Sarah Vogel - The Farmers Lawyer: The North Dakota Nine and the Fight to Save the Family Farm

This book is dedicated to the farmers of America, the ones who feed us all.

CONTENTS

Praise for The Farmers Lawyer

A fascinating political history about farming in America, a gripping personal story about one person battling a vast, unjust system, and a clear-eyed investigation of the discriminatory systems and policies that drove so many family farmers out of business. Today, as small and midsize farmers across the country struggle for survival in the face of climate change and corporate consolidation, Vogels narrative of her David-and-Goliath fight in the 1980s couldnt be more timely.

Megan Kimble, author of Unprocessed

Sarah Vogels passion to save the family farm comes through in The Farmers Lawyer , which is not only a genuine and brilliant story, but a necessary one.

Stephanie Land, author of Maid

The struggle for justice for farmers is as old as the American story. No one has written a braver or better chapter than Sarah Vogel. She recounts it here, with all the historical perspective, legal genius, and righteous passion that made her the great champion of the women and men who work the land.

John Nichols, author of The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party

Sarah Vogel and I share an ornery persistence in the face of bullies. This is her real life story of fighting for farmers as they were pushed off the land by a plan, ordered and carried out by top officials of our government. Sarahs story, told in her unique voice, inspires meand Im sure it will inspire youto fight for family farmers.

Willie Nelson, artist and Farm Aid president

This is my kind of storythe young, inexperienced lawyer facing big odds. Its remarkably well told and heartfelt. I really enjoyed it.

John Grisham

The Farmers Lawyer , both an exquisitely written American saga and a trove of lived research, might serve as the definitive document of the 1980s farm crisis, which in some ways never ended. Sarah Vogels heroic battle on behalf of family farmers was historicand has never been more relevant.

Sarah Smarsh, author of Heartland

Sarah Vogel is a tireless advocate, and The Farmers Lawyer is a powerful account about her never-ending pursuit of justice.

Dan Barber, author of The Third Plate

Sarah Vogel is a consummate storyteller, using vivid, fast-paced narration to deliver a thriller that is difficult to put down. It is enthralling, honest, and insightful. In addition to following how the crises of her personal life and of her main plaintiffs were intertwined, readers will learn the intricacies of federal farm policy and about the machinations of ideological bureaucrats, unconcerned with the effects of their actions on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The ultimate lesson is that persistence, expertise, and commitment to people and communities can win out.

Ricardo J. Salvador, director, Union of Concerned Scientists

What a wonderful book! The Farmers Lawyer is riveting. Its characters amount to a new pantheon of heroesauthor Sarah Vogel as well as the white and Native American farmers whose dogged righteousness prevails and inspires. I am humbled, heartened, and moved.

Elizabeth Fenn, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of Encounters at the Heart of the World

The most important book about the practical issues farmers face that I have ever read.

Dr. Frederick L. Kirschenmann, president of the board of directors, Stone Barns

Vogel sets this appalling story of a politicized bureaucracy run amok against a rich portrait of North Dakota farm life and its political tradition of rural solidarity Her travails as a single mom, falling hopelessly behind on her own bills, add a vivid subplot. The result is an engrossing legal saga and a rousing tribute to prairie populism.

Publishers Weekly

The great cities rest upon our broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country.

WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN, FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE 1896 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

No cracked earth, no blistering sun, no burning wind, no grasshoppers, are a permanent match for the indomitable American farmers and stockmen and their wives and children who have carried on through desperate days and inspire us with their self-reliance, their tenacity and their courage. It was their fathers task to make homes; it is their task to keep those homes; it is our task to help them with their fight.

PRESIDENT FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, SEPTEMBER 6, 1936, FIRESIDE CHAT

* Indicates lead plaintiffs in Coleman v. Block , also known as the North Dakota Nine

** Indicates defendants in Coleman v. Block

THE FARMERS

North Dakota farmers

Dwight Coleman*cattle and grain (Dunseith, ND)

Lester and Sharon Crows Heart*beef cattle and grain (Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, ND)

Russel and Anna Mae Folmer*grain, beef cattle, dairy (Wing, ND)

George and June Hatfield*dairy and grain (Ellendale, ND)

Don and Diane McCabe*dairy (Dickey, ND)

Richard and Marlene DeLarebeef cattle and grain (Minot, ND)

Chuck Perrydairy (New Salem, ND)

Montana farmers

Tom and Anna Nicholshog farmers (Wolf Point, MT)

Ralph and Kay Clarkranchers (Jordan, MT)

THE LAWYERS

Sarah Vogelthe farmers lawyer and the author

Robert Vogelthe authors father, former U.S. Attorney and North Dakota Supreme Court Justice

Allan Kannerclass action expert for Coleman , then based in Philadelphia

Burt NeuborneNational Litigation Director for the ACLU in New York City

Dale Reesmanfrom tiny law firm in rural Boonville, MO

THE GOVERNMENT

Ronald ReaganPresident of the United States

David StockmanDirector of the Office of Management and Budget

John Block**Secretary of Agriculture

Charles Shuman**National Administrator of Farmers Home Administration

Ralph Leet**Director of North Dakota Farmers Home Administration

Rodney WebbU.S. Attorney for the State of North Dakota

Gary AnnearAssistant U.S. Attorney representing USDA in Coleman v. Block

Arthur GoldbergAttorney, Department of Justice, Civil Division

THE JUDGE

Bruce M. Van SickleU.S. District Court Judge based in Bismarck, ND

The Farmers Lawyer is a memoir of a lawsuit I brought against the federal government during a period now known as the 1980s farm crisis. During those hard times, I drew inspiration from lawyers and political leaders who helped farmers survive the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Most Americans learned about the Great Depression in school, and many have read The Grapes of Wrath , but few people realize the savior of the Joad family was a little-known federal agency called the Resettlement Administration. Almost no Americans know that this same federal agency, under less compassionate management, played a significant role, fifty years later, in the 1980s farm crisis, which was characterized by farm foreclosures, farmer protests, and a devastating increase in farmer suicide. Unless you have seen the movie Country , or watched a Farm Aid concert, you might not even know that there was an 80s farm crisis.