Minnesota Corn Growers Association

Written by Jonathan Eisenthal

In 1900, two out of three Americans farmed. Today, less than two percent of us raise the food, fiber and renewable products that feed, clothe and fuel us.

Approximately 95 percent of today’s American farms are owned and run by families. However, it easily could have been elsewise. A critical turning point came in 1977, with a farm economy crisis brewing, when a small group of farm women gathered in Appleton, among them Anne Kanten, to organize the American Agricultural Movement (AAM). Its one aim: to save the family farming way of life. Tractorcades in Washington, and many other grassroots efforts, great and small, came along in its wake. Today, the value of the family’s role in agriculture continues to be celebrated by many organizations, like CommonGround Minnesota.

Kanten’s passion and energy attracted the attention of Gov. Rudy Perpich, who appointed her in 1981 to serve as deputy commissioner of agriculture. She was the moving force behind the creation of the Farm Advocate Program, which arranged for resource professionals to assist individual farmers, bringing them up-to-date expertise in lender policies, bankruptcy laws, mediation, tax laws and the available federal programs. The Minnesota Farm Advocate Program is still going strong today.

You can hear Kanten in her own words, thanks to the Minnesota Oral History project of the Minnesota Historical Society.

Jim Kanten, her grandson, believes those are awfully big shoes to fill, but he carries her example as inspiration for his work as a director on the board of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association. Anne’s work is not done, though she passed away in late December.

“She was glad that I became involved in ag policy discussions, because that was something that she was really passionate about for the majority of her life,” Jim said. “She was happy that I became involved, and she saw it as a kind of tradition in the family.”

Jim saw his grandmother’s political activism firsthand and recalls the way it impacted how he sees the world.

“When NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Agreement) came about the first time (in 1994), I remember going to Washington, D.C., with her and my grandpa to lobby,” said Jim, who is 36 years old. He was in the third grade. “I was able to do a lot of things like that because she was very active in the ag policy world. When I was younger, I got to go with a lot, to see a lot of the things that she did and how passionate she was about ag issues.”

Thanks to the determination of farmers like Anne Kanten, NAFTA’s provisions ultimately helped American farmers, and today, Mexico and Canada are the two biggest export destinations for US farm goods. Jim applauds the work of MCGA, through its membership in the US Grains Council, to continue to develop those relationships and those markets, to the benefit of farm operations like his, in Milan, where he farms with his father and brother.

Jim sees MCGA carrying on the work of Anne especially in its programs to support young farmers.

“Right now, MCGA is funding $5,000 college scholarships,” Kanten said. “That is a very helpful program for bringing young people, maybe not back to the farm exactly, but helping them stay in careers in the world of agriculture. Ultimately, this is an approach that will help strengthen family farming.”