How did the great depression impact farmers?

Answer 1

The reason why many American farmers were not able to partake in the Prosperity of the 1920s was mainly due to over-production of Crops. Due to new farm machinery such as tractors and combine harvesters, American farmers were able to produce more food in the twenties than they had ever done before. However they produced more food than the population could eat, so they were left with surplus food. (Not only were America unable to eat the surplus food , they were also unable to export it.) This caused food prices to drop and that meant lower incomes for farmers and farm workers. Farmers tried to keep up their incomes by growing even more food, but this made food prices fall even lower: the bigger the surplus, the lower the price. Thousands of farmers tried to get out of their difficulties by borrowing money from banks. Farmers took out mortgages worth $ 2000 million during the twenties however this made their problems worse. As their incomes continued to drop they could not repay the mortgage and so the banks ended their mortgages and threw them off their land. By 1929 millions of farmers were living in poverty, with basic necessities such as food, and electricity or mains water.

Answer 2

The farmers were "depressed" economically before the rest of the nation, as a result of the Great Depression. There was no plague or famine among the farm communities, but many Americans were perplexed that while American factories remained as capable as ever of producing goods, they stood still and closed because no one could afford to buy the products produced. The same with agriculture. Farms were producing food in abundance but hungry people could not afford to buy it. The one natural disaster that added to the plight of the farmer was the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, which created the mass exodus of famers in the Midwest to California and the creation of a new class of famer known as the migrant worker. The government tried to aid the farmers by actually paying farms to produce less. Animals were slaughtered to cause the price of the meat to rise. Milk, for example, was poured on the ground, rather than being sent to market where the price was so low that farmers would not reap any profit. The New Deal created the AAA to aid farmers, but it was declared unconstitutional.

Answer 3

Falling prices was a significant effect of the Great Depression on American farmers.

Answer 4

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