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Sarah M. Vogel
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The Nonpartisan League The 1980s Farm Crisis Native American Farming & Ranching Today The Legacy of Coleman v. Block Our Current Farm Crisis Family Farm-Oriented Organizations

The Nonpartisan League

I was inspired throughout my life by the political philosophy of the Nonpartisan League of North Dakota, which flourished from 1916-1919 and 1933 in particular. By 1919, it was in 17 states and had a quarter million members. But repressive forces (and some internal fights) caused its demise as a national movement by the early 1920s.

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The 1980s Farm Crisis

In my 1983 class action lawsuit, Coleman v. Block, I represented family farmers during the worst economic crisis to hit rural America since the Great Depression. During the late 1970s, farmers experienced a cost-price squeeze, meaning the income they received for their crops and livestock was less than it cost to produce those crops and raise that livestock.

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Native American Farming and Ranching Today

In their diaries, Lewis and Clark marvelled at the vast fields of corn and other crops that the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara women grew in the area now known as North Dakota. They wrote that these tribes “cultivate corn, beans, squashes and tobacco” and had “plenty for themselves and to trade with other nations.”

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The Law of Hard Times

The Legacy of Coleman v. Block

As we enter another farm depression, we can learn from the past.

While every era is different, I believe that knowledge of the case law developed during the farm struggles of the 1930s and 1980s, and knowledge of statutory and regulatory reforms that arose from advocacy during those difficult times, will be helpful to today’s agriculture lawyers and policy makers.

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Our Current Farm Crisis

Excerpt from The Farmer’s Lawyer:

The number of American farms peaked in 1935 at six million; between 1935 and 2012, we lost four million farms. The hardest-hit category of farmers has been the midsize family-owned-and-run farms.

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Family Farm-Oriented Organizations to Join and Support

In the 1980s, while working on Coleman v. Block, I relied on many farmer-oriented nonprofit and membership organizations. Some of these organizations are still helping family farmers today.

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Author Website Design by AndreaGuevara.com | Many of the landscape photos of North Dakota on this site are courtesy of photographer David Paukert / Pastime Prints.
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