The American farmer is a very rare being; threatened for sure, but on the verge of going extinct. Less than one percent of the population is now engaged in farming. This is not just tragic, it is frightening and dangerous.
As of 15 years ago the average age of farmers was 60. Maybe it is even older as of 2025. The barriers to new farmer prospects getting into farming for a living are foreboding. How much lower can this go before our farmers are nearly gone with only mega agri-corporations left raising what is barely eligible to be called food?
Meanwhile, the health of Americans continues to rapidly plummet owing to sky-rocketing degenerative diseases traceable in large measure to the deterioration and exhaustion of most of the nation’s agricultural soils. And the irony is that the predominant method of today’s conventional/chemical farming has reached a dead-end and is on its way out. In part, farmers have put themselves out of business by becoming increasingly efficient at making the cost of their product ever cheaper.
Only organic and related forms of farming are on the rise. While this is encouraging, those alternative methods have a long way to go to catch up with chemical farming that not only is fraught with adverse environmental problems, but is rapidly destroying the very soil that is the genesis of its existence. Something must be done right away to turn this around.
This lithograph, published in 1875, is a modification of the Grange motto, “I pay for all.” It asserts that the farmer is the central character upon which all society relies, with the central image of the lithograph being a farmer behind his plow, captioned, “I feed you all!” From https://www.mariongrange276.org/history
A New Generation Looks to Farming as a Career
It is said that Americans are unwilling to tend and harvest farm crops, but the truth is that many thousands of young people are eager to get directly into farming, given the opportunity. Society needs to open up the opportunity by whatever means it takes.
We must soon enable large numbers of small-scale farmers to get onto the land. Equally importantly, those new farmers and established farmers wanting to convert to a more environmentally sane and sustainable system of farming that surpasses both chemical and standard organic practices will require training in a more advanced system, Ecological Agriculture, which provides higher productivity in yield and superior quality of products while also raising farms’ profitability. The key to all this is raising the nutrient density of crops and livestock forage through enhancing the nutrient content and balance of our agricultural soils. Health of the land and people is the goal.
The Historic Grange Movement
The Grange movement was founded in 1867 by an employee of the Department of Agriculture who, shocked by the lack of sound agricultural practices in the post Civil War South, recognized a need to promote the social and economic needs of farmers. The “Patrons of Husbandry” offered classes on modern farming methods and a social connection to isolated rural communities. For a brief time in the 1870’s, it became a political force uniting exploited farmers to fight the railroads and advocating for cooperative methods of buying and selling.
The Washington State Grange, founded in 1889, was active in populist campaigns against business monopolies, working closely with organized labor, the Progressive Movement, and other allies to win women’s suffrage, create a system of primary elections, regulate the railroads, and improve the education of rural children. It also helped institute the rights of the citizen initiative, referendum and recall, and campaigned for tax reform and the creation of public utility districts in rural areas.
Today, Washington state has the largest number of granges in the country with nearly 50,000 members. Its 2019 mission statement reads:
“The Grange strengthens individuals, families, and communities through grassroots action, service, education, advocacy, and agriculture awareness.”
Ecological Agriculture can revitalize the Grange Movement
Ecological agriculture has a potentially powerful ally in the thousands of granges located all over the United States. Embracing Ecological Agriculture could bring about a much needed re-invigorating of the Grange movement itself. When first organized in 1867, synthetic chemicals in the form of toxic insecticides and herbicides or artificial “chemical” fertilizers were not in use. About the time of World War I, and especially following World War II (circa 1945), they were heralded as miracles that would solve all of agriculture’s problems. It is easy to see why so many farmers and grangers of that time became staunch believers of “better living through chemistry” and stuck with it even as agriculture rapidly transitioned to corporate agribusiness “farming,” squeezing out family farmers and small-scale farm operations to the point that many of those farmers committed suicide. But, there is hope.
What is needed today is a strategy and alliances to foster a “rebirth” of farming which will put agriculture on a sane course and put people, young and old, back on the land practicing an advanced system of agriculture built around achieving nutritional superiority of soils, crops, livestock and people.
A New Role for the Granges
There are a number of ways granges around the country could foster a rebirth of farming. First, there are the grange halls themselves. Once bustling with activity, many granges are struggling to keep their halls open and many have folded. While some are relatively thriving, on the whole their memberships have dwindled and they manage to stay afloat financially through hall rental fees.
While this is a completely legitimate community service, the granges seldom conduct their own meaningful activities in furtherance of their motto to support farming.
The granges could sponsor or host farmer training classes. Aspiring and beginning farmers, who would appreciate an association with the historic granges, need to be invited into the presently underutilized halls by focusing more on the interests and desires of the current generation and less on maintaining bygone customs for tradition’s sake. The granges would benefit from helping to assure that farming, as well as gardening, carries on in the face of highly challenging impediments.
Other ways granges could assist in reviving a more wholesome “husbandry” is by sponsoring community gardens and youth gardens from which many future farmers are effectively recruited. Granges could conduct tours of demonstration farms practicing Ecological Agriculture methods and develop close relations with those farmers.
They might offer grants to farmers practicing those advanced methods that are not only environmentally compatible, but also build soils and yield crops and livestock of the highest nutritional quality and greatest resistance to diseases and insect pests. Such products can command premium prices for the farmers selling health.
At the same time, this strategy can enable granges, situated all over the country, to build their memberships and build back the Grange movement and its influence, but with a more forward-leaning and energizing outlook with localized involvement that attracts new adherents and renews the Granges’ original pledge to be the “Patrons of Husbandry.” The Patrons can use your patronage. After all, this has to be a partnership.
Building Community and Food Security through Your Local Grange
The possibilities for granges to re-emerge in a prominent role for the future of agriculture are immense. The time has come for all of us to support our local granges in returning to their roots as Patrons of Husbandry. Better yet, become a Grange member. Annual membership dues are just $43. You could do so much for continuance and advancement of the grange movement and the granges can do much for you and a stronger, healthier country. Health is its own reward.
Black Lake Grange has kicked-off a “Gardening With Kids” project that is taking place once a month in connection with the renovation of half a dozen raised bed boxes installed back in 2010. A prime objective is giving kids gardening skills and healthy vegetables to take home. If you want to help with that project and have some fun with kids, send me an email (gary@blossomera.com) for more information.
Thurston County is home to 8 granges, listed here. To help revitalize local food production and educate both young and old about gardening and farming, join your local grange.
Black Lake
6011 Black Lake Blvd. S.W., Oly
(360) 810-2083
blacklakegrangerental@gmail.com
Brighton Park
815 73rd Avenue SW, Tumwater
(360) 352-1761
McLane
931 Delphi Road SW, Olympia
(360) 742-3591
Prosperity
3701 Steamboat Island Rd NW, Oly
(360) 490-5966
Skookumchuck
5345 Skookumchuck Rd SE, Tenino
(360) 264-2979
South Bay
3918 Sleater Kinney Rd NE, Olympia
(360) 491-7033
South Union
10030 Tilley Road, Olympia
(360) 529-7958
Violet Prairie
17910 Violet Prairie Road, Tenino
(509) 863-4559
Note: This info is as of 2024
Gary L. Kline is the owner of BLOSSOM Organics Garden Store which specializes in producing organic minerally enriched fertilizers and produces the South Sound Food Gardener’s Calendar to guide your gardening for spring and winter gardens.