Alberta Farmers' Association

The Alberta Farmers' Association (AFA) was a farmer's association that was active in Alberta, Canada from 1905 to 1909. It was formed from the Alberta branch of the Territorial Grain Growers' Association (TGGA) when Alberta became a province in 1905. It provided a voice for farmers in their struggle with grain dealers and the railways. In January 1909 it merged with the Canadian Society of Equity to form the United Farmers of Alberta.

The Manitoba Grain Act was passed in 1901, designed to prevent abuses by grain dealers and railways and ensure fair practices and prices in the booming grain trade in the prairie provinces of Canada. There was a bumper crop that year, and farmers found they could not get their produce to market because the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and the grain companies were still failing to conform to the act. In response, farmers formed the Territorial Grain Growers' Association (TGGA) in January 1902. The TGGA had succeeded in getting the Manitoba Grain Act amended to eliminate the main abuses by 1903. With the passage of the amendments to the act it had achieved its primary objective, and lost some of its momentum.

In 1905 Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces. The Alberta branch of the TGGA became the Alberta Farmers' Association (AFA) under the leadership of Rice Sheppard (1861–1947) of the Strathcona area. Farmers who had moved to Alberta from the United States had formed an Alberta chapter of the American Society of Equity, with locals in Spruce Grove, Namao, Beaumont, Stony Plain and Poplar Lake. Around 1905 they changed the name of their organization to the Canadian Society of Equity (CSE).

This was a period of rapid growth in Alberta. The population rose from 73,000 in 1901 to 374,000 in 1911. By then there were 60,559 farms. The new farmers were often in debt for equipment and supplies. Farming was risky, with low rainfall, a short growing period and uncertain prices. The government, itself short of money, could not always provide the assistance the new farmers expected in bad periods, so the AFA and CSE were seen as a source of strength and safety. Their main ideological difference was that the CSE wanted to maintain "equity", or economic equality, by its members refusing to sell below a certain price. The AFA did not accept this radical approach of co-operative action. The AFA was, however, comfortable with asking for government assistance in grain storage and marketing.