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The Plow that Broke the Plains

In 1936, Pare Lorentz made The Plow that Broke the Plains, a documentary about the environmental havoc caused by the introduction of industrial scale plow-based agriculture to the great plains of the USA. The film is posted here for it's relevance to the topic of documentary photography and climate impacts. Along with the photography work for the Farm Security Administration, the film showed the effects of harsh weather conditions (the dust bowl) and the socio-economic effects of the switch to mechanization on such a large scale as took place during the 20s and 30s.

In the photovoice project with villagers in My Loi, the aim is not wholly dissimilar. The project aims to shed light on the impacts the changing climate is having on smallholder agriculture as well as to show the local adaptations being made. The hope is that the photography and the farmer testimony can together be a vehicle for influencing change at the different levels of the agricultural hierarchy in Vietnam.