Farming in America

History of Farming in America

History Book Club

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Wednesday,  November 13, 2019 [Two weeks earlier because of Thanksgiving and another conflict] History of Farming in America.  Examine the American Indians and their farming techniques, the early colonists and the skills they brought from their home countries;  the food discoveries in the New World; Tobacco and Cotton and slavery; Farming and the Dust Bowl; Government and Agriculture; Modern Agribusiness.  [Proposed by Sam Coulbourn] 

Conkin, Paul K. A Revolution Down on the Farm:  The Transformation of American Agriculture Since 1929. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2008.

            If you are going to become the next Secretary of Agriculture, or serve on his or her staff, you should devote a few hours to reading this book.

            Paul Conkin was born in a three-room cabin on a small farm in eastern Tennessee in 1929.  This book relates the story of one farm family from 1929 to 2008, and it interleaves the story of agriculture in that same period, and what our federal government has done, or not done, over that period.

            It’s enough to make your head spin, to trace the story of how an American farm population of in 1929, has shrunken, but put far more acres into active agriculture, and now contributes to a world wide effort to feed a population that is ever expanding.

            The story of a nation suffering from the Crash of 1929 and the terrible Depression which followed… the simultaneous desolation of millions of acres in middle America in the Dust Bowl… and the many federal organizations created by the new administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt to cope with all this… is a story for the ages.

            At the time this book was published, 2008, 322,000 farms produced 89% of all domestic food and fiber, as farms continue to grow larger, with fewer people actually doing the farming, but some 70% of the farm workers are mainly Hispanic, and mainly undocumented.

            The remaining  11% of small farms are less efficient, but they are likely to produce products which are more flavorful, but less shippable.  And, the people working on these farms, although most do it only part time, provide the survival of small rural towns all over the country.

            Problems. There is much to dislike in chicken farms where the birds are grown in cages so small that they cannot spread their wings… calves taken from their mothers at birth and grown in small cages and fed artificial feed until they are ready for butchering for veal... dairy cattle kept in small confined areas, not allowed to go to pasture.  And then there are the growth hormones and excessive antibiotics.

            What will farming in the future look like? Will government policy continue to look after some small family farms, or will those just become hobby farms?

            Will we continue to add small farm operations on the tops of buildings and other unique locations?  Will this expand enough to make a dent?

            Will we figure how to live with or modify the effects of global warming?

            Will more of civilization change their food choices, to reduce meat consumption, etc.

             America has led the world in making farming more efficient, but in the process, we've used our best and brightest brains to develop better machines, which reduce the need for working farmers; we've invented new chemicals to add meat to chickens, hogs and cattle; we've invented antibiotics to defeat disease; we've produced legislation which influences how many farms and farmers remain viable; we've manipulated tariffs to affect food and fiber production  worldwide; we've invented new ways to produce food with artificial soil, artificial fertilizer; we've involved use of fossil fuels in food production while growing more corn to convert to fuel; we've modified animals and plants genetically.  We've put more strain on our lands and forests, we've reduced the available water in some locations. We've learned how we might reduce the effects of global warming, and we've done much to bring it on sooner.

              Americans generally remain hopeful that in all these efforts, we can suppress greed and self-dealing, and aim to provide sustainably for the world of the future.

           

Samuel W. Coulbourn

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HISTORY BOOK CLUB TOPICS FOR 2019-2020

 NO MEETING IN DECEMBER

Wednesday, January 29, 2020. American Foreign Affairs after the Cold War. In the 1990s, America’s global primacy… The Cold War had ended with Washington and its allies triumphant; democracy and free markets were spreading like never before. Washington faced no near-term rivals for global power and influence.  the defining feature of international politics was American dominance. Then came conflict in former Yugoslavia, and more turmoil among former Soviet and American middle east allies. Rise of Terrorism. Osama bin Laden. G.H.W Bush, Clinton, G.W. Bush, Obama and Trump. Moscow and Beijing. Iran’s Revolution, Iraq, Arab Spring…Libya, Syria, Iran. [Proposed by Bill Owen and Rick Heuser].

Wednesday, February 26, 2020. America in Reconstruction after the Civil War. It was a terrible time. Civil war soldiers returned home, some in the south facing freed slaves roaming the streets, plantations emptied of their work force, and fear stoked by troublemakers warning of blacks raping white women and killing white men, and angry whites searching out and killing blacks without cause.  The formation of the Ku Klux Klan.  Northern leaders sending carpetbaggers to the south to enforce emancipation and protect freedmen.   

Wednesday, March 25, 2020. A History of Alcohol. Men have been fermenting fruit and grain and honey for many thousands of years.  The Babylonians, Greeks and Romans had gods and goddesses and there have been marvelous Bacchanalian feasts and tales of the dreadful effects of too much alcohol.  There have been anti-alcohol drives, temperance marches, Prohibition. Cultural and health effects of alcohol usage. [Proposed by Janos Posfai] 

Wednesday, April 29, 2020. China from 1900 to today. China has traveled a long way from the Boxer Rebellion of 1899-1901 when western nations felt free to wander all over the vast country. Sun-Yat-Sen and the last Qing emperor…Military wardlordism ..Chiang Kai-Shek…War against Japan… Mao Zedong and the Communist Revolution, founding of the People’s Republic…”Great Leap Forward” and The Cultural Revolution…World’s No. 2 Economy, on the verge of becoming No. 1. [Proposed by Jason Shaw] 

Wednesday, May 27, 2020.

Wednesday, June 24, 2020.