Across more than a century, October 28 has marked inflection points that altered what American farmers grow, how they finance their operations, and where the nation sources key foods. From sweeping social policy to a market crash, from Cold War geopolitics to a Gulf Coast landfall, the date has repeatedly intersected with U.S. agriculture in consequential ways.

1919: Prohibition becomes law and upends barley, hops, grapes, and cider apples

On October 28, 1919, Congress enacted the National Prohibition Act—better known as the Volstead Act—overriding President Woodrow Wilson’s veto and establishing the enforcement framework for the impending national ban on alcoholic beverages. While the 18th Amendment would not take effect until January 1920, the law’s passage immediately sent shockwaves through farm country.

Brewing and winemaking had anchored stable demand for barley, hops, wine grapes, and cider apples. With legal markets for beer, wine, and hard cider dismantled, growers in places like Washington’s Yakima Valley, Oregon’s Willamette Valley, and California’s Central Valley scrambled to pivot. Hops acreage contracted sharply, barley acreage shifted toward feed rather than malting, and California grape growers reoriented to table grapes and raisins. Apple producers—particularly those who had cultivated tannic cider varieties—grafted over to dessert and sauce types or pushed out trees entirely.

Some producers found stopgaps in non-alcoholic juices and concentrates, but prices and incomes were volatile. The industry map that emerged after repeal in 1933 retained many of these Prohibition-era adjustments, reshaping crop mixes and regional specializations that still influence today’s planting decisions.

1929: Black Monday deepens farm country’s credit crisis

On October 28, 1929—Black Monday—the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 13 percent, a collapse followed by the infamous Black Tuesday rout. Farm incomes had already been under pressure throughout the 1920s, as post–World War I surpluses depressed commodity prices. The crash intensified the downturn: rural banks failed in growing numbers, operating credit tightened, and land values fell.

The Federal Farm Board, created earlier in 1929 to stabilize prices for wheat and cotton, found its support purchases overwhelmed by collapsing demand and heavy supplies. Carryover stocks ballooned, and by the early 1930s prices for staple crops like wheat, corn, and cotton had fallen to levels that made debt service untenable for many producers. The cascading distress set the stage for New Deal interventions—farm credit reorganization, supply control programs, and conservation policy—that would define federal farm policy for decades.

1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis ends, and U.S. sugar sourcing realigns

On October 28, 1962, the Soviet Union agreed to remove missiles from Cuba, defusing the Cuban Missile Crisis. While the confrontation was military and diplomatic, its resolution cemented a trade rupture already underway: a near-total U.S. embargo on Cuba, including its historically large sugar shipments to American refiners.

In the months leading up to the crisis, the United States had reallocated Cuba’s sugar quota under the Sugar Act to other exporting nations and expanded reliance on domestic beet and cane sugar. The end of the missile standoff did not restore trade. Instead, Florida and Louisiana cane industries grew in importance, western beet sugar production expanded, and a diversified roster of foreign suppliers filled the gap. The post-1962 sugar regime—balancing domestic supports with import quotas—left a lasting imprint on pricing and sourcing that persists in modern U.S. sugar policy.

2020: Hurricane Zeta strikes during Gulf Coast harvest

On October 28, 2020, Hurricane Zeta made landfall near Cocodrie, Louisiana, as a Category 2 storm, sweeping across coastal parishes and the lower Mississippi corridor at peak harvest time. The storm’s winds and rain battered sugarcane fields in Louisiana, delayed cotton picking in parts of Mississippi and Alabama, and damaged pecan orchards already gearing up for the holiday season. Power outages disrupted poultry operations and cold storage, and saturated fields complicated harvest logistics for days.

Zeta underscored the vulnerability of late-season fieldwork to Gulf systems and the growing importance of storm-hardening farm infrastructure—from drainage to backup power—across the coastal South.

Late-October on the farm: seasonal context

Beyond headline events, October 28 typically finds much of U.S. agriculture in a crucial transition. Corn and soybean harvests in the Midwest often accelerate between weather windows; sugarcane cutting intensifies along the Gulf; winter wheat seeding is wrapping up across the Plains; and Western specialty crop growers are completing fall shipments. Storage decisions, basis levels, and transportation capacity can swing farm-gate margins in this narrow window, making late October one of the most operationally demanding periods of the year.

Why this date still matters

The policy shock of Prohibition, the financial shock of the 1929 crash, the geopolitical realignment around Cuban sugar, and a modern hurricane landfall all fell on October 28. Each episode reshaped production choices, risk management, or market access. Together, they are reminders that U.S. agriculture’s fortunes hinge not only on weather and yields, but also on laws, credit, global events, and the timing of storms.