Protesting farmers move on Route 50 toward D.C. - 1977
Tractors slow traffic on U.S. 50 near Annapolis, Md. as they head west toward Washington, D.C. December 10, 1977 in the first farmers’ tractorcade demonstration for 100% parity.
About 500 farm vehicles and trucks converged on the city in two columns involving about 1,000 farmers and supporters. The slow moving vehicles snarled traffic
Small and medium sized farms were under pressure as the price to produce agricultural products exceeded the sale of those products.
The AAM that sponsored the protests sprung into a movement of thousands as it struck a nerve among these farmers calling for 100% parity.
Kevin Engelbert, an organic dairy farmer from Nichols, New York explains:
“The basic premise of parity pricing is the belief that the selling price of a product or produce should go up or down in the same amount as the prices of the inputs used in its production. Another way to phrase the idea of parity price: the parity price of a particular commodity is the price giving a unit of the commodity a comparable purchasing power to that in the base period. The concept of parity is also widely applied in industrial wage contracts as a means of preserving the real value of wages.”
The strike fizzled, but the farmers returned in January 1978 and again in January-February 1979 when over 2,000 farmers came to the District of Columbia, clashing with police in Fairfax County and marching through downtown Washington streets.
The largest protest in Washington took place beginning February 5, 1979 when dozens of vehicles drove around the Beltway and through downtown streets bringing traffic to a halt.
Angry farmers broke through barriers, threw a thresher over the White House fence and flattened a number of police motor scooters.
Police eventually confined the tractors to the National Mall where the heavy vehicles damaged the grounds.
The farmers were able to turn around the negative publicity when a major snowstorm hit the city on President’s Day. The tractors were the only vehicles that could get through the snow that was as high as two feet, delivering critical supplies and personnel and clearing roads.
A previous protest was held in late 1977. Subsequent farmer protests were held in 1980 and 1985.
The farm protests did little to stop the increasing corporate control of agriculture.
The number of farms totaled about 6 million in 1935 of about 150 acres compared to about two million farms today (2016) averaging about 450 acres each. These figures are somewhat misleading because the top 10 percent of farms account for 70 percent of the cropland. The top 2.2% take up about one-third.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHskZ4e5EA
Photo by Glen Leach. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
Protesting farmers move on Route 50 toward D.C. - 1977
Tractors slow traffic on U.S. 50 near Annapolis, Md. as they head west toward Washington, D.C. December 10, 1977 in the first farmers’ tractorcade demonstration for 100% parity.
About 500 farm vehicles and trucks converged on the city in two columns involving about 1,000 farmers and supporters. The slow moving vehicles snarled traffic
Small and medium sized farms were under pressure as the price to produce agricultural products exceeded the sale of those products.
The AAM that sponsored the protests sprung into a movement of thousands as it struck a nerve among these farmers calling for 100% parity.
Kevin Engelbert, an organic dairy farmer from Nichols, New York explains:
“The basic premise of parity pricing is the belief that the selling price of a product or produce should go up or down in the same amount as the prices of the inputs used in its production. Another way to phrase the idea of parity price: the parity price of a particular commodity is the price giving a unit of the commodity a comparable purchasing power to that in the base period. The concept of parity is also widely applied in industrial wage contracts as a means of preserving the real value of wages.”
The strike fizzled, but the farmers returned in January 1978 and again in January-February 1979 when over 2,000 farmers came to the District of Columbia, clashing with police in Fairfax County and marching through downtown Washington streets.
The largest protest in Washington took place beginning February 5, 1979 when dozens of vehicles drove around the Beltway and through downtown streets bringing traffic to a halt.
Angry farmers broke through barriers, threw a thresher over the White House fence and flattened a number of police motor scooters.
Police eventually confined the tractors to the National Mall where the heavy vehicles damaged the grounds.
The farmers were able to turn around the negative publicity when a major snowstorm hit the city on President’s Day. The tractors were the only vehicles that could get through the snow that was as high as two feet, delivering critical supplies and personnel and clearing roads.
A previous protest was held in late 1977. Subsequent farmer protests were held in 1980 and 1985.
The farm protests did little to stop the increasing corporate control of agriculture.
The number of farms totaled about 6 million in 1935 of about 150 acres compared to about two million farms today (2016) averaging about 450 acres each. These figures are somewhat misleading because the top 10 percent of farms account for 70 percent of the cropland. The top 2.2% take up about one-third.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHskZ4e5EA
Photo by Glen Leach. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.