September 2 has repeatedly intersected with turning points in American agriculture—moments when war ended and production priorities shifted, when storms hit at peak growing season, and when policy and education set the stage for the next generation of farm science. Here is how “today” has mattered across the decades.

1945: The war ends, and U.S. agriculture changes course

Eighty years ago today, Japan’s formal surrender aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, closed the book on World War II and opened a new chapter for American farms. Wartime demanded record output from U.S. growers—wheat, corn, livestock, dairy, and fiber—supported by price controls, rationing, and emergency mobilization of labor. With V‑J Day, the War Food Administration began winding down, and the farm economy pivoted from military provisioning to feeding a recovering world and a fast-changing domestic market.

Three shifts that followed are still visible on the landscape:

  • Mechanization accelerated. Wartime labor shortages had already pushed rapid adoption of tractors and combines; postwar manufacturing capacity and returning servicemembers sped the transition away from animal power. Larger, more reliable machines made fewer hands capable of harvesting more acres.
  • Modern inputs took off. Nitrogen production scaled up for munitions was redirected to fertilizer. At the same time, 2,4‑D—developed during the war and first widely used in 1945—ushered in the modern era of selective herbicides, reshaping weed control in small grains, corn, and pastures.
  • Knowledge exploded at land‑grant universities. The GI Bill sent veterans into agricultural engineering, soil science, animal nutrition, and extension careers, reinforcing the research‑to‑farm pipeline created by the Morrill and Smith‑Lever Acts.

In the immediate aftermath, demand for U.S. commodities stayed strong through foreign aid and reconstruction, even as parity support programs from the New Deal evolved. The postwar decade redefined productivity, farm structure, and rural labor patterns—trends that still shape today’s debates over technology adoption, input costs, and conservation.

1935: A Category 5 reminder of late‑summer risk

Ninety years ago today, on the evening of September 2, 1935, the Labor Day Hurricane roared across the Florida Keys as a Category 5 storm—still one of the most intense U.S. landfalls on record. While the compact core spared most mainland cropland from the storm’s worst winds, the event reinforced Florida agriculture’s exposure to late‑summer hazards: windthrow, salt spray, surge, and prolonged wetness during harvest windows.

The hurricane became part of the historical record that informed later investments in windbreaks and shelterbelts around groves, ever‑more careful drainage and flood control across South Florida, and the practice changes growers still make when tropical systems threaten—staking trellised crops, adjusting harvest schedules, and hardening farm infrastructure.

2016: Hermine makes a September landfall

Nine years ago today, Hurricane Hermine came ashore near Florida’s Big Bend in the early hours of September 2 as a Category 1 storm. It brought heavy rain, gusty winds, and coastal flooding from the eastern Gulf Coast into south Georgia and the Carolinas—right as cotton bolls were opening, peanuts were nearing digging, tobacco curing was underway, and pecans were sizing.

Extension and producer reports at the time noted a familiar suite of impacts for a late‑season storm:

  • Row crops: wind‑lodged cotton and some boll loss; delayed peanut digging and curing due to saturated fields; leaf loss and leaning in tobacco.
  • Perennial crops: limb breakage and nut drop in pecan orchards; power outages affecting irrigation and post‑harvest handling.
  • Coastal aquaculture: storm surge and waves that displaced gear and damaged facilities on Florida’s Big Bend, including clam operations.

Hermine was a reminder that the statistical peak of the Atlantic hurricane season (mid‑September) coincides with critical harvest stages across the Southeast—an alignment that concentrates risk in a narrow window.

1958: Investing in the pipeline of farm science

Sixty‑seven years ago today—September 2, 1958—President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act. Although not an agriculture bill, it materially strengthened the nation’s scientific workforce in engineering, mathematics, and the physical sciences. Land‑grant colleges tapped those resources to expand programs in agricultural engineering, plant breeding, soil physics, and food science, seeding research that would support precision irrigation, improved crop genetics, environmental monitoring, and post‑harvest innovation in the decades to come.

1864: Atlanta falls, foreshadowing a farm economy remade

One hundred sixty‑one years ago today, Union forces captured Atlanta (September 2, 1864). The military turning point presaged the destructive campaigns that followed, which, combined with emancipation and the war’s devastation of rail and river transport, upended the South’s plantation economy. The region’s postwar transition toward sharecropping, tenant farming, and later mechanization left a deep imprint on land tenure patterns, rural poverty, and crop choices that resonated well into the 20th century.

Why September 2 still matters to producers

  • Calendar risk is real. Late‑summer tropical systems remain a defining hazard for Southeastern agriculture, often striking during harvest or critical maturity stages. Farm plans that include flexible harvest windows, resilient trellising, drainage readiness, and backup power can reduce losses.
  • Transitions define outcomes. The end of WWII shows how quickly markets, inputs, and labor dynamics can shift. Today’s producers face analogous transitions—toward lower‑carbon fuels, biological inputs, AI‑enabled decision tools, and new export realities.
  • People and knowledge are leverage. From the GI Bill era to modern STEM investments, human capital has consistently multiplied farm productivity and resilience. Apprenticeships, extension, and workforce training continue to pay dividends on the farm and in rural businesses.

On this date, across the years

  • 1864: Atlanta surrenders to Union forces, accelerating fundamental change in Southern agriculture.
  • 1935: The Labor Day Hurricane strikes the Florida Keys, reinforcing late‑season storm risk for growers.
  • 1945: V‑J Day ends WWII; U.S. agriculture pivots to peacetime markets, mechanization, and the modern input era.
  • 1958: National Defense Education Act boosts the scientific pipeline that feeds agricultural innovation.
  • 2016: Hurricane Hermine makes a September landfall, disrupting harvests and coastal aquaculture in the Southeast.

The through‑line

From battlefields to storm tracks to classrooms, the events of September 2 illustrate how agriculture sits at the crossroads of geopolitics, climate, and knowledge. For producers heading into the heart of harvest, it’s a timely reminder that preparedness and adaptability—on the farm and across the farm economy—are the constants that carry the sector through change.