As the National Farmers Union (NFU) often highlights, consolidation among agribusiness in American agriculture has had a disastrous effect on family farms. They point out how 85% of corn seed is controlled by only four firms, 85% of beef packing is likewise owned by four companies and 95% of large farm tractors are made by three multinationals. In the case of the milk industry, producers are well aware of how much of the market is controlled by one large cooperative and the numerous cases brought against them for price fixing. The result is that the American farmer is left with little countervailing power and must accept the terms dictated by these powerful entities.
It’s easy to meet the above statistics, and the numerous others telling the same story, with resignation. Nonetheless, it’s also worth pointing out that American farmers have come up against corporate interests before – and won.
Agriculture in the Southern states was decimated after the Civil War. President Andrew Johnson sent a Minnesota farmer named Oliver Kelley to the South to give him a report on the specific circumstances and challenges faced by its producers. Naturally, those in the South were suspicious of Northerners, but Kelly leveraged his membership with the Freemasons as a way to connect with local farmers. As the Southern Masons helped him tour the countryside, he was shocked at the conditions he found. He discovered Southern farming to be entirely backward and taken up by “ignorant” farmers using outdated methods, largely as a result of relying on slavery. He believed the answer to this lack of progress was to create an organization that helped unify farmers across the country in the spirit of cooperation and self-improvement.
In 1867, Kelley founded the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, with the first local unit, or “grange,” started a year later in Fredonia, New York. At first, most granges sprang up in Kelley’s home state of Minnesota, but as the organization took up more political causes, they spread across the U.S. with booming membership. In setting up the structure of the institution, Kelley borrowed certain practices from the Freemasons, including secret meetings and a penchant for rituals. Unusual for the time, the association was particularly inclusive of women, and eventually created a law that at least four of the 16 elected positions to the National Grange had to be held by females. Additionally, any child who could draw a plow was allowed membership.
At the time the Grange was founded, the most powerful secular institution after the government was the railroad. In its early days, the U.S. government relied on the railroad to open up access to the western half of the country, and as a result, the railroad received land from the government to sell and fund its expansion. In the end, the railroad was an accumulation of immense corporate power and had a monopoly over the transport of goods. Relevant in this instance, they also owned most of the nation’s grain elevators. As a result, the railroad charged farmers exorbitant prices to transport or store grain.
The Grange was, and remains, nonpartisan, supporting policies instead of political groups. The first cause it took up was to regulate transportation costs. Because it was a pressing issue in agriculture in the late 19th century, membership in the Grange rose to over 850,000 by 1875. It helped Illinois farmers to push its state legislature to adopt maximum rates that the railroad could charge for transportation in 1871, and soon other Midwestern states followed suit. The law was challenged by the Supreme Court in 1877 but was upheld, making the Grange the first successful farmer advocacy group in the U.S. The Grange would also be pivotal in introducing the rural free delivery of mail in the countryside and also helped campaign for women’s suffrage.
Although membership in the Grange waned several decades after it was established, the organization eventually rebounded, and is still going strong today. With a motto of “In necessariis unitas; in dubiis libertas; in omnibus caritas,” (“In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity”) the Grange continues as a grassroots effort to support rural communities and strengthen the ties between family farmers. They remain active in politics, taking up issues relevant to farmers and those in the countryside. In doing so, the organization exists as a reminder that the American farmer has successfully banded together to protect their interests against corporate power and remain a legacy to the spirit of cooperation.
