The National Farmers Union (NFU) celebrated its 100th anniversary at its convention here March 1–4. The organization has approximately 300,000 members in 26 states, mainly throughout the West and Midwest. Oklahoma has the largest number, with 121,650, followed by North Dakota with 36,371.

"The need for the Farmers Union is as great today as 100 years ago," said NFU president Leland Swenson in an address in nearby Point, Texas, the small community outside of Dallas where the NFU was founded a century ago.

A local newspaper distributed at the convention explained the conditions small farmers faced 100 years ago. "Farmers were virtual slaves to the soil and the insidious credit system. Interest rates became so high in Texas, credit prices were 26.9 percent higher than cash prices, and there was little, if any, cash," it read.

"There were large corporations which controlled the markets and always cheapened farm produce prices at the specific time of harvest," the paper noted. "Railroads overcharged freight rates on the necessities which the farmer had to buy. The farmers justly felt that the railroads and corporations conspired to defraud them of the fruits of their and their families' labor."

Today, Swenson reported, the Department of Labor estimates that over the next decade some 328,000 farm and ranch families will lose their land. In addition, according to a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) report, he said, there will be a "20 percent drop in farm income next year. That is the average," he added. In particular, he said, the price farmers will receive from the grain monopolies will drop by 22 percent for soybeans, 28 percent for corn, and 30 percent for wheat.

Last year membership increased in more than half of the states where the Farmers Union exists. The newly formed Missouri Farmers Union received charter status at the convention after signing up 1,250 members.

"I think a big impetus to farmers joining NFU were the 9 cents hogs. People realized things weren't working," said Jay McCallie, 38, a Missouri calf producer.

In December 1998, farmers were paid $9.00 a hundredweight for hogs for slaughter, or 9 cents a pound. The break-even-point for raising hogs is around $35 a hundredweight. Especially upsetting to farmers is that while they were paid rock-bottom prices by the packing companies, the price of pork in the grocery stores remained virtually the same.

Ron Seitz, a beef farmer and formerly a dairy farmer in Minnesota, said the main problem facing farmers is, "Price, price, price."

On the final day of the gathering the 180 delegates discussed and adopted a "Policy of the National Farmers Union."

The framework of the discussion at the convention was on what NFU members want to be addressed in the 2002 Farm Bill. Both the Senate and the House have passed farm bills, which are now in committee to prepare a final piece of legislation. The centerpiece of the bill is massive federal subsidies to a handful of capitalist farmers and agricultural businesses.

Tom Buis, the NFU's top Washington lobbyist, said Congress needs to "resolve the bill before Easter. Farmers and ranchers need certainty. We have no idea what the safety net will be. The safety net [for farmers and ranchers] is the lowest in modern history." This session was broadcast live on the radio show Agri-Talk.

The first hand that shot up in the discussion was of a delegate from Minnesota who proposed that the NFU's policy document be amended to add that the "NFU shall strive for no less than 50 percent of parity for all commodities in the short term with the long-term goal of 100 percent."

Parity is a calculation that is used to describe the relationship between prices farmers receive for their commodities and the costs they incur for production and living expenses. The index used to determine this relationship is based on the years 1910–1914 when there was a relationship between costs and prices supposedly favorable to farmers.

Today 100 percent parity for corn would be $6.54 a bushel and 50 percent would be $3.27. The price farmers receive from the grain monopolies for corn today is $2.01. To break even on the production of corn farmers need around $2.50 a bushel.  
 
Crisis facing dairy farmers
The largest number of amendments to the policy document proposed from the floor were about dairy farming. They were spearheaded by the delegations from Minnesota and California.

Joaquin Contente, president of the California Farmers Union and a leader of the California Dairy Campaign, which in recent years has led milk dumpings and other protests by dairy farmers, circulated an article he wrote last November that outlined the problem facing dairy farmers.

"The California dairy producer is bracing himself for another roller-coaster ride again as the price paid for that milk has plummeted about 40 percent within the last month," said the article. "Just as producers were healing from the low prices experienced in the year 2000, again the unexpected abrupt downturn came swiftly crashing the butter and cheese markets down to below the cost of production levels.... There lies the primary problem; when over 75,000 producers sell to basically only three marketers, then the balance of market power is obviously tilted towards the less than handful of marketers."

According to information distributed at the convention, some 55,000 dairy farmers have been driven off their farms over the past decade.

David Frederickson, president of the Minnesota Farmers Union and a past state senator in Minnesota, was elected the new national president of the NFU.

Ted Leonard is a meat packer in the Boston area. Karen Ray, a garment worker from Minneapolis, and Tony Dutrow, a meat packer from Houston, contributed to this article.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home