Sarah Vogel: The Farmer’s Lawyer: The North Dakota Nine and the Fight to Save the Family Farm

The Farmer’s Lawyer: The North Dakota Nine and the Fight to Save the Family Farm – Sarah Vogel – Bloomsbury – 9781635575262 – 432 pages – hardcover – $28 – ebook edition available at lower prices – November 2, 2021

Many Americans think of North Dakota and the other prairie states as being conservative culturally and equally unprogressive politically. But that view of these predominantly farming states neglects their long histories of progressive populism that goes back over 100 years. That’s true of North Dakota where the Nonpartisan League was active and strong from the 1920s onward (and into the present, where it still exists as the Democratic NPL — much like the Democratic Farm Labor party in Minnesota that Hubert Humphrey represented.

That history provides the backdrop for Sarah Vogel’s true story in The Farmer’s Lawyer, which tells of a seemingly impossible-to-win legal battle, ironically against the US government agency that was established during the Depression to help family farmers, which by the 1970s was helping to destroy them. At the outset of the Reagan administration (Reagan was helped to be elected, ironically, by the support of midwestern farmers), family farmers of all sizes all across the country were experiencing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Land prices, the backbone of farm economics, had gone down, while farm operating costs were up. and interest rates had skyrocketed. At the same time, in many areas, bad weather severely affected crop output.

Because of policies implemented by the Reagan administration, and growing bureaucracy in the Farmers Home Loan administration, many family farmers were being threatened with foreclosure.

At that time, Sarah Vogel, the daughter of a well known Nonpartisan League supporter and lawyer, was herself a young lawyer and single mother was in the process of leaving Washington, D.C., where she had been working for a government agency. Contacted by some desperate farmers from North Dakota who were on the verge of losing their farms, and inspired by her belief in the importance of family farms to American life, she agreed to represent these struggling clients who couldn’t afford to pay her.

In the midst of her own personal issues, but supported by her family and friends, Vogel brought a national class action lawsuit against the FHLA, which meant she would have to fight against the full force of the Reagan administration’s Department of Justice, in behalf of these family farmers’ Constitutional rights. As a young lawyer who had never privately practiced before, this was her first case!

This book tells the entire years-long saga in incredible detail, brought to life by Sarah Vogel’s writing skill and storytelling prowess. It’s difficult to imagine a true-to-life legal story that has nothing to do with murder or mayhem being a page-turner, but this book will keep you fully engaged throughout. And it will remind you of how difficult it is for “the little guys” to fight against entrenched bureaucracies, especially the Federal government. It is a heroic story for sure, and credits not only Sarah, but her father, and all the farmers she worked with, who would simply never quit, and whose stolidity made such a huge difference, not only to the outcome of their own case, but for many others that followed them.

This is a story about courage, justice, commitment, and belief in oneself. And it is important for us to be reminded that Americans can stand together for the good of all, especially now, when we can agree on virtually nothing. It is an inspiring journey I appreciated learning about. This is a terrific book, and I think we had a terrific conversation as well.

Sarah Vogel is an attorney and former politician whose career has focused on family farmers and ranchers. Vogel was the first woman in U.S. history to be elected as a state commissioner of agriculture. In 2006, the American Agricultural Law Association awarded her its Distinguished Service Award for contributions to the field of agriculture law, and Willie Nelson honored her at Farm Aid’s thirtieth anniversary in 2015 for her service to farmers. She is an advocate for Native American rights and lives in Bismarck, North Dakota.

“Sarah’s story, told in her unique voice, inspires me–and I’m sure it will inspire you–to fight for family farmers.” –Willie Nelson

Author website here.

Buy the book here.

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Atina Diffley: Turn Here, Sweet Corn

Turn Here Sweet Corn: Organic Farming Works – 978-0816677719 – University of Minnesota Press – Hardcover – $24.95 (ebook versions available)

As I write this, it’s August, 2012, and sweet corn is beginning to be abundant here in Connecticut, where I live.  This is my favorite season, and my favorite summer vegetable too.  When I discovered this wonderful book, I picked it up immediately, and began to read it voraciously.  I really like this book, and corn is, of course, an evocation of much more for the author and her readers.  Atina Diffley has a great story to tell, and she tells it well in this lovely, powerful, evocative book.

Atina’s story is literally grounded by her connection to the earth and to living in community.  As she tells us, she has always wanted to farm.  As she has worked with the land to grow food, she has learned how farming is a synthesis of land and people.  Wherever she is, along with her farmer husband, Martin, she is a sensitized and active member of her the ecosystem, paying close attention to the living world around her.  It’s a great lesson for a world that seems alienated from the natural world.  Atina tells us about how she came to being a local organic farmer, a story of farming within close range of the Minneapolis/St. Paul urb for more than thirty years.  It’s been an incredible struggle, but also, an incredible success, as she shows how a conscious connection between farm and city, between farmer and the food system can create healthy systems that last.  There are many practical lessons as well as inspiration, beauty, and sustenance here for anyone interested in building a new food system in America.

And in addition to a brilliant and beautiful story of land and living, Atina also tells the incredible story of the battle she and Martin led against the Koch brothers pipeline across Minnesota.  It’s more or less mind boggling to imagine what they went through, and inspiring to see that it is possible for intelligent and organized opposition to powerful corporate forces can in fact be victorious – right over might.

This is a great book and one I am very happy to recommend to friends, family and colleagues.  Talking to Atina about her book was a great pleasure for me, and I hope our conversation will be illustrative of how wonderful this book is.  And thanks to the courageous and intelligent University of Minnesota Press for publishing this terrific memoir (a terrific publisher!).  Having sold the farm to the food cooperatives that supported it for so many years, Atina is now an organic consultant and public speaker on farming and food issues.  Her website is here. We had a great interview in which we covered a wide range of subjects related to her book and to the important issues she raises about our connection to the land, to food, to the reason why organic farming is so important, and to the meaning of food to our lives.

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