Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Ron Pulcer of Rutland Town.
As I enjoy this year’s Thanksgiving meal, I am thankful for the local farmers, farmers markets, and food organizations. As our economy continues to recover, the local food economy is truly a bright spot.
I grew up as a city kid, but both my grandfathers had an agricultural heritage. My paternal grandfather’s parents immigrated to the U.S. from Poland in the 1890s and began a family farm in Michigan’s “Thumb Area.” The farm could not fully support nine children, so my grandfather headed to Detroit for work at age 14. My maternal grandfather had an amazing green thumb. Besides working in a metal-working factory in northern Tuscany, he grew a garden. He later rented additional space from a neighbor. His gardening skills were important to the family, especially during World War II; it was a matter of survival. After the war, he brought his gardening skills to the U.S. and continued to garden well past retirement age.
To me, what we today call “local food” and “sustainable” are not new ideas, as our family was blessed with a virtual Garden of Eden at my grandparents’ home. Upon retirement, my grandparents moved to a new home which had a relatively large lot for a city lot (a little under a half-acre). My grandfather planted fruit trees, grape vines and all kinds of vegetables, fruits and flowers. Healthy local food can be grown even in the big cities.
In the 1920s and 1930s, when my grandfather began gardening, it was around the same time that farmers in Oklahoma and neighboring states were digging up vast acres of prairie grassland to plant wheat. I’ve been watching the new Ken Burns documentary called, “The Dust Bowl.”
As I watched the film, I thought about the ongoing debate on “global warming” aka “climate change,” and how it might relate to the Dust Bowl era.
According to the film’s website: “THE DUST BOWL chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, in which the frenzied wheat boom of the ‘Great Plow-Up’, followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation.”
As I watched the film, I thought about the ongoing debate on “global warming” aka “climate change,” and how it might relate to the Dust Bowl era. Today’s political parties argue whether climate change is real or a hoax. One side argues that it is caused by humans, and the other side states that it just part of a natural cycle of warming and cooling. I tend to think that it is a little of both at the same time. I’m not a climate scientist, but I tend towards the notion that while man does not cause climate change, man could be the “straw that broke the camel’s back,” and could cause it change faster than normal.
In regards to the Dust Bowl era, droughts, high winds, tornados and dust storms were not new to Oklahoma’s panhandle (“No Man’s Land”) and surrounding states. However, the combination of these natural forces with the actions of humans on a large scale brought upon the ominous Dust Bowl storms. I guess you could say the Dust Bowl was a form of regional change in climate and weather, for the people of Oklahoma and the adjoining regions of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas.
Something to think about as you enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday, and gather with relatives who might be from the other side of the political spectrum.
