Trouble For the Food Basket

Prophecy and the Ghost of Tom Joad

Wherever there's somebody fightin' for a place to stand
Or decent job or a helpin' hand
Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free
Look in their eyes Mom you'll see me."

Bruce Springsteen

This year marks the 75^th anniversary of that great work of American literature The Grapes of
Wrath by John Steinbeck. It told the story of Tom Joad and his family who were forced off the family farm in Oklahoma by drought and depression and who made their way to California where they met further hardship brought on my desperate working conditions and low wages. It was recognized then as a wake-up call to the American people of inequality and persecution of our economic system. This book can be considered both historical and prophetic. Historical in its description of the desperation of the dust bowl farmer’s family and prophetic in its warnings that it could happen again. Could it be that the prophecy of this book is being realized right now in our country?



Although the cause can be debated there is little disagreement that climate change is occurring. In areas that used to be non-arable there are now verdant fields of green crops that feed not only our nation but many others. It is only because of irrigation that this is possible. But consider this. The Colorado River no longer flows to the Gulf of California but now fizzles out before it gets there. For millenia it flowed but now it is diverted before it reaches its historical destination. Nebraska, Colorado and parts of Kansas along with the Central Valley in California are in the depths of an extended drought. Those states on the Western Plains have for decades drawn water from the Ogallala aquifer and it is being depleted at a rapid rate. It is projected to be 70% depleted by 2060. Replenishment will take hundreds if not thousands of years. In addition, the proposed Keystone XL pipeline is set to go right over this precious water resource. We are not the only country experiencing climate change. Australia is in a period of extended drought as are other parts of the world.

 Effects of the drought in California

In the 1930s the western states were referred to as “the dust bowl.” Long years of improper farming techniques had depleted the land and left it barren, a ready victim for the drought and winds that came and blew what topsoil was left to parts unknown. In our case it is not so much the farming techniques as it is an over-reliance on irrigation from sources that are adversely affected by climate change. One must remember that the Anasazi and the Navajo were forced off the land by drought.



In Steinbeck's time there weren't so many corporate farms. Most were family farms and the desperation and want was threatening mostly to those small farmers but now large corporate farms tend thousands of acres and failure of those farms will adversely affect people globally. What many don't realize is that wars have been fought over less. What would a nation on the brink of collapse due to starvation be capable of?



Just think of it. The corn that feeds our beef comes off the great plains as does the wheat for our bread. The fresh vegetables and fruit come from the groves of California. If shortages occur the prices for food will skyrocket (and we are seeing that happen now) leaving many without access to enough food. It won't be the rich that experience the need and want. They will have enough money to weather the storm but the rest of us won't. Those of us who make it from paycheck to paycheck will face some hard choices. Those who aren't making it now will face starvation. When that happens what do you suppose will happen to our government with increasing demands from the people? We can take a lesson from John Steinbeck's time. The Joads left their dusty farm for work in the orange groves. But what happens when the oranges won't grow? In that time the people demanded more and it was a time of great social change and government intervention.


I have always grown a garden but it is a far cry from being a subsistence garden. We still spend a fortune at the grocery but the garden does provide us with good food in season and we can and freeze quite a bit. We have the land that we can use for that but that is a rarity these days. I dare say that butchering a hog or a beef is something most of us have never done. We have lost those skills our grandparents had. But by far the most damage is being done by the marginalization of the middle class. The middle class now lacks the discretionary money to save for a rainy day. Instead of using federal resources to build up and support the middle class the money goes to the wealthy in the form of tax expenditures. Now the largest corporations may pay no taxes at all instead garnering refunds from the federal government due to the tax expenditures built into the tax code.



But it is not all darkness and gloom. There are things we can do if we choose to make the difficult decisions to do so. We can reform our tax code so that the federal government has enough funding to repair roads and bridges. We can institute conservancy efforts to minimize the amount of valuable natural resources we consume. We can move toward energy sources that do not contribute to the effects of climate change. Scientists now say that we will not avoid the effects of climate change but we still can keep it from becoming exceedingly severe. We can begin to make long term investments in human capital that will strengthen the great base of our country. The one thing we should not do is wait until disaster forces drastic action. We can't afford the luxury of thinking there is a painless way to our future. We can't do it individually and we can't get there believing that government is incapable of serving our needs.



Tom Joad faced a terrible disaster in the dust bowl and the Great Depression but what is ahead has the potential to make that look like a walk in the park.



My take is that this time when the wolf comes to the door the people will want more than straw to build their houses.