Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, February 1979 thousands of tractors are descending upon Washington DC.

This is part of an ongoing series of protests in which farmers from around the country are driving their vehicles

very very slowly to Washington DC to protest pretty brutal conditions for the

farming sector this is 1979 the whole of the US is in that economic

slump. We've come to know it as stag-flation and there are billions and

billions of dollars being lost in the agricultural sector. farmers being put out of work and

farmers pretty upset with agricultural policy in this country so they go on

these tractors to the seats of power movement and again it had been happening for

a few years a genuine grassroots movement well fertilized yes if anyone could do a grassroots movement in farmers how many times can I make that bad

jokes explain the joke more?

I still have a good pun here to laugh at all my jokes are as always Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and

Kelly Carter Jackson of Woseley hello there hi Jody hey there a tractor

cade I think of what people called it at the time a motorcade tough one but anyway

This is another one where folks you can go look at photos just you know dozens and thousands of tractors descending upon DC we'll talk about what happens when you take a bunch of tractors into the nation's capital. But,

Nick, you want to start at that broader level of what is happening to the agricultural

economy in the midst of, you know, a larger economic slump?

The 1970s were brutal for farmers.

I mean, some of it has to do with weather, but most of it has to do with inflation.

Inflation, as many of our listeners... most of it has to do with inflation.

Inflation, as many of our listeners will know,

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