Agriculture: Curds & Woe

The film clips that flashed across the nation's TV screens seemed like replays of the Depression. As thousands of members of the militant National Farmers Organization pitched in for the first widespread milk strike in 35 years, countless thousands of gallons were destroyed, and scattered violence rocked the usually peaceful valleys and villages of the nation's dairying country. Milk, the blandest beverage of all, overnight had become the most combustible fluid in 25 states.

In Falmouth, Ky., 400 farmers flooded the main intersection with their milk; in Paul, Idaho, thousands of pounds* were dumped, symbolically, in front of a bank. Scores...

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