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“From Fertile Bowl to Dust Bowl”

The Dust Bowl was the result of a series of dust storms in the central United States from 1931 to 1939. There is the time of Great Depression. Years before this area was a «fertile bowl, rimmed by mountains» (William Gilpin, governor of Colorado, 1860s). In the U-S-History.com this land was named as a Promised Land.
Development of virgin and long-fallow lands was begun in the second part of XIX century. High price of grain after World War I was the cause of a new wave of resettlement. The fertile soil of the Great Plains was exposed by the removal of grass during plowing and by over grazing. The type of work on the land was extensive, not intensive. It means farmers reached agricultural success by increasing sown area and making the most out of land. Farmers did not care about crop rotation and land erosion. They burned stubble and left the land empty during the winter windy time. “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck tells how the farmer’s work looked like. “The tractors came over the roads and into the fields… they did not run on the ground, but on their own roadbeds…The driver… could not see the land as it was, he could not smell the land as it smelled; his feet did not stamp the clods or feel the warmth and the power of the earth… He loved the land no more than the bank loved the land…”(p.35-36).  As the result the soil became dehumificated, lost antierosion stability. The 1930-s have appeared rather droughty, that has played a significant role in development of dust storm. When drought came the soil dried out, became dust and blew away eastwards in large black clouds. “The land… under iron gradually died.”
            The article The Anti-Joads by Elizabeth Royte opens “the $10 million question”: was the human behavior as preconditions of Dust Bowl disaster? Historical research tells that president Roosevelt through Hugh Bennett, pioneer in the field of soil conservation, “came to understand that… man’s hubris and ignorance created the Dust Bowl”. This fact is very important to understand modern ecological situation. If even agricultural activities in the beginning of XX century were so effective for climate, what would happen today, when humanity has more influential power and leverage to rule the planet? Now we could understand all consequences of the human activity.
There are many spheres where the risk of disasters is more dangerous than the profit of economical projects. The specialization of labor in world trade is the one of them. Based on documental movie “Global Banquet”, I am concluding that the world population is going to repeat the Dust Bowl scenario again and again. Only in the USA is produced such a lot food for all third world countries. Moreover, big part of these productions is produced in very poor countries with a starving population. Why the problem of a hunger and soil impoverishment still exists? The ancient wisdom says, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, which some… have pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (Bible, 1 Timothy 6ch). Food corporations care about only profit. They want to make product only and sale it. They do not provide more work places. Even if they do that, they subdue the people and do not let them to be independent or make their own business. Moreover, the specialization in producing only a few products on the special region could be the cause of fast impoverishment of this land. It is not a prognosis. There is a fact that would play a great role in nearest future. Not, even today we can see how our environment goes to the Dust Bowl. Ask farmers, who try to keep their own business against giant food corporations. They know more about the land.  
Dust Bowl ecological disaster caused an exodus from Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the surrounding Great Plains, with over 500000 Americans being left homeless. Many immigrated west looking for work. That fact is more oppressive because all country was in situation of overcoming the Great Depression consequences. Economical situation was very bad. Furthermore, the nature creates the answer for man based on the very true principle: “for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Bible, Galatians 6ch). That was a great shock for people. “Men and women huddled in their houses…the men were silent and they did not move often… the women studied the men’s faces secretly… the faces of the watching men lost their bemused perplexity and became hard angry and resistant.”(John Steinbeck “The Grapes of Wrath”, p.3)
            History tells about many government actions during the Dust Bowl to save the land and help the people who did not escaped to California. However, Elizabeth Royte in «The Anti-Joads» said the true resume: “The High Plains have never fully recovered”.
  Something unusual was approximately 70 years ago. Dust Storms. They are still happening today.
 

October 2008

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