Culling the Herds

Culling the Herds during the 1930s Depression

During the early years of the Depression, livestock prices dropped disastrously. Officials with the New Deal believed prices were down because farmers were still producing too many commodities like hogs and cotton. The solution proposed in the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 was to reduce the supply.



So, in the late spring of 1933, the federal government carried out "emergency livestock reductions." In Nebraska, the government bought about 470,000 cattle and 438,000 pigs. Nationwide, six million hogs were purchased from desperate farmers. In the South, one million farmers were paid to plow under 10.4 million acres of cotton.

The hogs and cattle were simply killed. In Nebraska, thousands were shot and buried in deep pits.

 

The point is, that with so many people going hungry, that basically FDRs first act was to waste so much food. You are right. Despicable is the word. The farmers and ranchers were cash poor, so the government expected them to do what they told them to do, although a few told them straight up NO.

My mother, who was 12 at the time, and the daughter of a small time farmer, witnessed the slaughter of a neighbors beef while her family struggled to eat and had no beef at all. She hated FDR till the day she died.

It's ironic that OCS is basically advocating an even stronger stance and , for all practical purposes, wants all the cattle killed, albeit for a different reason.

Big brother always seems to think it knows best and can FORCE people to do whatever it wants.