National Farmers Organization
| Industry | Dairy, Grain, Livestock |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1955 |
| Headquarters | Ames, Iowa, United States |
|
Area served
|
Midwest, Plains, Northeast, Southeast, California |
The National Farmers Organization is a producer movement when it was founded in the United States in 1955. Notoriety came in 1967 when it organized milk farmers to engage in a holding action to improve the price of milk paid to producers.
NFO had its roots in earlier populist agrarian movements such as the Grange, the National Farmers Union, and the Farmers' Alliance.
Don Berkhahn was instrumental in the early years.
NFO was officially founded on 22 September 1955 in Bedford, Iowa. However, it began with conversations between farmer Wayne Jackson and feed sales man Jay Loghry in 1953. At a feed sales presentation for Moorman’s feed on 05 September, 1955 in the Adair County, Iowa schoolhouse, Loghry suggested to the seven farmers present that they form a new farm organization. Jackson organized the next meeting at Carl Iowa at which 35 farmers attended. However, much of the initial impetus for the NFO’s early growth came from positive comments made by former Iowa Governor Daniel Webster Turner when he was asked about it by the press.
Turner also exerted a moderating influence on the organization. He had been Governor of Iowa during the Farmer's Holiday Association movement and had to call-out the state militia to suppress violence associated with that eruption. Governor Turner’s political career had foundered due to the Great Depression but he was still influential in 1955. He sought to direct the nascent NFO organization away from militancy. The NFO took on the character of a “producers union”.
The NFO headquarters was established in Corning, Iowa. Governor Turner had wanted the organization to be headquartered in a small town instead of a big city like Kansas City, Omaha, or Chicago. He wanted the NFO to remain in touch with its rural roots. In return for Missourian’s supporting Corning as the headquarters’ site, Turner backed Oren Lee Staley from Missouri as the first President of the NFO. In 1989 the national headquarters was relocated to Ames, Iowa.
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