The Negative Effects Of Corporate Farming In The Grapes Of Wrath

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Whether or not the agricultural business in the US has improved positively within the last century is always a highly debated topic. Not only have farms expanded exponentially, but they have also focused on producing one single product extensively. In modern day society, farming no longer illustrates a regular-sized lot of land surrounded by neatly plowed rows of dirt, along with a wooden-log house, a barn, horse stalls and a pig pen. Farming has transformed into one general implication: mass cultivation. In the novel The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, Steinbeck dissects the transformation of the agricultural industry and the negative effects of corporate farming. Granted that the quality and quantity of cultivation has improved, the impact …show more content…

Unfortunately, the appeal of profits distracts society from recognizing these earthly consequences. In regards to the industrial work done on the farms by men using machines, Steinbeck incites, “And in the tractor man there grows the contempt that comes only to a stranger who has little understanding and no relation” (115). The “tractor man” is disconnected from the Earth and he symbolizes present-day society’s overall ignorance towards the Earth. Before, without the presence of machines, men did have an understanding and relation to the land. Physically touching the land, unlike being atop a tractor, prompts feelings that are unable to be measured, but only sensed. Physical contact between man and land is unity above all else. John Ikerd from Alternet condemns environmental ignorance and states, “The reality of agriculture is in conflict with the worldview that supports industrialization… Our well-being ultimately depends on working and living in harmony with nature rather than conquering nature” (Source B). Industrialized practices that involve minimal physical contact purely focus on maximizing profit, and the environment is forced to pay due to this ignorance and greed. Thus, the only thing that men can truly “feel” is prosperity through riches. Without the physical intimacy with nature, humans are limited to being attached to profits and the benefits of it. The agricultural industry is manipulating the environment and working against it instead of along with it in unity. Consequently, humans lose sight of its depletion and further destroy it. Before it is too late, society must revitalize harmony with the environment and strive to save it instead of squeezing every cent of profit from it before it perishes

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