The Organic Movement Past and Present
Roger started anti-corporate farming work in the early 1970s initially through the Farmers Union, and set up the first hearings for Gaylord Nelson. This work expanded when a speech he gave in San Francisco on the negative impacts of corporate farming on small family farms connected him with the National Coalition For Land Reform. Roger became the coalition’s Midwest organizer so he had money to travel and “raise hell.”
Probably no other nation had a stronger commitment to a system of family-operated farms and ranches than the United States prior to World War II. The Homestead Act was only one of many laws enacted to carry out the agrarian policies of Jefferson and others who shaped our national institutions more than 200 years ago. [Read more…]
The issue of corporate involvement in agriculture and concentration of land ownership is the farm policy issue of the 1970’s . . .
A recent Minneapolis Tribune poll showed 76 percent of the people saying they consider the family farm an efficient method of food production, 95 percent feeling it is important to continue the family farm as a way of life, and 57 percent saying they feel corporate farming is a bad development. Yet 71 percent said they felt that corporations will be producing most of the nation’s food by the end of this century. [Read more…]
January 29, 1974
Mr. Chairman, I appreciated very much your invitation to participate in this series of hearings on foreign investments in land, grain terminals, packing plants, and other facilities in this country.
Although my work as a consultant involves several policy areas, I have concentrated on the issue of land ownership and control, particularly where large corporations are involved. I work closely with the Center for Rural Studies and other national groups involved in the land issue and was chairman of the First Midwest Land Conference last November. It dealt with several problems I want to discuss today. [Read more…]
Connects Ideas and Services for People in Pastoral and Community Ministry
SPECIAL REPORT, by Roger Blobaum
AUGUST 20, 1973
The family farm, an institution that has made American agriculture the most productive in the world and kept the land in the hands of those who work it, is in danger of being wiped out. [Read more…]
Roger Blobaum
April 26, 1973
I have been asked to report on the impact of corporate involvement in agriculture in the Midwest. The assignment is rather broad because the Midwest is difficult to define, even for us who live there. [Read more…]
I want to commend the Catholic bishops on their statement last November challenging the concept of expanding agricultural conglomerates and affirming a commitment to widely-diffused ownership of land. [Read more…]
I appreciate this opportunity to appear at these hearings, to discuss the movement of conglomerates, integrators and other corporations into agriculture, and to suggest ways to document this corporate activity and bring it to the attention of those who should do something about it. [Read more…]
