By the end of World War II, the farm economy once again faced the challenge of overproduction. Technological advances, such as the introduction of gasoline- and electric-powered machinery and the widespread use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, meant production per hectare was higher than ever.
How did farming change after WW2?
· World War II changed the farmers, while farming changed directly, and economically. Decrease in exports “Agricultural exports dropped as German submarines, known as U-boats, were sinking U.S. ships to England and Europe. Farming exports fell 30 to 40 percent below the average of the ten depression years that preceded the war” Economics of Farming
What was the impact of WW1 on American agriculture?
· The value of U.S. agricultural exports climbed sharply during the course of the war, starting with a 30 percent increase from $517 million in 1940 to $669 million in 1941, then leaping to nearly…
What problems did farmers face during WW2?
Updated on January 27, 2020. By the end of World War II, the farm economy once again faced the challenge of overproduction. Technological advances, such as the introduction of gasoline- and electric-powered machinery and the widespread use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, meant production per hectare was higher than ever.
What did the Department of Agriculture do in WW2?
Yet while diminishing in its direct relevance to the military, agriculture played an important role in the Cold War. The damage to European agriculture in World War II and extensive aid given …
How did agriculture change after ww2?
The end of World War II produced a technological boom in agricultural machinery and research. Ironically, this boom in research spending and emphasis did not produce a revolution in technology. Instead, the boom refined and expanded on many of the discoveries that had been made before and during the war.
Why did farmers struggle after ww2?
But as the fields of Europe came back into production, American farmers ended up with too much food on the market, and prices dropped dramatically. After World War II, farmers and their lobbyists remembered and were determined to avoid a post-war slump in the ag economy while the rest of the country prospered.
How did agriculture affect war?
During the Revolutionary War, agriculture helped to feed the American forces, and in the Continental Congress it saw U.S. commodity exports as a major lever in building alliances with other nations, creating the model Commercial Treaty of 1777 ( Jefferson later sought to use the curtailment of American agriculture …
How did the farms and agriculture change after WWII quizlet?
How and why did agriculture change in the years following World War II? -Tenant farmers were no longer needed because of the AAA and new inventions, such as: tractors and processors which made planting/harvesting faster. -Agriculture became focused on fewer but larger farms.
How did World war 2 help farmers?
Despite the obstacles they faced, American farmers were able to expand their crop acreage during the war, increasing harvested acres of corn, wheat, and oats by 9 percent, 15 percent, and 22 percent respectively between 1940 and 1945, according to data collected under the Census of Agriculture.
Why did farmers experience labor shortages during the war?
As the war progressed, farmers were being asked to produce much more food with fewer and fewer workers. More and more young men were being drafted or enlisted in the military. The farm labor shortage quickly became severe, especially for fruit and vegetable producers who relied on migratory hand labor.
What happened to farmers after World war I?
When the war ended (less than three months after the 1918 convention), demand for agricultural products sank, prices plummeted, farm incomes shrank, and the efficiency imperative evaporated.
What was the impact of First World war on agriculture expansion?
America and Australia expanded dramatically. But once the War was over, production in Eastern Europe revived and created a glut in the wheat output. Grain prices fell, rural income declined and farmers fell deeper into debt.
What happened to all the workers on farms after WWII why quizlet?
What happened to all the workers on farms after WWII? Why? Great Migration from farmer laborers to urban cities for jobs. Technology was taking their jobs!
How did World war 2 impact California agriculture?
Economics and population growth Like World War I, the mines and mining towns came to life again, due to an increase in demand for gold, copper, and silver. California oil production doubled, the synthetic rubber industry created in California and California agricultural output almost tripled.
How did the war affect American farming quizlet?
During WWII American agriculture changed significantly. American farmers needed to produce more food with less help. This lead to better machinery chemicals, and crops, which improved crop yields. + During the war labor was scarce because the men were off fighting the war.
How did agricultural improvements contribute to population shifts in Georgia after World War II?
How did agricultural improvements contribute to population shifts in Georgia after World War II? More efficient technology led to a decrease in demand for labor in rural areas, causing substantial rural-to-urban migration.
What happened after World War I that hurt the farmers?
When the war ended (less than three months after the 1918 convention), demand for agricultural products sank, prices plummeted, farm incomes shrank, and the efficiency imperative evaporated.
Why were farmers losing their land during the 1920’s?
While most Americans enjoyed relative prosperity for most of the 1920s, the Great Depression for the American farmer really began after World War I. Much of the Roaring ’20s was a continual cycle of debt for the American farmer, stemming from falling farm prices and the need to purchase expensive machinery.
What happened to all the workers on farms after WWII why quizlet?
What happened to all the workers on farms after WWII? Why? Great Migration from farmer laborers to urban cities for jobs. Technology was taking their jobs!
Why did farmers quickly fall into a depression after WWI ended?
With the war’s end, the government no longer guaranteed farm prices, and they fell to prewar levels. Farmers who had borrowed money to expand during the boom couldn’t pay their debts. As farms became less valuable, land prices fell, too, and farms were often worth less than their owners owed to the bank.
What were the obstacles to farmers increasing their output in response to wartime demand?
The other major obstacle to farmers increasing their output in response to wartime demand was the shortage of farmworkers. It is estimated that about 16 million Americans served in the armed forces during the course of World War II, including hundreds of thousands who had previously worked as either farmers or farmworkers.
Who introduces legislation that seeks to return fairness to the cattle marketplace dominated by four major meat packers?
U.S. Senators and Representatives introduce legislation that seeks to return fairness to the cattle marketplace dominated by four major meat packers.
What did prisoners get paid for?
Under the terms of the Geneva Convention, prisoners could not be forced to work outside their camps, and were paid for their labor . Part of their pay went to cover the cost of operating the camps, but they were also given scrip to purchase items in camp stores.
What percentage of food was shipped during the Pearl Harbor attack?
By the end of the war, food shipments are estimated to have accounted for about 13 percent of the total. President Franklin Roosevelt established the War Production Board within weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack by Executive Order, with authority to regulate the wartime economy, soon replaced with the Congressionally-authorized Office …
When did the US enter the war?
Unlike the farm policies that were implemented in the first farm bills during the 1930’s, which encouraged farmers to reduce their production levels in a number of ways in order to reduce the supply glut, that approach was turned on its head when the United States formally entered the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Actually, the reversal in policy had begun somewhat quietly the previous year, as USDA opted to not impose planting restrictions on “basic commodities” that it was empowered to impose on farmers under its farm bill authority in 1940, and in the spring of 1941, the Department began to actively encourage farmers to grow more food.
When did the rationing requirement start?
With authority delegated by the OPA, Agriculture Secretary Claude Wickard imposed a rationing requirement on all types of farm equipment in September 1942, which remained in place more than two years.
What was the challenge of the farm economy after World War II?
By the end of World War II, the farm economy once again faced the challenge of overproduction. Technological advances, such as the introduction of gasoline- and electric-powered machinery and the widespread use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, meant production per hectare was higher than ever.
When did farm production increase?
But as farm production climbed higher and higher through the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, the cost of the government price support system rose dramatically. Politicians from non-farm states questioned the wisdom of encouraging farmers to produce more when there was already enough — especially when surpluses were depressing prices and thereby requiring greater government assistance.
What commodities were not subsidized by the government?
Price supports and deficiency payments applied only to certain basic commodities such as grains, rice, and cotton. Many other producers were not subsidized. A few crops, such as lemons and oranges, were subject to overt marketing restrictions.
When did the government start giving food stamps?
In the 1960s , the government decided to use surplus food to feed America’s own poor as well. During President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, the government launched the federal Food Stamp program, giving low-income people coupons that could be accepted as payment for food by grocery stores.
What were the effects of the war on farmers?
During the war, farmers received draft deferments as well as loans for increasing production through mechanization, land acquisition, and increased use of fertilizers. The index of gross farm production (with 1939 at 100) rose from 108 in 1940 to 126 in 1946. Cash receipts from farm products doubled, from $9 billion in 1940 to $22 billion in 1945.
What is the relationship between agriculture and war?
Agriculture and War. Agriculture and War. War and agriculture have often been intertwined during the nation’s history. Although this usually involved arable land and farm production, there were times when agricultural trade was at issue.
How did agriculture play a role in the Cold War?
Yet while diminishing in its direct relevance to the military, agriculture played an important role in the Cold War. The damage to European agriculture in World War II and extensive aid given through the Marshall Plan to deter the expansion of communism led Washington to fund the marketing of American agricultural surpluses in Europe in the late 1940s and early 1950s. With American agriculture continuing to produce more than was consumed by the domestic market, the Agricultural Trade Development Act of 1954 authorized the secretary of agriculture to accept up to $700 million in foreign currency as repayment for commodities shipped overseas to nations deemed friendly to the United States.
What was the purpose of the American Farm Bureau Federation?
During World War II, the American Farm Bureau Federation, created in 1920 among affluent, commercial farmers, worked actively to protect those farmers’ interests under price controls and in directing programs necessary in the war effort. In the post–World War II period, the changing technologies and logistics of war sharply reduced …
How much did wheat cost in 1940?
Wheat and cotton both tripled in price; wheat from 90 cents a bushel in 1940 to $2.88 in 1948; cotton from 9 cents per pound in 1940 to 32 cents in 1947. Beef cattle prices also increased dramatically.
How did the Department of Agriculture distribute commodity support payments?
The postwar U.S. Department of Agriculture distributed commodity support payments according to the total output and landholdings of farmers; marginal producers received less and were thereby encouraged (in many cases forced) to leave farming.
How did the Roosevelt administration respond to the Depression in agriculture?
During the 1930s, the Roosevelt administration responded to the depression in agriculture with commodity support programs that provided benefits to the more affluent commercial farmers, especially midwestern corn growers and southern cotton producers.
What did farmers ask for in 1941?
Agricultural Adjustment Administration officials, who represented the federal government, visited farms and asked farmers how much they could increase production of various commodities. In October 1941, they asked Colorado farmers to increase hog production by 30 percent and cattle ready for slaughter by 18 percent. Across the Great Plains, however, wheat and cotton production still seemed more than sufficient to meet the nation’s needs for bread and fiber. Most observers believed the new European war might end soon, and farmers did not want to produce too much and suffer price depressing surpluses and an economic depression like the one that followed World War I.
What did the Department of Agriculture do in 1943?
By 1943, then, the United States Department of Agriculture sought to keep a force of experienced farmers and agricultural workers on the land and encourage the return of workers who were not employed in essential defense industries and who had agricultural experience on Great Plains farms.
What was the labor shortage in the Great Plains during the war?
The agricultural labor shortage remained critical across the Great Plains during the war years. The Dallas Chamber of Commerce asked business leaders to release their employees for field work, but few businessmen or their employees volunteered to chop, that is, weed cotton fields with a hoe. Similarly, farm labor officials urged Cheyenne businessmen and their employees to spend their summer vacations on a farm within a fifty-mile radius of the city. In Nebraska, one county agent reported that interest among school boys and girls for farm work lagged, and a survey of high school students in Oklahoma City clearly indicated that most had no intention of working on farms for patriotic reasons because they could earn $100 or more per month in various city jobs. Few farmers could pay such high wages. In Kansas, for example, the average farm worker earned about $80 per month or $60 per month with room and board.
How did the war affect the Great Plains?
During the war, the farm labor shortage became serious across the Great Plains. Farmers could not compete with defense industry wages, and the military took away many of their sons and hired hands. The construction of military bases and employment at the bomber and ordnance plants, airbases, ammunition depots, and flying schools further drained the agricultural labor supply in the region because the construction and war industries paid considerably higher wages than farmers. In Kansas, farmers paid approximately $50 per month with room and board for year-round help and $3 per day for seasonal harvest hands. By autumn 1942, however, they paid $5 per day for inexperienced workers, and they could not employ enough of them, in part, because the aircraft industry in Wichita paid wages as high as $12 per day.
How did the Great Plains compensate farmers?
Great Plains farmers compensated by sharing implements, employing itinerant harvest crews, called custom cutters, and by hiring nonfarm workers for the corn harvest. Farm women also helped harvest crops.
What was the effect of the rationing order on the Great Plains?
As a result, Great Plains farmers used only worn-out equipment during the war. Implement dealers often could not keep pace with the demands for repair work. Great Plains farmers could only make do with the implements that they had when the war began, while recognizing the potential problems ahead.
Why did the Great Plains not purchase equipment during the war?
But, they could not purchase much equipment during the war because defense industry needs for iron, steel, and rubber had priority over agricultural machinery manufacturers. A farm implement shortage developed quickly, particularly for tractors, combines, and corn pickers, and forced Great Plains farmers to share equipment when an implement broke or wore out. During the summer of 1942, H. O. Davis, rationing director for Kansas, told farmers, “This is more than a question of ‘neighboring’ it is a question of patriotic service for the country.” By autumn, E. K. Davis, president of the Kansas Farmers Union, urged members to share labor and machinery.
What were the conditions in North Carolina during the 1917 agricultural extension?
While a focus of the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service was food production, it ran headlong into conditions on the ground: labor shortages. With the draft of young men into the U.S. Army and Navy, and with the cities enticing rural people to higher paying industrial jobs, there was a shortage of farmworkers. As early as June 1917 county extension agents reported idle land with no one to work it. In September 1917 Extension Farm-News carried the headline “Labor must be utilized for production, first” and complained “it seems almost impossible to put more hands on the farms, because they are not to be found in either country or in towns.” The following year saw no letup of the crisis, as articles declared “Save the Farmers for Farming” and “Overcoming the Scarcity of Labor.”
How many farmers attended the tractor demonstration?
Two thousand farmers attended the tractor demonstration on August 28, twice the total convention attendance of 1917. In fact college President Wallace Riddick, in his annual report to the Board of Trustees, claimed there had been no previous convention with such high attendance.
When did Labor must be utilized for production?
In September 1917 Extension Farm-News carried the headline “Labor must be utilized for production, first” and complained “it seems almost impossible to put more hands on the farms, because they are not to be found in either country or in towns.”.
Did North Carolina farmers buy tractors?
Despite the high interest in tractors in 1918, North Carolina farmers did not rush to purchase them. The cost was too high compared to typical farm incomes, and only a small number of people could afford them. When the war ended (less than three months after the 1918 convention), demand for agricultural products sank, prices plummeted, farm incomes shrank, and the efficiency imperative evaporated. While the number of farmers using tractors gradually increased over the next few decades, it wouldn’t be until after the next world war before they became the standard equipment on farms.
What were the solutions to higher production demand and lower labor supply?
The solution to higher production demand and lower labor supply, at least according to the Extension Service, was technology —in the form of tractors. During the 1910s, tractors were not yet fixtures on North Carolina farms, and “horsepower” literally meant power provided by horses and mules. During the war, however, it was thought that tractors could make North Carolina farmers more efficient and productive. In addition, replacing animals with equipment meant less land needed for pasture, resulting in more land for cultivation.
What did women learn from cornmeal?
Women learned how to use cornmeal to save flour (made from wheat) and to serve leftovers creatively (reducing wastage). The home demonstration canning program predated the war, but it ramped up with the declaration of hostilities. At a canning school and conference held on the NC State campus in June 1917, agents canned blackberries, string beans, …
What was the name of the college that hosted the Farmers and Farm Women’s Convention?
During the 1910s NC State College hosted the annual Farmers’ and Farm Women’s Convention. College faculty, as well as personnel of the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service (an earlier name for what is now NC Cooperative Extension), helped organize the events, presented the lectures, and conducted demonstrations …
