“Family Farmers” (of the Family Farm Movement, focusing on “Farm Justice” Issues,) played a very important role in Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition and Presidential bids, for example in 1988. He started his campaign by opening an office in Greenfield Iowa, (see archives at the State Historical Society in Des Moines). The farm bill that Iowa and other farmers wanted, (variously called the Farm Policy Reform Act, Family Farm Act, Harkin-Gephardt Farm Bill, etc., and Food from Family Farms Act today,) was supported by 100% of the Congressional Black Caucus.
In a similar way the Farm Justice Movement must be included in a “Daily Kos Liberation League.” This movement sector has a long history, and strong support at the grassroots level, even if it’s not visible in media reporting today.
Unfortunately, farm justice, (where 2/3 of US farmers have been run out of business,) gets less attention than about any other major minority issue category. Progressives are largely illiterate about these issues, which contrast starkly with coverage of other movement sectors.
Farm Justice issues represent a sort of operating system undergirding a wide range of farm/food-nonfood issues. They are crucial issues for women, minority beginning, organic and local farmers, for example. It’s absolutely huge as a global issue, as it represents foundational economic justice for half the world, the rural half, in it’s rural economy.
A related illustration is that the historical concerns of black cotton farmers, for example, are not adequately understood by the race and food sector, which advocates on the wrong side of the issues, and which misunderstands farmers as allies, (as Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition understood it, decades ago, for example, see APPENDIX below).
Politically, the US has been colonized in it’s agricultural system, with Congress choosing to lose money on US farm exports over decades in order to provide tribute to US & foreign agribusiness. The tribute comes not from the tax system, however, but directly from underpaying family farmers. As was very broadly true in ancient times, family farmers provide the wealth of (agribusiness) empires today. An agricultural ethic, therefore, (unlike, for example, an environmental ethic,) is focused directly on distributive economic justice.
We’ve been divided and conquered by not understanding this, in movement sectors working on food, farming, the environment, hunger and related areas. The major root of the failure is probably the subsidy myth, which has gone viral, with most progressives siding with agribusiness on the biggest farm bill issues, against their own cherished values and goals, but not knowing that they’re doing so. This doesn’t have to happen. It’s fixed by being inclusive of farmer activists from the Family Farm (Farm Justice) Movement.
APPENDIX
I’ve added below a long comment I recently posted elsewhere, (here,) as it provides additional background on these issues. The article is about the accuracy of polling in places like Iowa, so my response provides some historical background on farm-state politics. Progressives tend to see farm politics as 2 sided, with most farms in a category with agribusiness, and progressives representing the main alternative. It’s probably closer to 4-sided, with farmers more opposed to agribusiness than progressives, and is convoluted by the fact that, on the biggest farm bill issues, (cheap food, cheap corn, milk, soybeans, cotton, dairy, etc.,) progressives unknowingly side with agribusiness. HERE it is:
The rural side of politics is probably important to all of this. Candidates like Democrats Patty Judge (who was Lieutenant Governor in Iowa,) and Bruce Braley, (former House member,) voted Republican on the major farm issues, (often called “Farm Bureau Democrats.”) There was no real opposition to them or to Joni Ernst (Republican Senator,) on farm bill and related issues. Iowa moved from 50% federal Democrats to 1 out of 6. Tom Vilsack was much the same, and still is (as Sec of Ag).
It’s probably related to what I call “the Harkin Compromise,” where Harkin switched sides when he moved up to Senate Ag Chair, as he wanted to promote a farm bill that could win, (i.e. a Republican one). He took about all of the progressive rural Democrats with him, even Wellstone. So he offered a greened up version of the 1996 farm bill, (96 ended the original Democratic Farm bill for most crops,) for 2002.
Bernie seems to have approached rural Iowa with overconfidence, as he gave scant attention to farm bill issues. Perhaps it’s like his poor performance with racial minoritites. His wife told me that he understood Vermont agriculture, so he understood Iowa agriculture, which is an understandable thing for her to be say in a campaign, but in fact, the political differences are huge, (and there’s nothing in the media, beyond a tiny few letters-to-the-editor, to tell about the huge issues of Iowa agriculture). I think those working with Bernie, (including groups in Iowa,) were so taken by him that they never raised these issues with him. Hillary presented some “rural” initiatives (on smaller issues). Bill Clinton ended the (real Democratic Party) farm bill in 1996, then apologized for it’s impact on rice farmers in Haiti, but apologized for the wrong thing, so he must never have known “what” a farm bill is either. Obama convened a major meeting with farmers, but then drew the wrong conclusions, though he apparently learned about what I’m calling the “real, Democratic Farm Bill.”
Farm politics in general, and in places like Iowa, is almost never understood these days. Most progressives support a (greened up) Republican farm bill, and don’t know technically “what” a real (original, Democratic) farm bill is. So most ‘Food Movement’ and other progressives are part of the farm bill coalition that includes Republicans and agribusiness interests (i.e. in 2008 and 2014). Progressives get the token “green” parts, and Republicans/agribusiness get the mega wins. As a result we’re divided and conquered on these important farm state issues.
This was all very different 30 years ago when Family Farm (Farm Justice) organizations ran their won farm issue debates, (for 2 election cycles,) attended by most Democratic Presidential Candidates, prior to the Iowa caucuses. Almost all Democratic Candidates understood these issues, and supported a “Democratic Party” farm bill, (and Harkin was leading the charge, with the Harkin-Gephardt farm bill). (i.e. Dukakis, Simon, Jackson, Hart, Gephardt in 1988, while Babbit, who favored cheap farm prices + subsidies, [but not as badly as what progressive Democrats do today, as he still supported Price Floors, though set too low,] did poorly in Iowa).
One of the key challenges today is that progressive farmer groups, (who, almost alone, seem to understand a Democratic farm bill today,) are excluded as a stakeholder sector from efforts to mobilize progressives. Daily Kos, has also tended to make these mistakes, but if it would listen, it could play a major role in fixing this problem.