NFO

When driving back from Miller this weekend, I took a few snapshots of the remaining ruins of a once large-scale and fascinating Midwestern agrarian movement, the National Farmers Organization, which was particularly strong in the 1960s and early 1970s.  The first photo below is of the NFO "Collection Point" in Lane, SD and the second is of a similar structure on the outskirts of my hometown of Madison.  The NFO believed in collecting large numbers of cattle and hogs together and bargaining, in UAW-style, with packers for higher prices.  They also tried to organize large-scale "holding actions," or attempts to keep farm goods from the market until processors would pay higher prices, much like a union strike.  When non-NFOers would try to sell during these holding actions, they often met the wrath of the NFOers.  The FBI became involved and did numerous investigations in the Midwest to try to lower the level of violence.  One tactic used by the NFO was putting big spikes in road to pop the tires of livestock trucks of farmers attempting to market during a holding action.  My Dad told me the NFO came to our farm and tried to get him to join in the late 60s, but he chose not to.  My uncle was also a cattleman who had various run-ins involving rifle shots etc during this time period.  NFO families also tried to block the livestock chutes with their persons and their trucks at the packing house in Sioux Falls.  It's an amazing episode.  In 1964, LBJ was accused not only of tolerating violence "in the streets," i.e. urban riots, but also "violence on the farms."  You can find a chapter about the NFO in my book American Agriculture and the Problem of Monopoly.  It's a great shame more hasn't been written about this amazing moment in the history of postwar America.