35 Years --Sense of Mission and Purpose Drives CFRA’s staff and work
Thirty-five years is a long time. That’s how long the Center for Rural Affairs has been standing up for rural America. In fact, our official birthday was Sep. 5. And like anything that’s been around that long, we’ve changed some.
Thirty-five years ago we worked out of an old storefront with a leaky roof, a few second-hand desks, a manual typewriter and not enough phones. Now we work out of a new building with state-of the-art technology and plenty of phones (some days it seems like too many).
Thirty-five years ago we railed against banks whose lending practices were detrimental to family farmers and ranchers. Fifteen years ago we became a lender in our own right – lending money, $5 million and rising, to entrepreneurs seeking to start up small, rural mainstreet businesses.
We make no claim of always being right, but we’ve always done our homework.
Yes, we’ve changed some, but through it all one thing remains true. We have stood steadfast in defense and in support of family farmers, ranchers and rural communities. Not just when it was easy, not just when it was popular, but, more importantly, when it was difficult and even when it was so unpopular we stood alone.
In 1982 we played a crucial role in passage, by a vote of the people of Nebraska, of the nation’s toughest anti-corporate farming law, Initiative 300.
We stood in defense of I-300 and other states’ corporate farming laws for nearly 25 years, and despite losing that law in federal court, we are still fighting to make the will of the people of Nebraska heard on this issue.
Just this year, in a Congressional rush to judgment over passing a farm bill that failed to include meaningful reforms of farm programs and livestock markets, we said no, we will not support a farm bill that allows and even subsidizes the destruction of family farming and ranching. We stood up for rural America and opposed the bill.
I’ll never forget a letter I read once that said, “It is better to spend a lifetime in rightful struggle, and lose, than spend one day in the hell of unprincipled compromise.” In 35 years we’ve won many battles, and we’ve lost our share too. But we have clung to our principles and drawn courage from our convictions.
None of us were here 35 years ago, although some days, like the day we knew reform was dead in the 2008 farm bill, it feels like we’ve been here a lot longer. Some days, I have to admit, we get a little disheartened.
But a light that burns in rural America always brings us back. From Florida to Alaska and from Maine to Hawaii … throughout the South, the Northwest, New England, the Rocky Mountains, the Midwest and Great Plains … rural people are working and fighting to create a future for themselves and their communities. A future of new ideas, of thriving family farms and ranches, and of vibrant rural communities.
Rural America is still standing. A little bruised and battered perhaps, but not bewildered. Rural America is still standing and looking toward the future. How could we do any less?
Contact: John Crabtree, johnc@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1010 with your comments.
Thirty-five years ago we worked out of an old storefront with a leaky roof, a few second-hand desks, a manual typewriter and not enough phones. Now we work out of a new building with state-of the-art technology and plenty of phones (some days it seems like too many).
Thirty-five years ago we railed against banks whose lending practices were detrimental to family farmers and ranchers. Fifteen years ago we became a lender in our own right – lending money, $5 million and rising, to entrepreneurs seeking to start up small, rural mainstreet businesses.
We make no claim of always being right, but we’ve always done our homework.
- Who Will Sit Up With the Corporate Sow? our prophetic, 1975 report on the industrialization of hog production.
- Wheels of Fortune, our 1976 report that spurred debate about irrigation and corporate farming in Nebraska.
- Half a Glass of Water (1990), a critical and substantive review of economic policy in the rural Midwest and Great Plains.
- Trampled Dreams: The Neglected Economy of the Rural Great Plains (2000).
- Swept Away: Chronic Hardship and Fresh Promise on the Rural Great Plains (2003).
- Oversubsidizing and Underinvesting, a 2007 report analyzing USDA farm program payments and rural development funding in low population growth rural communities.
Yes, we’ve changed some, but through it all one thing remains true. We have stood steadfast in defense and in support of family farmers, ranchers and rural communities. Not just when it was easy, not just when it was popular, but, more importantly, when it was difficult and even when it was so unpopular we stood alone.
In 1982 we played a crucial role in passage, by a vote of the people of Nebraska, of the nation’s toughest anti-corporate farming law, Initiative 300.
We stood in defense of I-300 and other states’ corporate farming laws for nearly 25 years, and despite losing that law in federal court, we are still fighting to make the will of the people of Nebraska heard on this issue.
Just this year, in a Congressional rush to judgment over passing a farm bill that failed to include meaningful reforms of farm programs and livestock markets, we said no, we will not support a farm bill that allows and even subsidizes the destruction of family farming and ranching. We stood up for rural America and opposed the bill.
I’ll never forget a letter I read once that said, “It is better to spend a lifetime in rightful struggle, and lose, than spend one day in the hell of unprincipled compromise.” In 35 years we’ve won many battles, and we’ve lost our share too. But we have clung to our principles and drawn courage from our convictions.
None of us were here 35 years ago, although some days, like the day we knew reform was dead in the 2008 farm bill, it feels like we’ve been here a lot longer. Some days, I have to admit, we get a little disheartened.
But a light that burns in rural America always brings us back. From Florida to Alaska and from Maine to Hawaii … throughout the South, the Northwest, New England, the Rocky Mountains, the Midwest and Great Plains … rural people are working and fighting to create a future for themselves and their communities. A future of new ideas, of thriving family farms and ranches, and of vibrant rural communities.
Rural America is still standing. A little bruised and battered perhaps, but not bewildered. Rural America is still standing and looking toward the future. How could we do any less?
Contact: John Crabtree, johnc@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1010 with your comments.
Bookmark/Search this post with:
Post new comment