Farm Security Administration

The Farm Security Administration (FSA) was a United States New Deal agency created in 1937 to combat rural poverty during the Great Depression. It was part of the Department of Agriculture and succeeded the Resettlement Administration (1935–1937).

The FSA is famous for its small but highly influential photography program, 1935–1944, that portrayed the challenges of rural poverty. The photographs in the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information (FSA/OWI) Photograph Collection form an extensive pictorial record of American life between 1935 and 1944. This U.S. government photography project was headed for most of its existence by Roy Stryker, who guided the effort in a succession of government agencies: the Resettlement Administration (1935–1937), the Farm Security Administration (1937–1942), and the Office of War Information (1942–1944). The collection also includes photographs acquired from other governmental and nongovernmental sources, including the News Bureau at the Offices of Emergency Management (OEM), various branches of the military, and industrial corporations.

In total, the black-and-white portion of the collection consists of about 175,000 black-and-white film negatives, encompassing both negatives that were printed for use and those that were not printed at the time. Color transparencies also made by the FSA/OWI are available in a separate section of the catalog, FSA/OWI Color Photographs.

The FSA stressed "rural rehabilitation" efforts to improve the lifestyle of very poor landowning farmers, and a program to purchase submarginal land owned by poor farmers and resettle them in group farms on land more suitable for efficient farming.

Reactionary critics, including the Farm Bureau, strongly opposed the FSA as an alleged experiment in collectivizing agriculture—that is, in bringing farmers together to work on large government-owned farms using modern techniques under the supervision of experts. After the Conservative coalition took control of Congress, it transformed the FSA into a program to help poor farmers buy land, and that program continued to operate into the 21st century as the Farmers Home Administration.

Origins

The Great Depression began in August 1929, when the United States economy first went into an economic recession. Although the country spent two months with declining gross domestic product (GDP), the effects of a declining economy were not felt until the Wall Street crash in October 1929, and a major worldwide economic downturn ensued. Although its causes are disputed, the net effect was a sudden and general loss of confidence in the economic future and a reduction in living standards for most ordinary Americans. The market crash highlighted a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits for industrial firms, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth.

The projects that were combined in 1935 to form the Resettlement Administration (RA) started in 1933 as an assortment of programs tried out by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The RA was headed by Rexford Tugwell, an economic advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, Tugwell's goal moving 650,000 people into of exhausted, worn-out land was unpopular among the majority in Congress. This goal seemed socialistic to some and threatened to deprive powerful farm proprietors of their tenant workforce. The RA was thus left with only enough resources to relocate a few thousand people from and build several greenbelt cities, which planners admired as models for a cooperative future that never arrived.

The main focus of the RA was to now build relief camps in California for migratory workers, especially refugees from the drought-stricken Dust Bowl of the Southwest. This move was resisted by a large share of Californians, who did not want destitute migrants to settle in their midst. The RA managed to construct 95 camps that gave migrants unaccustomed clean quarters with running water and other amenities, but the 75,000 people who had the benefit of these camps were a small share of those in need and could only stay temporarily. After facing enormous criticism for his poor management of the RA, Tugwell resigned in 1936. On January 1, 1937, with hopes of making the RA more effective, the RA was transferred to the Department of Agriculture through executive order 7530.

On July 22, 1937, Congress passed the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act. This law authorized a modest credit program to assist tenant farmers to purchase land, and it was the culmination of a long effort to secure legislation for their benefit. Following the passage of the act, Congress passed the Farm Security Act into law. The Farm Security Act officially transformed the RA into the Farm Security Administration (FSA). The FSA expanded through funds given by the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act.

Relief work

One of the activities performed by the RA and FSA was the buying out of small farms that were not economically viable, and the setting up of 34 subsistence homestead communities, in which groups of farmers lived together under the guidance of government experts and worked a common area. They were not allowed to purchase their farms for fear that they would fall back into inefficient practices not guided by RA and FSA experts.Baldwin 1968

The Dust Bowl in the Great Plains displaced thousands of tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and laborers, many of whom (known as "Okies" or "Arkies") moved on to California. The FSA operated camps for them, such as Weedpatch Camp as depicted in The Grapes of Wrath.

The RA and the FSA gave educational aid to 455,000 farm families during the period 1936–1943. In June 1936, Roosevelt wrote: "You are right about the farmers who suffer through their own fault... I wish you would have a talk with Tugwell about what he is doing to educate this type of farmer to become self-sustaining. During the past year, his organization has made 104,000 farm families practically self-sustaining by supervision and education along practical lines. That is a pretty good record!"Sternsher 272

The FSA's primary mission was not to aid farm production or prices. Roosevelt's agricultural policy had, in fact, been to try to decrease agricultural production to increase prices. When production was discouraged, though, the tenant farmers and small holders suffered most by not being able to ship enough to market to pay rents. Many renters wanted money to buy farms, but the Agriculture Department realized there already were too many farmers, and did not have a program for farm purchases. Instead, they used education to help the poor stretch their money further. Congress, however, demanded that the FSA help tenant farmers purchase farms, and purchase loans of $191 million were made, which were eventually repaid. A much larger program was $778 million in loans (at effective rates of about 1% interest) to 950,000 tenant farmers. The goal was to make the farmer more efficient so the loans were used for new machinery, trucks, or animals, or to repay old debts. At all times, the borrower was closely advised by a government agent. Family needs were on the agenda, as the FSA set up a health insurance program and taught farm wives how to cook and raise children. Upward of a third of the amount was never repaid, as the tenants moved to much better opportunities in the cities.Meriam pp. 290–312

Location of Farm Security Administration Migratory Labor Camps, July 1942Region I:MarylandMobile Camps: Hebron, Pocomoke City, Vienna, WestoverNew JerseyMobile Camps: Big Oak, Burlington, SwedesboroRegion IVVirginiaMobile Camps: Black Bay, Lynnhaven, TimbervilleRegion VFloridaEverglades:  S Canal Point, State Highway 143Okeechobee: (Belle Glade, Unit 2, Black) -3.7 mi. S Belle Glade, State Highway 25Osceola: (Belle Glade, Unit 1, White) - ¼ mi. E Chosen on county road NE Belle Glade, and ¾ mi. from State Highway 143 N Belle GladePahokee: SE Canal Point, State Highway 194Pompano: NW Pompano, U.S. Highway 1Region VIArkansasSpringdale: Off U.S. Highway 540Region VIIITexasCrystal City: N Crystal City, U.S. Highway83 Harlingen:  S Harlingen, U.S. Highway 83Lamesa: off U.S. Highway 87McAllen: NE McAllen, U.S. Highway 83Princeton: SE McKinney, State Highway 24Raymondville: 2 mi. W Raymondville, U.S. Highway96 Robstown: 2 mi. N Robstown, State Highway 44Sinton: ¼ mi. W Sinton, State Highway 44Weslaco: at N end of town of WeslacoRegion IXArizonaAgua Fria: 16 mi. W Phoenix, State Highway 77Eleven Mile Corner: 3½ mi. E Casa Grande and ½ mi. N of State Highway 84Yuma: 12 mi. SW YumaMobile Camps: Friendly Corners, GilbertCaliforniaArvin: (Weedpatch Camp) 17 mi. SE Bakersfield, U.S. Highway 99Brawley: at N end of town of BrawleyCeres: at NW end of town of Ceres, 3 mi. SE Modesto, U.S. Highway 99Firebaugh: at N end of town of FirebaughGridley: 3 mi. E GridleyIndio: 1 mi. SE Indio, U.S. Highway 99Mineral King: 43 mi. S Fresno on U.S. Highway 99, left on State Highway 198, 3 mi. E VisaliaShafter: 1½ mi. NW Shafter and 19 mi. NWBakersfield Thornton: at S end of town of ThorntonTulare: (Linnell Camp) 4 mi. SE Visalia, State Highway198 Westley: at W end of town of WestleyWindsor: 1 mi. W Windsor Winters: 1 mi. NE WintersWoodville: 7 mi. NW Porterville, State Highway 190Yuba City: 1 mi. SE Yuba CityMobile Camps: Brentwood, Santa Maria, Cupertino, Sebastopol, San JacintoRegion XIIdahoCaldwell: 2 mi. W Caldwell, junction Highways 18 and 20Twin Falls: 2 mi. S Twin Falls, Highway 26Mobile Camps: Blackfoot, Payette-Ontario, Emmett, Pocatello, Jerome, Rupert, Marsing, Shelley, Donnelly, Sugar City, Nampa, WilderOregonYamhill: 4 mi. S Dayton, Highway 223 (Dayton-Amity cutoff)Mobile Camps: Athena, Nyssa, Brewster, The Dalles, Coburg, West Stayton,GreshamWashingtonGranger: 2 mi. NW Granger, U.S. Highway 410Walla Walla: 5 mi. SW Walla Walla, Oregon State Highway 11 (1 mi. N Oreg. Line)Yakima: 2 mi. W Union Gap on Ahtanum Road, U.S. Highway 410 \Mobile Camps: Auburn, Dixie, Burlington, Kennewick, Dayton, WapatoBy 1940, six years before the dissolving of the administration, the FSA had been operating 18 camps in California and 56 camps nationwide for migrant workers.

The FSA was also one of the authorities administering relief efforts in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico during the Great Depression. Between 1938 and 1945, under the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, it oversaw the purchase of 590 farms with the intent of distributing land to working and middle-class Puerto Ricans.

Modernization The FSA resettlement communities appear in the literature as efforts to ameliorate the wretched condition of southern sharecroppers and tenants, but those evicted to make way for the new settlers are virtually invisible in the historic record. The resettlement projects were part of larger efforts to modernize rural America. The removal of former tenants and their replacement by FSA clients in the lower Mississippi alluvial plain—the Delta—reveals core elements of New Deal modernizing policies. The key concepts that guided the FSA's tenant removals were: the definition of rural poverty as rooted in the problem of tenancy; the belief that economic success entailed particular cultural practices and social forms; and the commitment by those with political power to gain local support. These assumptions undergirded acceptance of racial segregation and the criteria used to select new settlers. Alternatives could only become visible through political or legal action—capacities sharecroppers seldom had. In succeeding decades, though, these modernizing assumptions created conditions for Delta African Americans on resettlement projects to challenge white supremacy.Jane Adams and D. Gorton, "This Land Ain't My Land: The Eviction of Sharecroppers by the Farm Security Administration," Agricultural History Summer 2009, Vol. 83 Issue 3, pp. 323–51

FSA and its contribution to society