Family Farm Defenders, a Wisconsin group of farmers and consumers, began appealing for tractors to be donated, or financial contributions to purchase them, months ago. Its purpose was to aid the federation, a group of southern farmers who are Black and are fighting to hold onto their land.

“They lost their crop, they lost their market, and they still don’t have electricity,” Jasper said. “And they have not seen anyone from FEMA,” he added, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in charge of government relief efforts.

FFD president John Kinsman said southern farmers have suffered many disasters, including discrimination and low prices. He pointed out that Wisconsin farmers are also affected by low prices, but they have found that farmers in Mississippi and Louisiana are in more dire straits. That’s why the group organized “Project Tractor.”

“On behalf of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Mississippi Farmers Association of Cooperatives, and the Indian Spring Farmers Association, we greatly appreciate your assistance,” wrote Ben Burkett in a statement read to the media. “Many small farmers and farm families throughout Mississippi were greatly affected due to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Many farmers lost everything—homes, livestock, equipment, and mainly a way of living…. Your contributions…will impact the lives of many. Your generosity cannot be measured.”

Farmers here made valiant efforts to ready the tractors. Julian Greeno and his son Joel said they put a rebuilt engine into a tractor only to find out that the transmission was out. So they worked all night taking the engine out again and placing it into another tractor. Another farmer, Don Hansen, traveled eight hours one way to buy one of the tractors.

The tractors Jasper and Hank Rosenbalm—another FFD member—were taking south are of a size that will best suit the Mississippi farms, Jasper said. One large tractor will be held jointly by the cooperatives and lent out as needed to individual farmers.

Jasper was planning to arrive in Mississippi just in time for the Family Farm Defenders National Convention, which is hosted this year by the Mississippi Federation of Cooperatives. The event is titled “Sowing Farmer to Farmer Solidarity.”

As of the time of the press conference—which was covered by the Madison-based TV Channel 3, Muscoda Dial, Richland Observer, and another paper from nearby Dodgeville—two more tractors had been donated, foreshadowing a second load.  
 
 
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