The Farmer's Lawyer: The North Dakota Nine and the Fight to Save the Family Farm

by Sarah Vogel

Overview

"Sarah's story, told in her unique voice, inspires me—and I'm sure it will inspire you—to fight for family farmers." —Willie Nelson

"An exquisitely written American saga." —Sarah Smarsh

"Remarkably well told and heartfelt." —John Grisham

The unforgettable true story of a young lawyer's impossible legal battle to stop the federal government from foreclosing on thousands of family farmers.

In the early 1980s, farmers were suffering through the worst economic crisis to hit rural America since the Great Depression. Land prices were down, operating costs and interest rates were up, and severe weather devastated crops. Instead of receiving assistance from the government as they had in the 1930s, these hardworking family farmers were threatened with foreclosure by the very agency that Franklin Delano Roosevelt created to help them.

Desperate, they called Sarah Vogel in North Dakota. Sarah, a young lawyer and single mother, listened to farmers who were on the verge of losing everything and, inspired by the politicians who had helped farmers in the '30s, she naively built a solo practice of clients who couldn't afford to pay her. Sarah began drowning in debt and soon her own home was facing foreclosure. In a David and Goliath legal battle reminiscent of A Civil Action or Erin Brockovich, Sarah brought a national class action lawsuit, which pitted her against the Reagan administration's Department of Justice, in her fight for family farmers' Constitutional rights. It was her first case.

A courageous American story about justice and holding the powerful to account, The Farmer's Lawyer shows how the farm economy we all depend on for our daily bread almost fell apart due to the willful neglect of those charged to protect it, and what we can learn from Sarah's battle as a similar calamity looms large on our horizon once again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635575262
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	11/02/2021
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	631,122
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Sarah Vogel is an attorney and former politician whose career has focused on family farmers and ranchers. Vogel was the first woman in U.S. history to be elected as a state commissioner of agriculture. In 2006, the American Agricultural Law Association awarded her its Distinguished Service Award for contributions to the field of agriculture law, and Willie Nelson honored her at Farm Aid's thirtieth anniversary in 2015 for her service to farmers. An in-demand speaker and a passionate advocate for Native American rights, Vogel lives in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Table of Contents

Cast of Characters 11

Preface 15

Prologue-The Call 19

Part I The Sowing 29

1 The Platform 31

2 The First Farmer 56

3 Cottonwood Haven 100

4 Cut, Slash, Chop 126

5 The Starve Out 147

6 A Little Bit of Nothing 165

Part II The Growing 177

7 The Organizers 179

8 Problem Case 196

9 The Farmer's Lawyer 216

10 Here Once the Embattled Farmers Stood 239

11 Time to Make Some Law 262

12 Exhaustion 282

13 Competency of Counsel 297

Part III The Reaping 315

14 Bitter Harvest 317

15 If We Eat, You Shall Eat 336

16 Springing the Trap 365

17 Unity 387

18 The Dead Chicken Argument 403

19 The Front Steps of the Courthouse 432

20 Nothing but the Truth 452

21 Wouldn't Bill Langer Be Proud 532

22 Discovery 557

23 The Biblical Injunction 572

Part IV The Saved Seed 591

24 There Is One Bright Spot Where the People Rule 593

Epilogue - Strength From the Soil 621

Postscript 633

Acknowledgments 643

Image Credits 649

Notes 651

Editorial Reviews

07/12/2021

A lawyer recalls her battle to prevent the Reagan administration from running indebted farmers off their land in this feisty debut. Vogel, a former North Dakota agriculture commissioner, was lead counsel in Coleman v. Block, an early 1980s class-action lawsuit against the Farmers Home Administration, a federal agency that made loans to farmers. Prodded by the Reagan administration’s ideological opposition to handouts to farmers, the agency cracked down on borrowers who fell behind on loan payments, and pressured them to sell their farms to repay loans (and foreclosed if they refused); cut off credit for basics like livestock feed; seized farmers’ income and froze their bank accounts; and violated laws in denying loan-payment deferrals. Vogel sets this appalling story of a politicized bureaucracy run amok against a rich portrait of North Dakota farm life and its political tradition of rural solidarity. (She encountered a darker side of that when right-wing militias fomented violence against foreclosures.) Her travails as a single mom, falling hopelessly behind on her own bills, add a vivid subplot. The result is an engrossing legal saga and a rousing tribute to prairie populism. Agent: Mackenzie Brady Watson, Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Sarah Vogel and I share an ornery persistence in the face of bullies. This is her real life story of fighting for farmers as they were pushed off the land by a plan, ordered and carried out by top officials of our government. Sarah's story, told in her unique voice, inspires me—and I'm sure it will inspire you—to fight for family farmers.” —Willie Nelson, Artist and Farm Aid President

“Vogel sets this appalling story of a politicized bureaucracy run amok against a rich portrait of North Dakota farm life and its political tradition of rural solidarity … Her travails as a single mom, falling hopelessly behind on her own bills, add a vivid subplot. The result is an engrossing legal saga and a rousing tribute to prairie populism.” —Publishers Weekly

“This is my kind of story—the young, inexperienced lawyer facing big odds. It's remarkably well told and heartfelt. I really enjoyed it.” —John Grisham

“Engaging, suspenseful, and often heartbreaking . . . This stirring account is a testimony to [Vogel's] continuing work as a strong advocate for America's farmers.” —Booklist

“The Farmer's Lawyer, both an exquisitely written American saga and a trove of lived research, might serve as the definitive document of the 1980s farm crisis that in some ways never ended. Sarah Vogel's heroic battle on behalf of family farmers was historic—and has never been more relevant.” —Sarah Smarsh, author of HEARTLAND

“Sarah Vogel is a tireless advocate, and The Farmer's Lawyer is a powerful account about her never-ending pursuit of justice.” —Dan Barber, author of THE THIRD PLATE

“I'm a huge fan of Sarah and the work she's done to help family farmers.” —Stephanie Land, New York Times bestselling author of MAID

“In farm country, [Sarah] Vogel has earned a reputation as 'a giant killer in ag law.'” —The Nation

“The most important book about the practical issues farmers face that I have ever read.” —Dr. Frederick L. Kirschenmann, Distinguished Fellow for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and President of the Board of Directors, Stone Barns

“The struggle for justice for farmers is as old as the American story. No one has written a braver or better chapter than Sarah Vogel. She recounts it here, with all the historical perspective, legal genius and righteous passion that made her the great champion of the women and men who work the land.” —John Nichols, author of THE FIGHT FOR THE SOUL OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

“A fascinating political history about farming in America, a gripping personal story about one person battling a vast, unjust system, and a clear-eyed investigation of the discriminatory systems and policies that drove so many family farmers out of business.” —Megan Kimble, author of UNPROCESSED

“What a wonderful book! The Farmer's Lawyer is riveting. Its characters amount to a new pantheon of heroes-author Sarah Vogel as well as the white and Native American farmers whose dogged righteousness prevails and inspires. I am humbled, heartened, and moved.” —Elizabeth Fenn, Pulitzer Prize winning author of ENCOUNTERS AT THE HEART OF THE WORLD

"Vogel tells the remarkable story of her improbable legal victory against the federal government in her new book … Anyone seeking a dispassionate history of the case should look elsewhere. This is an advocate’s tale of fighting callous bureaucrats and cold-hearted prosecutors, while struggling to keep the lights on in her own home … Vogel ultimately won an injunction on behalf of 240,000 FmHA borrowers nationwide … [and] went on to serve as North Dakota’s agriculture commissioner, the first woman elected to the office in any state. This book is a testament to what was an even greater achievement." -Christian Science Monitor

"Vogel follows this slice-of-history story with advice for the future … the national importance of this case is such that anyone who isn’t familiar deserves to know what happened, so grab THE FARMER’S LAWYER. It’s worth checking out." -The Bookworm Sez

"Vogel is a gifted writer, weaving history, politics and vivid descriptions of the people and landscape with personal challenges like her financial turmoil as a single mother in a male-dominated field … Great for fans of legal dramas, Sarah Vogel's The Farmer's Lawyer will leave readers inspired as she details their fight for truth, justice and family farms in the 1980s." -Shelf Awareness

"Vogel takes us to the kitchen table of family farmers and through their eyes shows us the impact of early 1980s predatory FmHA collection practices. We see, hear and feel the soil that has sifted through their family’s hands for generations disappear … This book is essential reading for any ag lawyer, farmer, lender or anyone who has anything to do with agriculture." -Des Moines Register

From the Publisher

08/13/2021

In this engaging work, lawyer Vogel recounts her battle against Farmers Home Administration (FHA) that began with representing a group of local plaintiffs and morphed into a national class action lawsuit involving the ACLU. Vogel had occupied several prestigious positions after law school when she decided to move back to North Dakota in the early 1980s. There she stumbled across unfair practices by the FHA, the U.S. agriculture agency that extended credit and gave loans and grants to individual farmers and low-income rural American. She learned that the FHA was freezing personal accounts of farmers when their loans lapsed, without offering the deferral they were legally entitled to. Hundreds of farmers began calling Vogel at all hours of the day, hoping for legal assistance. Vogel eventually filed a class-action suit on behalf of 240,000 farmers, Coleman v. Block, whose result was preventing tens of thousands of farm foreclosures. Vogel's memoir approaches the case with a sense of history, giving in-depth insight on what happened within the farming community and the procedures and institutions put in place to prevent it from happening again. She recounts the personal stories of her plaintiffs with heart and discusses her own involvement as a non-trial lawyer with self-deprecating humor while also showing her intense dedication to her clients. VERDICT An enjoyable true-life legal drama on par with Erin Brockovich. Vogel uses only the occasional legalese, and her story will appeal to readers who enjoy a good underdog legal story.—Stacy Shaw, Denver

Library Journal

2021-09-29
A lawyer recalls how a group of mistreated farmers stood up to the U.S. government—and forced changes in federal law—by joining forces in a class-action lawsuit.

Few people today may recall the severity of the nationwide crisis that led to the Farm Aid benefit concerts and eventually to the Agricultural Credit Act of 1987, which curbed some of the injustices that fueled it. This welcome refresher course focuses on a pivotal class-action lawsuit by farmers (Coleman v. Block), blending courtroom drama with a memoir by the plaintiffs’ lead counsel, a young single mother who not only had never tried a case, but hadn’t set foot in a courtroom. Vogel had returned to her native North Dakota from a government job in Washington, D.C., when farmers began contacting her about unfair or illegal actions by the Farmers Home Administration, a federal agency that made loans to family farmers. Pressured by the Reagan administration to slash farm aid, the agency dealt harshly with farmers who fell behind on loan repayments, often because of drought or other natural disasters. It emptied farmers’ bank accounts, seized money they needed to feed their cattle or families, and foreclosed on those only one payment behind on real estate debt. It also failed to give farmers proper notice of legal actions against them and turned hearings on their grievances into kangaroo courts run by people who’d been involved in the unfair actions against them. Vogel lost her house while representing the farmers, most of whom couldn’t pay her, but she saw impressive displays of rural grit and solidarity and later became North Dakota’s first female agriculture commissioner. Though this memoir lacks the literary flair of books like Jonathan Harr’s A Civil Action, it’s a brave attorney’s clear and thorough story of the power of collective legal action that belongs in every law library.

A well-documented eyewitness account of egregious injustices to family farmers.

Kirkus Reviews