Lee Lancaster Books

03/11/2026

This has got to be the nastiest jellybean I have ever tasted. The fried chicken bean tastes like vomit! It's worse than the Jelly Belly Challenge beans!

03/07/2026

02/24/2026

1978 was a busy year for the American Agriculture Movement. In January, farmers loaded up their pickups from all over the US and headed to DC. There was also a small Tractorcade that coincided. When the Tractorcade left Linden, Virginia on January 18 and headed to DC early that morning, five tractors got delayed. For some reason when the five stragglers made it onto I-66, the Virginia State Troopers attempted to stop them. The lead tractor would not yield, cooking down the interstate at a blazing 14 mph, so the troopers pulled their service weapons and shot out all the tractor's tires! When the tractor was finally stopped, the farmer inside was taken to jail and booked. When word reached the AAM farmers in DC, they hurried to Senator Herman Talmadge's office to see about getting him out of jail. By the time the farmers made it back to the Holiday Inn after meeting with Talmadge, the tractor driver, Leighton Kersey from Unadilla, was checking into his hotel room ahead of them.

02/23/2026

The Georgia Farmers' Strike and Vidalia Onions books available @ leelancasterbooks.com

02/23/2026

Original American Agriculture Movement designs made into 4" decals. $4.99 each leelancasterbooks.com

02/23/2026

Anybody remember the NFO? The National Farmers Organization was most active under the direction of Oren Lee Staley from 1955 till 1979. NFO helped farmers by holding commodities till they got the price they wanted. NFO was particularly active in Georgia with the hog market. NFO is still active but no longer involved in collective bargaining.

02/23/2026

The American Agriculture Movement organized a Pickupcade to DC in 1978. Some farmers rode planes and buses while others flooded DC with pickup trucks. The farmers met with everybody in DC, including President Jimmy Carter. In order to save their farms, House Bill 6782, the Emergency Agricultural Act or the Flexible Parity Bill, was introduced by Rick Nolan of Minnesota. A similar bill was sponsored in the US Senate by a young Bob Dole of Kansas. The house bill was killed on April 12, 1978, after direction from the President and led by someone the farmers believed to be their friend, Jim Wright, Majority Leader and even some of the farmers' own representative from Texas. The bill's fate was sealed . The farmers didn't take it well and left town vowing to return to finish the job.

02/23/2026

Check out my interview on the Sandhills Area Research Association (SARA) podcast this week.

Ever picture tractors driving the streets of Washington, D.C.? It's not as crazy as you think!

We learn this week on Conservation Stories from Lee Lancaster Books about the 1970s farmer protests that sent tractors rolling toward state capitals and Washington, D.C. Lee shares his research about the American Agriculture Movement Inc. and what the farmers were fighting for.

Listen or watch now wherever you get your podcasts: https://linktr.ee/saraconservation