Still wondering about Savtiz

"IN THE BAND OF PAINTERS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS
hired to determine the fertility of America"

This is perhaps a reference to the depression era of government funded artists who documented the atrocities of the dust bowl it is. If that is true I am still wondering whether these lines represent a hint of patriotism and how it applies to the rest of the poem. These lines stand out from the rest of the poem, as the last stanza does.