How did the war affect American farming

1.

Gender stereotypes were enforced and normalised during the 1900's. This meant that on a very large scale, men were the main earners of the family and often were seen as more capable to make a living whilst women stayed at home and took care of their families and their homes. With men being enlisted during the wars and forced to leave their families behind, this created a depression throughout America as many jobs that were once taken by men were no longer being filled. This could have had an effect on agriculture and farming due to men (soldiers) and women (nurses and aid) needing to leave their farms behind to fight in the wars.

2.

At the end of World War 2, large areas of Europe was destroyed as a result and this meant that farming was not possible. Thus, many countries in Europe had to depend on America to survive.

Americans saw this as a great opportunity as the market now had a bigger demand for farming and this meant that they could create more money. There were large plots of land in America ripe for farming and many farmers took out loans to buy land and stock believing it would be easy to pay it off with the booming agriculture industry. Unfortunately for American farmers, Europe quickly recovered in a few years from the war's devastation and had no more need for America's support. This affected farmers and the agricultural industry greatly because farmers struggled to pay back loans and the prohibition (banning of alcohol) made barley less of a necessity. Value started to drop and wages in rural areas were halved, which meant many farmers had to move to the city to find work.