Great Plains

American Agriculture History Minute: Crop Insurance, Conservation Techniques Revive Great Plains Agriculture

Dan American Agriculture History Minute, Conservation, Crop Insurance, Economy, Environment, This Land of Ours

Great Plains
Fruit growing in the central and southern Great Plains
By H. P. Gould / Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions / via Wikimedia Commons image

I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute.

American Agriculture History Minute: Crop Insurance, Conservation Techniques Revive Great Plains Agriculture

Early settlers discovered that the Great Plains were not all that great. They found very harsh climate with tornadoes, blizzards, drought, hailstorms, floods and grasshoppers. It made for high risks and ruined many crops and many settlers that became financially ruined and either protested through the populist movement or went back east.

In the 20th century, crop insurance, new conservation techniques and large-scale federal aid lowered the risk and helped those farmers re-establish themselves the next generation.

That’s today’s American Agriculture History Minute. I’m Mark Oppold. Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next time.