Meet the New Dust Bowl, Same as the Old Dust Bowl [View all]

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from Civil Eats:



Meet the New Dust Bowl, Same as the Old Dust Bowl

November 23rd, 2012
By Donald Carr


There is no better time than the Thanksgiving Holiday to explore the connection between our food and the land it comes from. Ken Burns, America’s premiere documentarian, has tackled topics from jazz to the Civil War. His new film chronicles the Dust Bowl, the massive ecological disaster that plagued a large swath of U. S. farmland during the 1930’s.

The same forces that wreaked havoc on soil and farmer’s livelihoods in the Dust Bowl era are in play today. Producers are once again going all out in response to soaring crop prices. Market forces coupled with misguided federal policies have encouraged dangerous, industrial-scale monocultures of corn and soy across the Midwest.

Writing about the Holiday weekend in the Huffington Post, author Frances Moore Lappe highlights the connection between what we eat and how it dictates what is grown “In the U.S., 43 percent of all cropped acreage, and the most fertile share, goes to just two crops — corn and soy. Yet they aren’t really food but raw materials that hardly ever turn up in our mouths directly.”

Misguided farming practices at the heart of the disaster

The opening episode of the 4-hour epic that premiered on PBS on November 18 goes right to the cause of the problem. In a short time, farmers converted an area twice the size of New Jersey and centering in the Oklahoma Panhandle from native grassland to wheat fields. They did so because of a concerted policy in the 1920’s to industrialize agriculture and to “turn farming into a factory.” But the wind-swept prairie that dominated the region was unsuited for growing much, aside from drought- resistant grasses. Once farmers turned over the firm soil, they set the stage for a monumental disaster. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://civileats.com/2012/11/23/meet-the-new-dust-bowl-same-as-the-old-dust-bowl/