier in the century, these farmers did not grow many crops, even for sustenance. Instead, they grew only a couple cash crops, which could bring a lot of money, but also could bring in none if there was a drought or other problem.
They began defaulting on these loans which wasn’t good for the farmers or the local banks. This was also a huge problem for America because American agriculture employed nearly 30 percent of the workforce in the United States. In his New Deal, Franklin D Roosevelt brought forth the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) which provided relief to farmers by paying them to reduce production. This was important because it helped reduce crop surpluses and give farmers a source of income. Meanwhile, in western Canada, farmers were experiencing a disastrous and prolonged drought, which caused nearly 250,000 people to leave the prairies in the 1930s.
(Document G) Furthermore, the period brought about significant changes in American agriculture, with technological advancements, government policies, and economic shifts reshaping the farming industry. As outlined in the document, farmers found themselves disillusioned with the political rhetoric that promised prosperity through hard work and increased production. Instead, they were met with the harsh reality of plummeting prices for their crops and livestock, leading to financial hardship and a sense of betrayal by the very politicians who claimed to have their best interests at heart. The stark contrast between the promises of a bountiful harvest and the harsh economic conditions faced by farmers highlighted the disconnect between government policies and the lived experiences of those working the land.
The new prosperity, technology and glamour America boasted was only promised to the upper class and urban workers; “There was real prosperity in certain pockets of the economy in the 1920s,” as Historian David Kennedy put it. The agricultural sector were especially struggling the most during this decade prior to the market crash. During World War I, American farms were subsidized by the government to expand and mechanize in order to keep up with providing food for the army. After the War, low demands and over-production
Economic problems were not the only problems farmers faced. They entered a decade of drought, never before experienced in America. What they did not lose in the economic collapse, they lost because of the drought and an environmental disaster, the Dust Bowl, a severe dust storm that damaged farmers’ land and property. Fortunately, when Roosevelt became president, he quickly implemented legislations
Which the farmers were not making any expense, so they grew more crops than before, and that made things worse. In which it led farmers into a big debt and problems. One of them was the tariff policies during the Gilded Age. Farmers were the victims and were forced to buy manufactured goods to be protected by tariff legislation. But what they produce was not protective and more competitive markets soon to rise of over supplies and foreign competition.
The farmers felt that they were paying more and more to take loans and borrow money, to buy farming necessities and to sell their crops. The prices that had for the crops was degrading dramatically.
In The Worst Hard Time, the author explains how new technology led to overproduction of many crops. A tractor was able to do the work of ten horses and a combine was able to thresh grain in one swoop. A farmer’s harvest could even go up by the thousands. As the farmers made more money they bought nearby land and ripped the grass out to make more space for more crops (Doc. C). With the overproduction of land came bare fields.
A discourse community is a group of people who share a common interest, ambition, and hobby; they use communication to achieve certain goals or issues that they have encountered. There are many discourse communities all over the world, and many of us are in one or more discourse communities; however, they might not even know it. In life, each person will eventually be a part of a discourse community. A discourse community has many definitions; John Swales defines discourse communities as, groups that have goals or purpose, and use communication to achieve these goals. According to “The Concept of Discourse Community,” by instructors and researcher John Swales, there are six requirements that are required to form a discourse community.
The farmers tried to produce more crops since prices fell but most were unsuccessful and lost their farms and many lost their houses too since they could not pay off their
Most farmers struggled to make a living due to key issues. There was often a high tax on railroads which had cut a large profit from the farmers. The farmers had no other option other than the railroad since the farmers were often very far off westward in the Great Plains, while the market with a large population was still in eastern cities like New York. Likewise farmers had to pay a middle man in the East to sell their commodities in the East, because the poor farmers were unable to travel all the way to the East to sell their products then come back to start farming for the next year. Surprisingly, farmers were often detrimental to themselves due to
The drought and dust destroyed a large part of agricultural production, worsening The Great Depression.(http://useconomy.about.com/od/criticalssues/p/The_Dust_Bowl.htm).” The Dust Bowl was widespread and caused many problems in the US. According to Jess Porter, The removal of native grasses to pursue riches from the cultivation of wheat set the stage for the disaster. Only the expertise of the government could hope to salvage the plains (Porter). Many people say it was the farmers fault who farmed on the plains.
Plays like Medea have both an advantage of helping the cause of women as well as a disadvantage of hurting the cause of women. One advantage to help the cause of women would include the loyalty that some women can contain. Another advantage would be the ability of a woman to do and overcome anything she sets her mind to. A disadvantage would be how the play portrays women as heartless and deranged.
