1929-1941 · Food Waste · USU Digital Exhibits (2024)

FAQs

How did technology cause the Dust Bowl? ›

Due to low crop prices and high machinery costs, more submarginal lands were put into production. Farmers also started to abandon soil conservation practices. These events laid the groundwork for the severe soil erosion that would cause the Dust Bowl.

This was pretty common during the Great Depression. People had to do things differently if they wanted to provide food for their families. Many people turned to farming, and grew the food themselves, like fruits, vegetables, cattle, chickens, sheep, and hogs.

Many people turned to newly developed, mass-produced processed foods like canned meats, corn chips, and fruit-filled cakes [1].

Although the African American community was one of the hardest hit during the Great Depression, their struggle during this time often went unnoticed. Homeless African Americans were practically invisible during this time as the effects of Jim Crow and segregation were in full force.

What circ*mstances conspired to cause the Dust Bowl? Economic depression coupled with extended drought, unusually high temperatures, poor agricultural practices and the resulting wind erosion all contributed to making the Dust Bowl. The seeds of the Dust Bowl may have been sowed during the early 1920s.

The biggest causes for the dust bowl were poverty that led to poor agricultural techniques, extremely high temperatures, long periods of drought and wind erosion. Some people also blame federal land policies as a contributing factor.

Potatoes were also inexpensive and used extensively. Some meals even used both. One of these meals was called the Poor Man's Meal. It combined potatoes, onions, and hot dogs into one hearty, inexpensive dish, which was perfect for the hard times people had fallen on.

Perhaps one hobo acquired a few carrots from a charitable person, while another stole an onion off a box car, while another had a few potatoes from a farm he worked on briefly… From this concoction, a “hobo stew,” also known as “Mulligan/Mulligatawney stew” was born and became the traditional food of the hobo.

People tried to protect themselves by hanging wet sheets in front of doorways and windows to filter the dirt. They stuffed window frames with gummed tape and rags. But keeping the fine particles out was impossible.

Kibble + canned dog foods were introduced made out of dehydrated meat and grain mill scraps. Great Depression (30's - 40's): Canned pet food became 90% of the pet food market.

What did people spit out during the Dust Bowl? ›

When those dust storms blew and you were out in 'em, it would just coat the inside of your nose literally. And sometimes your mouth would just get cottony dry because, well, you spit out dirt sometimes. It looked like tobacco juice, only it was dirt, when you'd spit.

Dust pneumonia resulted when lungs were filled with dust. Symptoms included a high fever, chest pains, coughing and breathing difficulties. More than a half million people were left homeless as a result of the Dust Bowl era. Farm families lost their land and homes due to the barren land.

Not everyone, however, lost money during the worst economic downturn in American history. Business titans such as William Boeing and Walter Chrysler actually grew their fortunes during the Great Depression.

Probably the Dust Bowl states: Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, NorthernTexas, and Southern Nebraska. These states not only suffered from the Great Depression but from huge dust storms that completely ruined the crops and literally coated everything in inches or feet of dust. The depression was bad enough.

The problems of the Great Depression affected virtually every group of Americans. No group was harder hit than African Americans, however. By 1932, approximately half of African Americans were out of work.

Most authorities cite two factors as the cause of the Dust Bowl. In the 1920s, with the coming of tractors and mechanical farm implements, farmers on the Great Plains plowed up huge tracts of land once covered with grasses that held the soil in place and helped to keep in moisture in the topsoil.

During the Great Depression, a series of droughts combined with non-sustainable agricultural practices led to devastating dust storms, famine, diseases and deaths related to breathing dust. This caused the largest migration in American history.

What was the Dust Bowl? Hoe did advanced farming technology contribute to it? A time of severe drought and dust storms. Farmers used machines to farm vast areas; then drought killed the crops and winds blew the soil away.

Plowing was deep, which contributed to soil erosion. Cotton farmers left fields bare over the winter months, when the winds were at their highest, and burned the plant stubble to control weeds, which further removed any anchoring vegetation.