About this item
In the early 1980s, farmers were suffering through the worst economic crisis to hit rural America since the Great Depression. Land prices were down, operating costs and interest rates were up, and severe weather devastated crops. Instead of receiving assistance from the government as they had in the 1930s, these hardworking family farmers were threatened with foreclosure by the very agency that Franklin Delano Roosevelt created to help them. Desperate, they called Sarah Vogel in North Dakota. Sarah, a young lawyer and single mother, listened to farmers who were on the verge of losing everything and, inspired by the politicians who had helped farmers in the '30s, she naively built a solo practice of clients who couldn't afford to pay her. Sarah began drowning in debt and soon her own home was facing foreclosure.
About the Author
Sarah Vogel is the first woman elected Commissioner of Agriculture and one of the foremost agriculture lawyers in the United States. The American Agricultural Law Association awarded her its Distinguished Service Award, and Willie Nelson honored Sarah at Farm Aid's 30th anniversary for her longtime service to family farmers. Hailed as "a giant killer in ag law" by The Nation, Sarah served for decades as co-counsel on the Keepseagle case filed to redress USDA's race discrimination in lending to Native American ranchers and farmers. An in-demand speaker and a passionate advocate for farmers and Native Americans, Sarah lives in Bismarck, North Dakota.
