What extent did WWII affect the Agricultural Production in The United States of America
Introduction
During the Second World War, changes in the agricultural production in the
United States fluctuated greatly. For most the war would bring great opportunity for those in the agriculture industry because of the access need for produce for the nations in europe such as Great Britain. For others the war could have been a bad turn of events for the agriculture production in the U.S because all of the young males were being deported for the war efforts. Most United States citizens supported these reasonings due to the fact that countries in europe would not be able to support agricultural production due to the war taking place inside of their home lands.
In the early stages of the war the prices of agricultural products increased and the farmers in the U.S enjoyed a 25% greater spending budget. Which was a big positive for those whom were poor farmers giving them a chance to lift themselves out of their poverty stricken state. Everywhere across the United States demands for produce increased like the increase by 30% of hog production and an increase of 18% of hogs ready to be slaughtered. Even with all of these increase in production most experts believed that the war would soon end and farmers did not want to produce to much and have no one to sell the produce to. The war turned a farmer into one of the the most important people in the country. Farming came to be as essential to the country as manufacturing planes, tanks and ammunition . A down side to the production of agricultural goods is that there would later be a lack of farm hands and people to run the farms because all of the farmers sons were being called to support...
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... 80 acres," he says. "At the time, you paid $50 to be a member… And I got my $50 back the first year with dividends, profits they made for me when I sold grain. And I've been a very strong cooperative person ever since."
Roads and Transportation
Another major factor in which WWII affected the agricultural production in the U.S was the fact that because of the war produce needed better means of transportation in order to arrive at specific locations faster. One of the first events one notices that changes during the war period is the number of road systems. With less paved roads for vehicles to travel on transporting goods was much more difficult. This was a factor in need of dire change. Because of this the amount of roadways increased nearly 20%. Road ways was not the only means of transportation that was bettered railroads were also becoming more advanced.
From 1865 to 1900, production of crops increased, and prices dropped. (Document A) These crops were shipped east, where they were eaten and exported to other countries. This was due to technology, but government policy caused economic conditions in the west barely improved as a result. In fact, despite the success many farmers experienced, many in the west still struggled to put food on the table.
Egan notes, “No group of people took a more dramatic leap in lifestyle or prosperity, in such a short time, than wheat farmers on the Great Plains” (Egan 42). The revenue from selling wheat far exceeded the cost of producing the wheat, so the large profit attracted people to produce more and more wheat. On top of the high profit from wheat, the Great War caused the price of wheat to rise even more. The supply of wheat rose with the price, but Egan points to information to demonstrate that the rapid increase in production can lead to overproduction, which is damaging to the land. Also, the invention of the tractor also lead to overproduction of the land by creating the ability to dramatically cut the time it took to harvest acres. When the prices for wheat began to fall due to overproduction, this caused the farmers to produce even more output to be able to make the same earnings as when the prices were higher. The government also played a part in promoting the overproduction of the land. The Federal Bureau of Soils claimed that, “The soil is the one indestructible, immutable asset that the nation possessed. It is the one resource that cannot be exhausted, that cannot be used up” (Egan 51). Egan points to factors such as a high profit margin, the Great War, tractors, increased outputs when wheat prices fell, and governmental claims that caused the people to overproduce the land of the Great Plains. Egan then gives examples of how the overproduction destroyed the land. Egan explains that the farmers saw their only way out was to plant more wheat. This overproduction tore up the grass of the Great Plains, thus making the land more susceptible to the severe dust storms of the Dust
...conflict. The war had a profound effect on the United States domestic life. The government had massive spending. The more than $150 billion spent throughout this war led to a severe economic crisis (Lawrence, 171.) The war also caused Americans to not trust their governmental leaders for the first time in history. This was due to the Watergate scandal along with the war efforts (Lawrence, 172.) Due to the profound effects economically and socially the war had on Americans, the U.S. should have not proceeded to entering into a battle that was not their own.
From the expanding of railroads country wide, to limiting laws on the goods farmers sold and transportation of the goods,to starvation of the economy, agriculture began to take its own shape from 1865 through to 1900 in the United States.
Peterbilt When our country was at war, the military identified the need for trucks. Trucks were very important because it was difficult to find a way to transport all the supplies, troops, and food. After WW1, this brought an increase in good roads, plus an expanding economy. This helped grow the trucking industry. The 1920’s were the years of innovation.
After the civil war, America found itself with a high production rate, resulting in overproduction and falling of prices, as well as an increase on economic stress and the beginning of panic and prosperity cycles. The wars demand for products had called for a more efficient production system; therefore new machinery had come into place. New tools, such as the reaper, shown in document D, the wheat harvest of 1880, were introduced and facilitated production for farmers, making overproduction more probable. Variation on prices than begun to occur as shown in document A, Agriculture prices in 1865-1900, where a greater amount of goods became available for a more convenient price. This had farmers in distress, for they were losing more money than they were making.
Throughout the early parts of the century the North had heavily concentrated on industrial improvement while the South had mostly concentrated on agricultural means. This proved to be of great significance, as the two sides would find themselves in a high cost and high demand war. During the onset of the war the "North contained 80% of total U.S. industry" (Rivera pg.1), and many of these production facilities were quickly and easily transformed in order to support the demands of the military. The South on the other hand had very few production facilities and most of them lay along the contested Border States, and they lost most of these facilities when West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware opted to...
Farmer’s had difficulties making a living because the rates of being a farmer was high. “Nothing has done more to injure the western region than these freight rates.” (Quoted from Document F) The high rates of being a farmer made it very difficult to make payments on the lands. Some farmers couldn’t even sell their produce for a reasonable profit. They worked long, hard hours and the government wasn’t on their side about paying them a decent income. Along with farm prices failing, railroad prices were increasing. Railroads were important very to farmers because they took farmers out to their lands, carried their produce to markets, and brought them the manufactured goods that they needed. Many farm settlements were made around railroads just because of this reason. Railroad managers were forced to charge very high rates and because of it, farmers would have to pay more money to use railroads.
Between 1865 and 1900 technology, economic conditions, and government policy influenced American Agriculture greater than it ever had before. Technologically, Railroads, factories, and farm equipment changed American agriculture by allowing the production of farmed goods to be increased substantially, while economic conditions caused the prices of these goods to go down and then fluctuate. Farmers hurting from the economic disarray began influencing the laws being passed to help them in their economic troubles. Because of the influence of technology, government policy, and economic conditions between the 1865 and 1900 American agriculture was affected.
Although wages rose during the war, prices also rose by sixty percent. Because European farm production was disrupted, the United States' agricultural prices rose more than fifty percent between 1913 and 1918, and farmers' income increased significantly. Many farmers saw this as a great opportunity to bring in wealth and borrow money to expand production, but when the high prices of agricultural merchandise decreased, planters faced a credit squeeze. While most men were off at war, many women and blacks took over their jobs, contributing intensely to the Great War, also known as World War I.
Most of the reasons concerning agrarian discontent in the late nineteenth century stem from supposed threats posed by monopolies and trusts, railroads, money shortages and the demonetization of silver, though in many cases their complaints were not valid. The American farmer at this time already had his fair share of problems, perhaps even perceived as unfair in regards to the success industrialized businessmen were experiencing. Nevertheless, crops such as cotton and wheat, which were once the staples of an agricultural society, were selling at such low prices that it was nearly impossible for farmers to make a profit off them, especially since some had invested a great deal of money in modern equipment that would allow them to produce twice as many goods. Furthermore, improvements in transportation allowed foreign competition to emerge, making it harder for American Farmers to not only dispose of surplus crop, but to transport crops period. Finally, years of drought in the Midwest and the degeneration of business in the 1890's devastated many of the nation's farmers, and as a result of this agricultural depression' many farm groups, most notably the Populist Party, arose to fight what farmers saw as the reasons for the decline of agriculture.
The American Civil War affected Charleston’s agriculture in an enormous way. During the Civil War, as Charleston’s Confederates left the city, and the federal troops entered the city, the Confederates set fire to and blew up many of their own supplies (including cotton, rice and munitions). The Confederates made this drastic choice to prevent the Union, once they raided the city, from obtaining the supplies necessary to help them win the war. In Charleston, barely a plantation remained fit for planting crops after the Civil War. The agriculture system around Charleston survived due to the freed African American slaves and poor whites who knew how to care for the crops. The sturdy farmers kept on fighting alone and, somehow, they held on to their piece of earth and made it bear crops once more (History of SC Agriculture).
The rapid development of manufacturing and improved farming had great impact on American
The outcome of this war was that, American made huge land gains and got tons of raw resources which paved the road to its future power and prosperity. America gained almost all of the lands it has now except for Alaska and Hawaii. The raw resources made industrialization easier and the land increased agriculture, it also increased slaves, because there were more plantations, which needed more slaves.
Agriculture has changed dramatically, especially since the end of World War II. Food and fibre productivity rose due to new technologies, mechanization, increased chemical use, specialization and government policies that favoured maximizing production. These changes allowed fewer farmers with reduced labour demands to produce the majority of the food and fibre.