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NFO Holding Actions in Minnesota

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Black and white photograph of NFO farmers and creamery employees ride a bulk truck out to milk dumping site on the Martin Lampi farm near Annandale on March 7, 1963.

NFO farmers and creamery employees ride a bulk truck to a milk dumping site on the Martin Lampi farm near Annandale on March 7, 1963.

Minnesota farmers were active in building the National Farmers Organization (NFO), a populist farm group dedicated to strengthening family farmers’ economic well-being. Unlike other farm groups on both the right (the Farm Bureau) and the left (the Farmers’ Union), the NFO during the 1960s focused on direct economic action.

The rise of industrial agriculture in the mid-twentieth century pressured American farmers to give up family farming in favor of the agribusiness model. The farm population decreased as highly mechanized corporate farms replaced smaller operations.

Established in 1955 in response to these changes, the NFO was a “power-oriented social movement” that sought structural change and empowered small farmers to gain market power as a group. Minnesota NFO and county chapters encouraged farm communities to support each other and challenge the farm-product pricing system.

The NFO changed its focus from legislative action to collective bargaining in 1957. Large agribusiness interests opposed the NFO’s goals, instead emphasizing economies of scale and supporting price control by processors. NFO leaders believed that family farmers, more effectively than industrial farmers, could “care for their land, for each other, and for their nation.”

Through farm strikes, called holding actions, the NFO pursued collective bargaining between farmers and processors for such products as livestock, grain, and milk. When the organization voted to stage a holding action, farmers across the country stopped shipping the designated product or products.

Like labor-movement strikes, holding actions involved confrontation between farmers in solidarity with the NFO and those opposing its approach. To NFO members, farmers who sold products during a holding action threatened the movement’s potential to collectively achieve long-term price increases. Some opponents saw the actions as radical and interfering with individual freedom. The conflicting sides became polarized.

In 1959, the Minnesota NFO became one of the group’s first nine state charters. Local NFO groups used multiple strategies to build the movement. Minnesota’s county chapters, for example, negotiated contracts with processors. Farms displayed “LET’S GO! N.F.O.–COLLECTIVE BARGAINING” signs. To draw attention to issues, members organized protests, such as dumping large quantities of milk onto the ground.

Minnesota emerged as a major NFO stronghold by 1964, when a national convention took place in Minneapolis. In that year, NFO members from six northern Minnesota counties donated hay to members in four drought-stricken counties in the southeastern part of the state.

Granite Falls was one of the first American cities to back the NFO as a united front. Citizens and businesses supported the organization with a Chamber of Commerce-sponsored rally. Signs welcomed the NFO in windows throughout the town. This support was reciprocated on September 27, when between two and three thousand people came to Granite Falls for an NFO-organized “winter buying” day.

Holding action conflicts intensified. NFO members and their allies blocked Highway 12 near DeGraff on Labor Day, preventing eleven cattle trucks from traveling to South St. Paul. On September 24, thirty-five NFO trucks clogged the South St. Paul stockyards’ hog chutes for several hours. These events were part of a forty-three-day national holding action in twenty-three states.

Across the state that autumn, both NFO members and their opponents reported intimidating actions: shots fired, fences cut, and fires apparently set. Strikebreaking trucks’ tires were flattened and windows were broken. While no serious injuries on either side resulted from incidents in Minnesota, two NFO members in Wisconsin were killed when a cattle-truck driver ran over them as they attempted to stop him from entering a stockyard.

After the Wisconsin deaths, the Minnesota highway patrol and county sheriffs began providing escorts to trucks shipping livestock in opposition to the holding action. Governor Karl Rolvaag approved the escorts but declined to call out the National Guard as NFO opponents had requested. Rolvaag supported the NFO as “a search by farm people to secure for themselves their just and fair share of the fruits of their labor” but became concerned about intensifying confrontations.

Beginning in 1967, the NFO’s opponents initiated legal actions alleging that the group constituted a monopoly. Though the NFO eventually prevailed in court, receiving a $21.4 million settlement in 1990, its community-organizing momentum was disrupted. In the 1970s, the NFO shifted its focus away from challenging the agricultural power structure. Renamed National Farmers, the group remains active across the country in the 2000s, primarily in farm-product marketing.

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Ager, Trygve. “Two NFO Men Killed Trying to Halt Truck: Driver Charged with Homicide.” Minneapolis Tribune, September 10, 1964.

Anderson, William D. "The Mission, History, and Times of the National Farmers Organization." Master's Thesis. University of Chicago, 1965.

Bird, John. “When Farmers Go on Strike.” Saturday Evening Post, November 21, 1964.

Blair, William M. “Rural Midwest Sheds Old Image.” New York Times, November 1, 1964.

De Bruyckere, Donata. You Can Never Say We Didn’t Try: The National Farmers Organization in Lyon County, Minnesota, 1962–1988. Marshall, MN: Southwest State University, 1990.

Letofsky, Irv. “4,600 Gallons of Milk Dumped as NFO-Backing Farmers Cheer.” Minneapolis Tribune, March 8, 1963.

“Food Hold ‘Going as Expected,’ Says NFO.” Minneapolis Star, September 4, 1962.

Mooney, Patrick H., and Theo J. Majka. Farmers’ and Farm Workers’ Movements: Social Protest in American Agriculture. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995.

Morrison, Denton E., and Allan D. Steeves. “Deprivation, Discontent, and Social Movement Participation: Evidence on a Contemporary Farmers’ Movement, the NFO.” Rural Sociology 32, no. 4 (December 1967): 414–434.

Muhm, Don. The NFO, A Farm Belt Rebel: The History of the National Farmers Organization. Red Wing, MN: Lone Oak Press, 2000.

National Farmers. Bargaining History.
http://www.nfo.org/About_Us/Bargaining_History.aspx

“NFO Active at South St. Paul, Omaha Yards.” Benson Swift County News, September 29, 1964.

“NFO Livestock Holding Cuts Shipments, Ups Prices.” Benson Swift County News, August 25, 1964.

“NFO Members Hold Buying Day.” Minneapolis Tribune, September 27, 1964.

“NFO Sympathizers Snarl Stockyards in South St. Paul.” Minneapolis Tribune, September 18, 1962.

“NFO Offers Debate on MDPA Charges.” Benson Swift County Monitor, September 12, 1963.

“NFO Sends Hay to Drought Area.” St. Paul Pioneer Press, September 4, 1964.

“NFO Turns Back Dozen Cattle Trucks in State.” Minneapolis Tribune, September 8, 1964.

Romer, Sam. “Rolvaag in Plea: ‘Understanding’ Asked for NFO.” Minneapolis Tribune, September 20, 1964.

Schlebecker, John T. “The Great Holding Action: The NFO in September, 1962.” Agricultural History 39, no. 4 (October 1965): 204–213.

Tvrdy, Linda A. “The Free Market Revolt of the National Farmers Organization.” A Paper Presented to the Panel “Agricultural Protest Movements” at the annual Agricultural History Society Conference. Cambridge, Massachusetts, June, 2006.

“Violence Flares as 11 Stock Trucks Try NFO Roadblock: Labor Day Confrontation Near DeGraff.” Benson Swift County Monitor, September 10, 1964.

Walters, Jr., Charles. Holding Action. New York: Halcyon House, 1968.

Youngblood, Dick. “Granite Falls Backs NFO District Rally.” Minneapolis Tribune, August 26, 1964.

——— . “Is NFO Justified In Limiting Supplies?” Minneapolis Tribune, September 20, 1964.

——— . “NFO Buying Spree Set for Granite Falls.” Minneapolis Tribune, September 24, 1964.

Related Images

Black and white photograph of NFO farmers and creamery employees ride a bulk truck out to milk dumping site on the Martin Lampi farm near Annandale on March 7, 1963.
Black and white photograph of NFO farmers and creamery employees ride a bulk truck out to milk dumping site on the Martin Lampi farm near Annandale on March 7, 1963.
Black and white photograph of owners of a family farm in Maple Plain pose with their animals, October 10, 1955.
Black and white photograph of owners of a family farm in Maple Plain pose with their animals, October 10, 1955.
Black and white photograph of a crowd of more than a thousand people gathered on March 7, 1963, in front of the Albion French Lake Creamery.
Black and white photograph of a crowd of more than a thousand people gathered on March 7, 1963, in front of the Albion French Lake Creamery.
Black and white photograph of milk is dumped ankle deep from a 1,500-gallon bulk NFO truck on the Martin Lampi farm field near Annandale, March 7, 1963.
Black and white photograph of milk is dumped ankle deep from a 1,500-gallon bulk NFO truck on the Martin Lampi farm field near Annandale, March 7, 1963.
NFO representatives at a press conference held on October 16, 1963.
NFO representatives at a press conference held on October 16, 1963.
Color postcard showing an aerial view of Granite Falls, c.1965.
Color postcard showing an aerial view of Granite Falls, c.1965.
Black and white photograph of a National Farmers Organization checkpoint in Clontarf,1964.
Black and white photograph of a National Farmers Organization checkpoint in Clontarf,1964.
Color image of a National Farmers Organization sign on Highway 23, near St. Cloud. Photographed on January 24, 2016, by Therese Cain.
Color image of a National Farmers Organization sign on Highway 23, near St. Cloud. Photographed on January 24, 2016, by Therese Cain.

Turning Point

In 1957, the National Farmers Organization changes its focus from legislative action to collective bargaining.

Chronology

1955

The National Farmers Organization is formed and establishes its headquarters in Corning, Iowa. Missouri farmer Oren Lee Staley is elected national president.

1957

At its annual convention, the NFO changes its focus from legislative action to collective bargaining.

1959

A Minnesota NFO is chartered.

1962

The NFO engages in the first of several major holding actions on farm products.

1963

On March 7, the Albion–French Lake Co-operative Creamery of Annandale dumps 4,600 gallons of milk to protest the First District Association that had pressured the local co-operative into dropping its NFO contract.

1964

NFO members from Koochiching, Lake of the Woods, Roseau, Pennington, Red Lake, and Cook Counties donate hay to members in Olmsted, Fillmore, Winona, and Houston counties during a drought in the southeastern part of the state.

1964

The NFO’s national convention is held in Minneapolis.

September 27, 1964

More than two thousand people gather in Granite Falls for an NFO-organized “winter buying” day to thank the community for supporting the NFO.

1967

The U.S. government initiates legal action against the NFO; the case is settled.

1971

The NFO and major dairy cooperatives file lawsuits and counter-suits in a court battle known as the “Midwest milk monopolization case.”

1970s

The NFO shifts its focus to marketing.

1986

The NFO and the Minnesota Farmers Union sign a cooperative livestock marketing agreement.

1989

The NFO’s headquarters moves to Ames, Iowa.

1990

The NFO receives a $21.4 million settlement in the Midwest milk monopolization case when a federal court finds in its favor.