General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Had a farmers daughter complaining about the "new", Obama laws to keep dust and erosion down [View all]deerheadgal
(57 posts)My family has a ranch not far from the area Ken Burns highlighted. When I was growing up in the '50s, my dad and our neighbors all had beautifully terraced fields that held in the available water. They practiced dry land farming with no irrigation. They loved the land and considered themselves stewards, and this was our home, not a factory.
As time went by, they grew old and their children went into other careers, the land was sold to corporations (many filled with "suitcase farmers"--dentists from Kansas City or lawyers from Tulsa who had no connection with the land.) To expedite the work, many of the corporate farmers used gigantic equipment and the terraces were knocked down so they could quickly plow and put in a crop that relied on chemicals rather than natural means to produce high yields.
There has been a terrible drought these past few years, and a couple of months ago, my brother sent me a picture of a dust storm that was similar to the ones we saw in the 1950s. It is not out of the realm of possibility that greed and a disdain for history and the land itself will again reap a harvest of dust and despair.