dust bowl

Oklahoma City, OK

  • established: 1889 in “unassigned land” in the centre of the current state after opening settlement for outsiders and a “land run” that followed

  • state capital

  • currently almost 700K inhabitants in the city and 1.4M in metro area

  • an important livestock trade centre, home to fossil fuel industries

Tulsa, OK

  • second most populous city in Oklahoma

  • over 400K in city

  • 1M metro area

  • setted between 1829-1836 by the Lochapoka Band of Creek Native American tribe

  • locted in Creek, Cherokee and Osage Nations

Killer of the Flower Moon by David Grann

High Plains & Dust Bowl

  • Dry in the High Plains (West)

  • Humid in the Coastal Plains (East)

Climate in the High Plains

  • dry climate with yearly precipitation below 20 inches (500mm)

  • years with relatively high precipitation alternating with years of drought

  • harsh climate with hot summer and winter temperatures going below freezing, strong winds, violent storms with hail, and tornados

High Plains settlement

  • described as unfit for cultivation by first explorers (i.e. Zebulon Pike)

  • labeled “Great American Desert” on maps up to the 1880s

  • early anglo settlement concentrated in cattle ranching on large lots (XIT Ranch, 1885-1912)

  • some early towns along railroads (Dalhart, Texas)

  • some settlement by farmers (aka sodbusters — the ones living in houses made of thick prairie sod, the workers that plough the land)

Wheat cultivation

  • WWI (1914-1918) stimulated global demand for wheat and increased prices

  • the 1920s has unusually high precipitation

  • a common superstition promised that “rain follows the plow”

  • the economy grew fast and credit was easily available in the “Roaring Twenties”

  • these factors motivated many people to start farming wheat in the region

Mechanization

  • new, more efficient and more affordable farm equipment (tractors) — allowed farers to plow more land

  • despite being priced lowers than other models, it still required most farmers to take loans to purchase it

  • in the long term, mechanization reduced employment in agriculture and contributed to farm consolidation

1929 Stock Market Crash

Wheat glut

  • the Great Depression, which became a global crisis, and an oversupply of wheat reduced its prices

  • with wheat prices falling and debts to pay off, the farmers prepared even more land for wheat cultivation, further contributing to price decrease

  • wehat was kept in heaps and silos with no one to buy it

  • the price was so low that the “suitcase” farmers with low attachment to the land would abandon the fields after plowing

Soil erosion in High Plains

  • plowing the land destroyed the deep-root prairie grass that held moisture in the soil

  • abandoned farms were not covered by any crop or mulch

  • droughts came in the 1930s, some parts of the High Plains had 8 years of drought

  • winds carried the damaged topsoil that turned into dust

Dust Bowl

  • a confluence of factors led to “the Dust Bowl,” one of the greatest social-environmental catastrophes in the American history:

    • drought

    • soil erosion

    • economic depression

Dust Bown migrations

  • farm foreclosures, economic depression, environmental conditions, and the promise of better life elsewhere led to the depopulation of the Dust Bown area

  • in popular perception the migration, California was the most significant destination, but most moves were within states.

  • Dust Bown halted immigration to the area

  • still, migration to California was significant → fostering “Okie culture” in California’s valleys

Route 66 → concentration of migrants on it contributed to its legendary status and the “Mother Road” moniker

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck — 1939 novel which described move from the Dust Bowl to California, considered as one of the greatest American novels

FSA - The Farm Security Administration — created in 1937 to combat rural poverty in the Great Depression

“Migrant Mother” by Dorothea Lange, 1936

  • destitute pea pickers in California

  • mother of 7

  • age 32

  • Nipomo, California

  • the woman’s name was Florence Thompson

Black Sunday

particularly severe storm ocurred on Sunday, April 14th.

The cloud was estimated to be 2 miles high and carry 300 million tons of dust.

The dust reached as far as New York City.

Agriculture today

  • since 1950s — High Plains agriculture uses water from Ogallala Aquifer (shallow water table aquifer surrounded by sand — beneath the Great Plains)

    • the aquifer system supplies drinking water to the majority of the ~3 million people living in the area

    • it is at risk of over-extraction and pollution

    • the water replenishes a few times slower than it is taken out

  • the use of the aquifer was made possible by the center-pivot irrigation

    • the system is efficient and helps conserve water, but it in turn encourages farmers to plant more intensively, irrigate more land, and grow crops that require more water thus increasing total water consumption → an example of the Jevons Paradox

  • soil erosion does not lead ro such dramatic events as in the 1930s, but it remains a problem. Some preventative measures include:

    • planting cover crops

    • diversifying crop rotations

    • planting perennials, such as prairie grasses or trees, in or near crop fields

    • plowing less or not at all with low- or no-till farming systems

CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations)

  • large feedlots where cattle is kept for “finishing” after some times spent in pastures

  • the ter also aplies to industrial poultry and hog farming

  • has a negative impact on animal welfare

  • negative impact on nearby communities:

    • air pollution

    • noxious odors

    • water contamination

    • reduction of property values

  • in many cases the cattle is fed inedible parts of or specific, but in some cases are also fed grains suitable for human consumption