Submitted by: agcomm,  Wed Nov 26 10:13:38 1997


Plains Folk:  Self-Determination
 
Tom Isern, Professor of History    
North Dakota State University  
COPYRIGHT 1997 Plains Folk
 
     The story of American Crystal Sugar Company is mythic for
our times on the northern plains.  The founding and success of
this great producer-owned cooperative signals the possibility
that the people of the Last Picture Show generation on the plains
are capable of breaking free of dispirited colonialism.  It is a
story told as an object lesson in self- determination.
     It is a story well told by Terry Shoptaugh, the archivist of
Moorhead State University, in "Roots of Success: History of the
Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers"--a new book published by the
NDSU Institute for Regional Studies.
     First, let's get straight what Shoptaugh is not doing with
this book.  He is not writing a history of the beet industry in
the Red River Valley.  He is not much concerned with
manufacturing aspects in general, and particularly not with the
operations of American Crystal (or other sugar companies) before
it became a co-op.  Neither is he writing the story of the
migrant workers, mainly Mexican, who performed the hard field
labor of beet growing.  That's a great story that needs to be
told, but this book is not the place for it. 
     The focus of Shoptaugh's study is the beet growers, who
organized themselves as the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers
Association (RRVSGA) and eventually bought out Crystal in order
to reorganize it as a co-op.  The story line, then, goes like
this: early farmers in the Valley (including R.M. Probstfield of
Moorhead in 1872) experiment with beets; significant commercial
growing begins with dedication of the American Beet Sugar plant
in East Grand Forks in 1926; the sugar industry in other parts of
the plains (Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska) begins to wither, while
it continues to expand in the Red River Valley; growers here
invent new technologies and, with the help of the federal
government, survive the Great Depression; and following World War
II, even as they prosper, the beet growers become discontented
with the management of American Crystal.
     Here is where the plot comes to climax, a turning point. 
People on the plains, you know, are great protestors.  In the old
days it was the railroads and millers we protested, and of course
the twine trust and the machinery trust and all the rest of them. 
These days we worry about the machinations of the Chicago Board
of Trade and the federal government.  Always it's the outside
interests to blame.
     There is much truth in the rhetoric of protest.  The Great
Plains are a sort of inland empire of the rest of the country. 
Plains folk work in extractive industries and ship product
somewhere else for value to be added.  They are disadvantaged in
relation to the rest of the country in the way that people of
Third World countries are disadvantaged in relation to the rest
of the world.
     That's why this climactic moment in 1972 is so notable and
important.  In that year the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers
voted to buy American Crystal Sugar Company from interests in
Denver.  They had complained long enough about company
management, especially storage and transportation difficulties. 
Then they put their money where their protests were.
     How did this happen?  Certainly there was some visionary and
adroit leadership involved.  Al Bloomquist, most growers say, had
a great deal to do with it.  But this bold decision came by
overwhelming majority vote of a bunch of beet farmers acting in
concert.  It should be written up as a case study for farm
management courses, the lesson being, there comes a time when you
have to pull your head out of your farm management software,
which focuses your attention on the individual bottom line, and
look to your neighbors, not just to complain, but to plan and
act.
     That's not the only lesson to be drawn from Shoptaugh's
work, but it's the main one.  This is good history researched at
the grass roots, through scores of interviews with growers; well
and clearly written; and compelling in its significance.          
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NDSU Agriculture Communication
Source: Tom Isern (701) 231-8339
Editor: Barry Brissman (701) 231-7866