(New York Times, 17 November 1984)
Political Reactions
1977 Crop Failure (Des Moines Register Photo Archive)
Rural Governors
Due to their agriculture-dependent economies, rural governors acted first to support farmers by executing their powers to slow the wave of foreclosures and by pressuring the federal government to also intervene.
(Proceedings of the National Governors' Association Annual Meeting, 1983)
"One year when I gave the condition of the state address the galleries were packed with people carrying white crosses to symbolize the death of the family farm...I was a strong advocate for [restructuring debt] as I could see the Farm Credit System was foreclosing on their best borrowers."
-Former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad (Personal Interview, 18 January 2024)
"Members of the Iowa Farm Unity Coalition stage a protest at the Iowa Capitol during Gov. Terry Branstad's 1985 State of the State address." (Des Moines Register Photo Archive)
"Members of the Iowa Farm Unity Coalition encircle the rotunda of the Iowa Capitol with dozens of posters advertising sales of Iowa farms in 1984." (Des Moines Register Photo Archive)
-Former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad (Personal Interview, 18 January 2024)
(The Cincinnati Post, 2 October 1985)
(Quad-City Times, 16 August 1987)
National
Nationally, however, the situation went from bad to worse for family farms when newly re-elected President Ronald Reagan rejected government farm programs, and even eliminated the FMHA or farm lender of last resort in 1985, in favor of free market economic policies.
"I demanded action in 1984 when President Reagan visited Iowa and, in October, he announced he was going to do debt restructuring. However, his budget director David Stockman told me he didn't care what the President promised, we're not going to do it. It eventually happened at the federal level, but not until 1987 after the worst of it was over."
-Former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad (Personal Interview, 18 January 2024)
"President Reagan talks soybeans Thursday with East Iowa farmer John Brockschink, center, and Brockschink's son- in-law, Dan Wiebold, in a field near their farm home." (Cedar Rapids Gazette, 21 September 1984)
-David Stockman, President Reagan's Budget Director (TIME, 18 February 1985)
(New York Times, 1 November 1985)
These actions caused further damage before true, meaningful federal government intervention arrived with passage of the 1987 Farm Credit Act, which restructured the Farm Credit System and created a secondary market for farm loans that slowed foreclosures.
(Farmers' Weekly Review, 9 October 1986)
1987 Farm Credit Act Negotiations -Former U.S. Rep. (IA) David Nagle (Personal Interview, 29 March 2024)
(New York Times, 7 January 1988)