Business and Industry | Page 31

Groundswell button

Groundswell farm activist group button, ca. 1985.

Minnesota House of Representatives Agriculture Committee meeting

Minnesota House of Representatives Agriculture Committee meeting, 1981. Photograph by Tom Olmscheid.

Farmers demonstrating at the State Capitol

Farmers demonstrating at the State Capitol, 1985. Photograph by Dona Sieden.

Farm equipment auction poster

Poster announcing the sale at auction of farm equipment by Al Trochaic, auctioneer. Printed by Haymarket Press, published by Ox Head Press in Marshall, Lyon County, Minnesota, 1981.

Foreclosure auction poster

Poster announcing the foreclosure of family farms, ca. 1984.

Minnesota’s farmers enjoyed an economic boom in the 1970s. Land values soared, United States exports of agricultural products grew, and farmers gained access to easy credit to expand their operations. When the 1980s brought a sharp decline in exports and land values, rising production costs, and higher interest rates on loans, many farmers found themselves in serious financial trouble. The farm crisis of the 1980s caused many farm foreclosures and bankruptcies—the worst economic conditions the agricultural sector had seen since the Great Depression.