Summary Information
Family Farm Defenders Records
1985, 1990-2013
Mss 1198
1.8 cubic feet (1 records center carton and 2 archives boxes)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Records, 1985, 1990-2013, of Family Farm Defenders, a grassroots family farmer advocacy organization, documenting its beginnings in the Dump the National Dairy Board Campaign, which began as a movement to hold a national referendum on the continuation of the mandatory dairy checkoff program which funds the National Dairy Board's promotion efforts, as well as concerns about the NDB's role in promoting the use of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) in dairy milk production. Also included are materials concerning the Family Farmer Cheese project, records of the American Raw Milk Producers Pricing Association (ARMPPA), and a few records of a predecessor organization, the Wisconsin Family Farm Defense Fund, established in 1985.
Forms part of the Organic and Sustainable Agriculture Collection. The first few issues of the organization's newsletter, The Family Farm Defender, are included in this collection; the WHS Library holds later issues. The publication was subsequently renamed Family Farm Defenders Newsletter and then Defender: The Newsletter of the Family Farm Defenders (current title).
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss01198 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Among the issues that led to the formation of the organization that would become Family Farm Defenders two were prominent: the introduction of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) to stimulate milk production in dairy cattle, and the dairy checkoff program, in which a percentage of the milk price paid to dairy farmers is used to fund promotion of dairy products on both state and federal levels.
In 1990 a group of dairy farmers (including John Kinsman and other Wisconsin farmers) from across the country filed a lawsuit (Civil Action No. 90-2929-NHJ) in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia concerning the improper use of National Dairy Board funds to influence the FDA approval process for bovine growth hormone.
The group held meetings across Wisconsin in 1991, and discussed forming a marketing agency for dairy farmers. In the course of these informal meetings, the topic of milk pricing and the role of the National Dairy Board became a focus of attention. Discussion of subsequent research by attorney Ruth Simpson, assistant director of the Wisconsin Action Coalition, resulted in a petition drive to “Dump the National Dairy Board,” which was also the name of the organization that formed around that effort. At the opening day of the World Dairy Expo in Madison in October 1991, the group held a press conference with Senator Russ Feingold, and gathered more than one thousand signatures for the petition effort. The grassroots organization Minnesota Coalition of Citizens Acting Together (COACT) became involved, as did similar groups in other dairy producing states. The National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) passed a resolution endorsing the campaign at its conference in December 1991, and offered its support. Petition cards included in a trade journal resulted in additional petition signatures. More copies of the petition were distributed at meetings of the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board in 1992.
The petition, written by Wisconsin dairy farmers Francis Goodman, John Kinsman, and Mike O'Connell, called for a referendum on whether or not to continue the checkoff program that was established in 1983: $0.15 of every hundred weight of milk was assessed from producers to fund the promotional efforts of the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board (NDB), with the NDB receiving $0.05 and state and regional groups receiving the remaining $0.10. Organizers of the petition effort, initially part of Project Self Help and Awareness, an exchange program between white farmers in Wisconsin and black farmers in Mississippi, were also opposed to what they saw as financial mismanagement, falling milk prices, and efforts by the NDB to promote the use of bovine growth hormone (BGH) in dairy cattle to increase milk production. After the required signatures (14,500 or 10% of U.S. dairy farmers, lowered to 145,000 from an initial USDA estimate of nearly 200,000 farmers) were collected, a referendum was scheduled for August 1993. A lawsuit (Civil Action No. 93 C 0407 S) filed by a group of dairy farmers in U.S. District Court for Western Wisconsin challenged the constitutionality of the modified bloc voting system, whereby individual farmers could cast individual ballots if they did not agree with the way their dairy cooperative was planning to cast its votes on behalf of its members.
The referendum passed with 71% of the vote (including cooperatives who bloc voted) in favor of continued support of the NDB, but 76% of farmers who cast individual ballots were against continuation of the NDB. In January 1994 the Dump the National Dairy Board Campaign officially reorganized as a permanent, non-profit organization known as Family Farm Defenders (FFD) and retained attorney Alexander J. Pires to challenge the bloc voting process (NDPRB No. 93-1).
FFD requested a new vote in a three-day hearing before administrative law judge Edwin Bernstein in July 1994, with producer members speaking against the bloc voting system, whereby dairy cooperatives were able to cast votes on behalf of their producer members. Bernstein's decision, issued on August 10, 1994, ruled that the referendum was conducted in compliance with established rules.
Meanwhile, a temporary steering committee of Family Farm Defenders met in Sacramento, California, in March 1994 to discuss by-laws and the establishment of a Board of Directors and an Executive Committee. The organization, with a stated aim of creating a “farmer-controlled and consumer-oriented dairy industry,” was incorporated in the state of Wisconsin in September 1994, and was approved as a 501(c)(3) organization in 1995. John Kinsman, who served as head of the Steering Committee, went on to serve as President of FFD until his death in 2014.
At the 1996 FFD annual meeting, two projects were launched: 1) a marketing agency in common (MAIC) that would become the American Raw Milk Producers Pricing Association (ARMPPA);
2) Family Farmer Cheese, a project to sell fair trade cheese made from milk from family farms as a means of funding some of FFD's activities.
Also included are a few records of a predecessor organization, the Wisconsin Family Farm Defense Fund, established in 1985.
For further information on the organization and its current projects, see the Family Farm Defenders website.
Scope and Content Note
The records are arranged in five series: ADMINISTRATIVE FILES, CORRESPONDENCE, PUBLICATIONS, DUMP THE NATIONAL DAIRY BOARD CAMPAIGN, and SUBJECT FILES.
The Family Farm Defenders records are strongest in documenting the organization's beginnings and early years, with the bulk of the records relating to the Dump the National Dairy Board Campaign (1991-1995), which pre-dates the official establishment of FFD in 1994.
The ADMINISTRATIVE FILES series includes annual meeting materials, committee and grant files, Family Farmer Cheese project files, and a small amount of records relating to a predecessor organization, the Wisconsin Family Farm Defense Fund.
The CORRESPONDENCE series covers incoming and outgoing correspondence from 1993 to 2001. Ruth Simpson, John Kinsman, Francis Goodman, and David Rhodes of FFD are the most well documented correspondents. Some news clippings and other documents included in the correspondence remains with this series.
The PUBLICATIONS series includes booklets, newsletters and information bulletins, and a 2011 tribute to founder and FFD president, John Kinsman. Later issues of the Defender, the FFD periodical, are held by the Wisconsin Historical Society Library.
The DUMP THE NATIONAL DAIRY BOARD CAMPAIGN series provides extensive documentation of the campaign, and includes records related to the bloc voting issue, such as hearing testimony and filed documents for the lawsuit brought by a group of dairy farmers; a chronology of key campaign events; correspondence primarily related to the Dump campaign; press releases; editorials; and hearing transcripts and legal documents relating to the administrative appeal challenging the results of the 1993 referendum to end mandatory checkoff funding for the NDB. Much of the outgoing correspondence is addressed to Secretary of Agriculture William Espy; also included are responses from Espy or other USDA representatives, such as William Blanchard or Richard McKee.
The SUBJECT FILES series includes correspondence, news clippings, and other documents related to the 1995 Farm Bill, rBGH, milk pricing, and other topics. Also included are partial records (meeting minutes, memos, newsletters, and news clippings) of the American Raw Milk Producers Pricing Association (ARMPPA), another organization in which John Kinsman was involved.
Related Material
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by John Peck, August 13, 2015. Accession Number: M2016-073
Processed by Julia Wong, December 2016.
Contents List
|
Mss 1198
|
Series: Administrative Files
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
1-13
|
Annual meeting materials, 1995-2001, 2008-2013
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
14
|
Certificate of incorporation, 1994
|
|
|
Committees
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
15
|
Education and outreach, 1997 March-April
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
16-17
|
Executive, 1994-2000
: Includes grant proposal materials for Campaign for Human Development (CHD), Farm Aid, and Veatch Program.
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
18
|
Farm strategy, 1997 November 14
|
|
|
Events
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
19
|
Cows, Curds and Country Tour, 1998 June
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
20
|
Farm Aid concerts, 1993, 1999-2001
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
21
|
Family Farmer Cheese project, 1998-2001
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
22
|
Financial, 1995-1999
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
23
|
Working Assets grant proposal, 1998 May
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
24
|
Flyers, 1992-1995, 2001
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
25
|
Mailing lists, 1993, undated
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
26
|
Meeting materials, 1999, undated
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
27
|
Press releases, 1996, undated
|
|
|
Wisconsin Family Farm Defense Fund (WFFDF)
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
28
|
By-laws, circa 1985
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
29
|
Grant proposals, 1992-1993
|
|
|
Series: Correspondence
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
30-31
|
General, 1993-2001
|
|
|
Series: Publications
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
32
|
Booklets, 2009, undated
: "Faith & Food: An Islamic Perspective" / by Shireen Pishdadi, undated; "Small Scale Sustainable Farmers Are Cooling down the Earth," 2009 December; and two Grassroots International booklets (Spanish, French) on food sovereignty, undated.
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
33
|
Family Farm Defender: newsletter, 1993-1994, 1996
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
34
|
For Your Info: bulletins, 2000, undated
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
35
|
"John Kinsman: Activist Farmer," booklet produced for First Annual John Kinsman Beginning Farmer Food Sovereignty Prize Harvest Dinner and Award Ceremony, 2011 November 12
|
|
|
Series: Dump the National Dairy Board Campaign
|
|
|
Bloc voting
|
|
|
Call, David
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
36
|
Testimony before Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Sub-committee, 1994 August 5
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
36 (continued)
|
Testimony before House Committee on Agriculture, Sub-committee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry, 1995 May 16
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
37-38
|
Lawsuit, Civil Action No. 93 C 0407 S, 1993 July-August
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
39
|
Mailing regarding July 21 hearing, 1993 July 12
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
40
|
Testimony, correspondence, press releases, 1993-1994
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
41
|
Chronology, 1993
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
42-43
|
Correspondence, 1991-1995
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
44
|
With dairy cooperatives, 1992-1993
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
45-46
|
With Mike Espy / USDA, 1991-1994
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
47
|
With Fred Pagles, 1993 August 26
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
48
|
Editorials, 1991-1993
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
49
|
New York Milk Producers Association, 1992 September-1993 June
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
50
|
Grant proposal, Veatch Program, 1993
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
51
|
Meeting with Ann Veneman in D.C., 1992 December
|
|
|
Minnesota Citizens Organized Acting Together (COACT)
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
52
|
Articles of incorporation and by-laws, 1991-1992
|
|
|
National Dairy Board
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
53
|
Public relations materials, 1992-1995
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
54
|
National strategy meeting regarding (July 21-22, 1992), 1992 June-July
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
55
|
News clippings, 1991-1994
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
56
|
Petition cards, forms, 1991-1995
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
57
|
Presentation text, circa 1992
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
58
|
Press releases, 1991-1994
|
|
|
Referendum on Dairy Promotion and Research Board (August 1993)
|
|
|
Challenge to, NDPRB No. 93-1
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
59
|
Correspondence, 1993-1994
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
60
|
Decision, 1994 November 14
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
61
|
Exhibit list
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
62
|
Exhibit 5: Blanchard, William, to Ruth Simpson, 1992 August 18
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
63
|
Exhibit 18: Meeting regarding ballot, 1993 May 11, 18
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
64
|
Exhibit 41 (A-B): FOIA request 139-93, response, 1993
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
65-68
|
Item requests 2-4, 6 responses, 1993
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
69-70
|
Exhibit 41 (C): Letters regarding referendum
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
71
|
Exhibit 41 (D): (800) number questions
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
72-73
|
Filed documents, 1993-1994
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
1-2
|
Filed documents, 1994
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
3-7
|
Hearing transcripts, Volumes I-III, 1994 July 12-14
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
8
|
Referendum agent's report, 1993 October
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
9
|
Steering Committee materials, 1993-1994
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
10
|
Work plan, working notes, 1993-1994
|
|
|
Series: Subject Files
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
11
|
1995 Farm Bill, 1995 April
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
12
|
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), BGH, 1990-2000
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
13
|
News clippings, 1990-2000
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
14
|
NDB and BGH activity clippings, 1990-1991
|
|
|
Milk pricing
|
|
|
American Raw Milk Producers Pricing Association (ARMPPA)
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
1
|
General, 1995-1998
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
2
|
ARMPPA: newsletter, 1997-1998, 2001, 2009
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
3
|
Kinsman, John, memos, 1996-1997
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
4
|
Meeting minutes, 1996
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
5
|
News clippings, 1996-1997
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
6
|
California milk pricing case, 1991-1994
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
7
|
News clippings, 1991-1999
|
|
|
National Dairy Board (NDB)
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
8
|
Lawsuit regarding, Civil Action No. 90-2929-NHJ, 1990-1991
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
9
|
National Dairy Fairness and Unity Act, undated
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
10
|
Other farm issues, news clippings, 1984-2000, undated
|
|
|
Stauber, John
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
11
|
Freedom of Information Act materials, 1992
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
12
|
Wisconsin Open Access to Records materials, 1994 January
|
|
|
Western Organization of Resource Councils
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
13
|
Checkoff programs report, 1992
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
14
|
Wisconsin Citizen Action Ethics Board investigation, 1993-1994
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
15
|
Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board (WMMB), 1994 February
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
16
|
World Trade Organization (WTO), 1999-2000
|
|
|
