Rep. Glenn Thompson (PA-5) spoke to approximately 140 attendees at the Legislative Breakfast held Tuesday morning in Herndon, Virginia during the first day of the 150th Annual Convention of the National Grange.

The Pennsylvania Representative applauded the Grange’s role in helping heal the

wounds of the Nation following the Civil War. He also referenced how this Country is divided similar to when our organization was founded and that the Grange can again work towards mending the relationships of our brothers and sisters across the nation.

“Given what we’re experiencing right now, after the election that we just completed, the National Grange is as relevant today as it was 150 years ago. Rep. Thompson said. “Just like the founding of this organization,

your timing is such that it is time for healing in our land and I think the Grange can be a very big part of that.”

Rep. Thompson stated that he was very proud of the 2016 Farm Bill that he helped create and that it included several successful programs like the Forestry and Conservation Titles. However there are a few items that need to be corrected with this upcoming Farm Bill, most notably the dairy

Thompson Speaks on Relevance

Patrons Chain Official Newsletter of the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry

150th Annual National Grange Convention Edition, Day 3Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016

Lindsay SchroederCongressman Glenn (GT) Thompson (PA-5) addresses attendees at the Legislative breakfast.

Editor - Betsy Huber

Managing Editor - Amanda Brozana

Creative Editor - Debbie Gegare

Copy Editor - Corey Spence

Layout Design Editor - Stacy Bruker

Patron’s Chain Convention Edition

Youth will begin to check-in Wednesday evening to the 150th National Grange Convention and kick things off with a Get Ac-quainted Party. This will give them an opportunity to get to know one another and have a little fun. Fol-lowing Vespers, the Youth Officer team will practice for the youth opening of the Grange on Friday.

On Thursday, the youth will be-gin their day in workshops. The af-ternoon is filled with a tour around

Washington, DC, with stops to some National monuments in the evening. After the tour, an Ameri-can Heroes themed costume party and dance is expected to be a hit among youth members.

The Youth Officer team will open the National Grange session on Friday morning. Through-out the week the youth will have opportunities to attend various workshops. The current National Young Patrons, Robert and Jen-nifer Beamon, will be presenting a workshop titled “Living Within Your Means and Tackling Your Debt: Personal Finance 101”.

Friday afternoon, youth win-ners from each region will gather together in the Piedmont Room and compete in Grange Jeopardy. Following Grange Jeopardy will be the GROW Club and Youth A.O.L.E. Dinner.

State Youth Ambassadors this year include: Bennet Yeargan, NC; Darby Madewell, NC; Kennedy Gwin, WA; Alexa Suing, OR; Asa Houchin, OH; Olivia Yost, OH; Steven Tully, MA; and Lexi Gegare, WI. Mandy Bostwick from KS and Matthew Horton from NY are at-tending as Young Patrons.

BY NATHAN STRAWDERTracFone Communication Fellownathan.strawder@gmail.com

Youth to open session, tour and celebrateCorrections:

Michael Martin (PA) also serves on the Grange Foun-dation Board.

Jim Foster served in the Air Force during the Korean War.

Fun Fact In 1928, Kansas experienced a tornado so strong it plucked the feathers right off a chicken.

THOMPSON pg. 5

BY MANDY BOSTWICKTracFone Communication Fellowsmandybostwick@gmail.com

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Before the last decade, words like “revolution” and “farming” were rarely used in the same sentence, let alone as complimentary forces. The National Grange is hard at work igniting a revolution in our organization and in our communities. For this to happen, our farms, farmers and way of farming must begin revolting.

Lately, I have had conversations with concerned people about the atmo-sphere of American politics and the current state of agricultural revolution – a revolution in which the dirt we are standing on, and covered in, is in-vested (for example: Chipotle’s new “Scarecrow” commercial – if you haven’t watched it, do so right now). What, then, makes farming truly revolutionary?

First, a definition. “Revolute” is a helpful and interesting word in connec-tion to farming. Not only can it mean, “to incite or participate in revolution,” but it can also serve as a horticultural term connoting “the tips or margins of leaves rolling back under or onto themselves.” Here, we can hold the image of the revolting farmer and the curling leaf together (this language surrounds the Sixth Degree) in that the price of counter-culture farming sometimes means the withering of the current business model of the farm and the loss of the security that comes along with such revolutionary farming.

In this way, the revolting farm literally undergoes a sort of revolution in both instances of the word. We cannot ignore the connection to the entire motif of farming: the life and death, the growth and curling, the jumping bounty of summer and the withering of winter. Although some farmers are undergoing these growing pains as their farms enter into a sort of revolution of their own, these pains are necessary and are not an end to themselves. More and more farming is turning in on itself, revoluting, pulling money and resources from big-production-driven operations and counter-investing into personal land connected to intimate stories of committed and morally concerned people. I want to call this type of farming “revolute farming.”

In the world of horticulture, revolute can mean that the tips or margins of a leaf are rolling or curling back onto itself. If we take the horticultural defini-tion, play with the word order, and read it in a human register, we get deep-er meaning of revolute that is ripe with potential concerning social justice: people at the margins and boundaries that have begun to fold back under or

into the center of society. So then, revolute farming is a lifestyle of farming that brings those and that which have been pushed or secluded to the margin back into the fold, enveloping the people and the practices that have been forgotten at the boundary back into the main vein.

We can see a prime example of what I am trying to articulate in Ameri-cus, Georgia in the 1940’s at the hands of Clarence Jordan. A biblical scholar and a lifetime farmer, Jordan decided to take his 440-acre farm in southwest Georgia and make it into a revolutionary place where black and white people lived in community together, ate common meals, and received equal wages – one of the first places in America to do such a thing. They called this revolute plot of land “Koinonia Farm,” koinonia simply meaning “community and fellowship.” Although local people hated Jordan for his farm – often sabo-taging his crops, firing guns at his home at night, and bombing his roadside produce stand – Jordan endured and became one of the prominent leaders of the civil rights movement in Georgia. The farm still operates today and stands as a beacon of hope in merging social justice with stewardship of the land. (Visit http://www.koinoniapartners.org for more info on the amazing life of Jordan, as well as the current life of the farm.)

In the life and work of Clarence Jordan and the example of Koinonia Farm, we see a type of agricultural life that pulls those people who are at the fringes of existence and places them firmly into the center of life. Jordan saw a society that was withering and could only survive by taken that which was pushed away and planting it back into the epicenter. What’s more, Jordan could not envision true revolution without some sort of connection to the land; his uprising was one that could only take place by being embedded deeper into the soil around him, with those around him. Jordan may be the prime definition of what it means to be a revolute farmer.

How, then, can we become revolute? The singular act of shopping at Whole Foods is not enough to satiate what it means to be revolutionary, and eating organic fails to encompass every bit of our moral obligation when it comes to being revolute farmers. Furthermore, growing your own food is still not enough. The goal of revolute farming is for the farming lifestyle to engulf every part of your being and to invade every minute and facet of your life. This means that having dirt under your finger nails must go with tend-ing to those who are, in every respect, dirty and forgotten. This life involves

2 | Patrons Chain 150th Annual National Grange Convention Edition | Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016

Opinion / Editorial

We welcome guest writers and letters to the editor as well as short feedback. Should you have something you wish to say - from praise of our coverage to complaints

about our word searches - please send your thoughts or opinion pieces to communications@nationalgrange.org. We welcome full-length editorials from guest writers on topics of interest to members but will screen for language and approriate-ness of content. We reserve the right to edit grammar and spelling of submissions.

Submissions may be made by members attending convention or those not attending or not yet Grange members. Thank you in advance for your contribution.

G r a n g e members have always been Do-ers—those members of the community who volunteer to help out where needed, whether

in the schools, 4-H clubs, soup kitchens, sewing circles, or anywhere else

they see fit. But who will be the Do-ers when our generation is gone?

Robert Putnam’s book, Bowling Alone studies this question in depth. Through much research he proves that since 1950 the level of club and church membership, community volunteers, and even – as the title suggests - bowling leagues has declined precipitously.

While he doesn’t go into what our society

may look like without people who don’t just Do but join to Do, each of us can likely take a moment and think of what our communities might lose – the annual festival an organization sponsors, the gifts collected and given to children from families in need at the holidays, the little Hall where every social organization in town goes to work for their cause and fellowship with their neighbors. All of those are pieces of a community’s identity that can be lost without Do-ers.

How can we identify the next generation of joiners and Do-ers and encourage them to be active? Can we accept the change that may come with a new generation of Do-ers and their ways of accomplishing things?

We want to continue to honor our legacy of community service and responsibility, while encouraging new members to take over dedication to our hometowns and their people, but we have to accept the new Do-ers we find may want to do in a different way.

The theme for Grange Month 2017 – yes, we

have thought of this early because it is really that important to come together as a Grange team to make Grange Month a huge success – is “What Will We Do When the Do-ers Are Gone?”

The above are questions for discussion at your April open house meetings – not just for your members to consider or try to answer but to pose to your community. Invite them in and ask “what will we lose if we do not find Do-ers or find them but turn them away?” These are serious issues for the future of our organization – and our communities – and we need to strategically plan our responses. State Masters will receive all the Grange Month information at this Convention, so we hope you will distribute it to all Community Granges as soon as you get home so they will have plenty of time to plan some excellent events and activities to bring into focus this issue. Encourage them to honor the Do-ers in their community and collaborate with other organizations in their efforts because this challenge faces us all.

BETSY E. HUBER

National President (Master)

National President’s Message

Farmers need a Revolution: Harvesting from the MarginsBY JOSH BARFIELDTracFone Communications Fellowjoshuacbarfield@gmail.com

FARMERS, pg.4

Patrons Chain 150th Annual National Grange Convention Edition | Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016 | 3

Stay connected with Grange youthAre you

looking for a way to connect with the Grange youth while at Nation-al convention?

Charlene Shupp Espenshade, National Youth director, is bringing that connection to your fin-gertips.

The Remind app is an instant messaging ap-plication that, while keeping your information private, allows you to send one way messages, or two way communications. The free app can con-nect you to the National Youth director, as well as the youth members or their parents. “This app helps me more effectively communicate with par-ents by sending direct messages to their phones,” said Mandy Bostwick, a third grade teacher from the Kansas State Grange said.

The app was introduced to some Oklahoma Grange Youth earlier this week. “It will help me

to connect without needing phone numbers or e-mail addresses throughout National session,” Melody Shufeldt exclaimed.

“This app will assist me in communicating any changes during the National Convention thus keeping everyone easily informed,” Shupp Espenshade commented. “It will also help me to know who is messaging me and an easy way to get back to everyone in a timely manner.”

If you would like to connect to the Na-tional Grange youth, go to www.remind.com/joinngyt16.

BY TERESA THOMASTracFone Communication Fellowreesie926@hotmail.com

Granges across the country participate in The Dictionary Project, known to Grangers as Words for Thirds. The Dictionary Project began in 1992 in Sa-vannah, Georgia, inspired by Annie Plummer who gave 50 dictionaries to local school children. Plum-mer’s idea attracted the attention of Bonnie Beefer-man, who began raising money by selling crafts to buy dictionaries for schoolchildren of Hilton Head, South Carolina and the surrounding communities. Mary French, a local school volunteer, joined the program in 1995 due to its popularity.

The Dictionary Project website works to make getting dictionaries to third graders as easy as possi-ble. There are a variety of different dictionary options that range in price from $36 per case of 24 to $60.

The National Grange has partnered with the Dic-tionary Project since 2002. During that time over 920 Granges have participated donating roughly 893,598 dictionaries. So far this school year alone, Grangers have donated 43,596 dictionaries to over 285 schools from 270 different Granges.

If you would like to join the partnership, head to www.dictionaryproject.com and compare donation costs for your Grange.

Words for Thirds

BY KARIE BLASINGAMETracFone Communication FellowKblasingame77@gmail.com

In her first full year as the National Grange Convention and Operations Director, Stephanie Tiller, is no stranger to planning large events and conventions. She used to plan meetings and events for the Department of Justice, Depart-ment of Health, and Department of Education.

Tiller has been an events planner for twen-ty-five years, which requires numerous skills, including knowing how to handle different events and situations, communicating at once with dozens of people, and interacting with ev-eryone. The difference between the government meetings and organizing the National Grange Convention, however, is that National Grange Convention is typically a ten day long event. The government meetings she found to be typically

2-3 days, not to mention that National Grange Convention is a constantly moving process of many events and situations.

The position Tiller holds is not as simple as sitting at a table during Convention and giving everyone their badge and banquet tickets. “It’s a lot more than that. You can follow me around all day and talk to me, and you still won’t see a fraction of what I do. There is so much I do at midnight, at 3am, with hotel staff, Amanda, and others,” Tiller said.

After deciding which state the National Grange Convention is to be held in, Tiller will travel there to tour hotels to find which suits the National Grange Convention’s needs. The 2018 National Grange Convention, of which will be held in Stowe, Vermont, is the first National Grange Convention Tiller contracted and signed as the new Convention and Operations Director.

Tiller brings event planning skills to Grange

BY ANN KEETONTracFone Communications Fellowannkeeton@gmail.com

4 | Patrons Chain 150th Annual National Grange Convention Edition | Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016

Mike Brubaker and his brother Tony milk and feed about 950 cows in Mount Joy.

The past year has been rough on Lancaster County dairy farmers, as astute shoppers might have deduced at the supermarket. The price for a gallon of milk has dropped 60 cents since reaching record levels in 2014, according to the Pennsylva-nia Milk Marketing Board.

In recent months, the drop in price has trans-lated into a 40 percent pay cut for dairy farmers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports.

For many farmers, sales have not paid for the cost of producing milk, forcing them to draw down savings, extend lines of credit or go out of business.

That’s a big deal in Lancaster County, the eighth-largest dairy producer in the United States, with all of the other top 10 milk-producing coun-ties in the West. According to the 2012 Census

of Agriculture, there were 110,805 milk cows on 1,878 farms in Lancaster County, producing about $400 million in wholesale milk sales.

Lower farm incomes are felt by the larger com-munity, as about 85 percent of farm income goes to support local businesses and the community tax base, according to the Pennsylvania Center for Dairy Excellence.

Mike Brubaker, in partnership with his broth-er Tony at Brubaker Farms in Mount Joy, has been on the front line of those price shifts. “The general rule of thumb is our dairy has 60 to 65 percent of our income as it was two years ago,” he said. The farm’s bills for feeding its herd of Holsteins have dropped some, and equipment upgrades have been delayed, Brubaker said, but “our costs are not one-third less.”

Still, it’s business as usual for Mike and Tony Brubaker. They and their employees have 950 cows to milk and feed, along with crops to tend. They also raise broiler chickens as another source of income.

About half of what grocery shoppers pay for

the Brubakers’ milk returns to them. The other half pays for transporting, processing, packaging and selling the milk, according to Chuck Nichol-son, a professor of supply chain management at Penn State’s Smeal College of Business.

Overall supply and demand, both domesti-cally and in the export market, determine what prices farmers are paid.

Store prices follow that trend, with slight de-lays in increases or decreases. Wholesalers and re-tailers also will “smooth” prices to avoid sudden, dramatic changes, Nicholson said.

Their profit margins are the largest when the prices paid to farmers are the lowest, he said, which is one reason the topic is popular among farmers this year.

In addition to producing milk, Mike Brubak-er is on the governing board of the 325-member Mount Joy Farmers Cooperative.

“Anything we can do to return more to the farmer, we try to do,” he said. “It’s not easy. ... At times like this, you look under every rock to save some money.”

Shoppers Save, Farmers SufferBY CHARELENE SHUPP ESPENSHADEGuest Columnist, Lancaster Farmingcshupp.eph@lnpnews.com

FARMERSfrom pg. 2that gleaning your harvest have some legitimate con-nection with those who are hungry. Revolute farm-ing entails watching your plants fold back into them-selves in the offseason as much as it means pulling in the marginalized from the boundaries of society into your community, or going to theirs; that our hands and faces stay different colors after we wash them off.

What does it mean to practice revolutionary farming? – Our Granges will only know as we plant, harvest, and struggle to figure and live it out.

Soles4Souls is an organization that has cel-ebrated 10 years of wearing out poverty. The organization collects shoes and ships them pri-marily overseas to people in need. According to Soles4Souls, they believe that everyone around the world deserves a good pair of shoes.

Grangers have taken on a community service project each year at national session. This project was chosen because Grangers have worked with this organization in the past and there is always a need for donations of shoes and socks.

Most of those receiving the shoes have one main mode of transportation, walking, which is exemplified in the organization’s motto: wear-ing out poverty one pair of shoes at a time. This charitable giving of members within our organi-zation is another act of kindness and aligns with our motto “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”

Community service project with soleBY LORI WUESTTracFone Communication FellowLawz095@gmail.com

Lindsay SchroederA sampling of the socks and shoes collected for the Soles 4 Souls program.

Corey SpenceInscription on the World War II Memorial

For live coverage of convention events, visit our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/nationalgrange.(LiveStream coverage is not available through the posted link.)

Patrons Chain 150th Annual National Grange Convention Edition | Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016 | 5

Historic building houses Grange

industry.Thompson noted that dairy farmers are paid

around $14 CWT with production costs running about $20 CWT. He stated that the USDA has purchased cheese and other products for food banks and families in need to assist dairy producers but the dairy industry is a complicated issue.

He spoke about the impacts foreign politics have on the agriculture industry in the US. He attributed a large portion of the struggles that dairy farmers face today being caused by the increase in milk competition in our trade markets due to Russia’s ban on European Union dairy imports. “When the European Union couldn’t export

their extra milk into Russia, they began to sell it into the markets where we export milk. Today dairy exports across the Nation, but specifically in Pennsylvania, are down 65% as a result,” Rep. Thompson stated. “If you don’t think that agriculture is a complicated issue, well it can get caught up in the geopolitics of our time.”

Thompson stated, “There are two things that define the quality of life. One is food security and the other is energy security. Without food security and energy security you have infant mortality, you have illiteracy, you have war, and you have violence.”

Thompson continued by stating “For our country to ever be at a point where we are dependent on another country for our food is completely unacceptable… and this is why it is important to focus on those who dedicate their

lives on those who feed us.”Rep. Thompson noted how sometimes rural

Americans are left out of the discussions in congress because of the increased populations in the urban cities, however rural America cannot be forgotten.

“The fact is without a robust rural America, people in the cities will wake up in the cold, in the dark and hungry, and so we have really a moral obligation to make sure we do our best to fulfill the focus and mission of the National Grange.” Thompson said.

He also applauded the Grange’s role in advocating for rural healthcare and rural broadband by quoting something someone told him long ago, “if you’re not at the table, you’re probably on the menu and… the Grange is at the Table.”

THOMPSONfrom pg. 1

The building that currently houses the National Grange Head-quarters wasn’t the first building to house the National Grange, but it remains the only privately-owned building on several blocks directly adjacent to the White House and Lafayette Park.

Construction on the 11-story building at 1616 H Street was completed in the spring of 1960. On June 29th, over 1,500 people came to Washington, DC. to attend the dedication ceremonies. Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson and President Dwight D. Eisenhower led the festivities.

Grange leaders were very excited that the President had agreed to speak at the dedication ceremony and asked Benson to write the dedication speech for him. Eisenhower wasn’t satisfied with the speech Benson wrote, and reportedly asked Master Her-schel Newsom to write a speech for him to deliver.

David H. Howard writes about the historical dedication speech in his book People, Pride and Progress: 125 years of the Grange in America. “Just before the president was introduced, Ike reached into his pocket for the copy of the speech drafted by Newsom – the speech he had to give in just a few moments. [National Lecturer] Brake saw Eisenhower fumble in his pocket and then whispered to Benson, ‘I left the speech at home. What in the hell should I do?’ Benson, somewhat ruffled, turned to the president and said, ‘I don’t care what you do, but get up there and dedicate this building for Herschel!” Despite this minor glitch Eisen-hower gave a well-received speech.

In order to construct the headquarters building, the National Grange needed a mortgage of approximately 1.17 million dollars. The first nine floors of the building were rented right after the dedication to help offset the hefty mortgage. While the tenth and eleventh floors were used as the actual National Grange headquarters.

At the 1975 National Grange Convention, a bicentennial cookbook was

unveiled as a fundraiser to help pay off the mortgage. Over 175,000 copies of the cookbook had been sold by 1977, allowing the National Grange to retire the debt. On March 25, 1977, 17 years after the dedication, a Mort-gage Burning Ceremony took place. Pieces of the burned mortgage can still be seen today, inside a jar atop a display case in the National Master’s office.

Today the National Grange offices only occupy the 11th floor. This has significantly reduced the office area footprint needed and maximizes rental space available for tenants.

Like most buildings that are over 50 years old, the National Grange building needs renovations and updates. The Goss conference room for example, though repainted for the 50th dedication in 2010, needs improve-ments to maintain the style and beauty of the building.

It should be remembered that we are but the current caretakers of the Grange building. It is an asset that should be treasured and preserved.

BY MANDY BOSTWICKTracFone Communication Fellowsmandybostwick@gmail.com

6 | Patrons Chain 150th Annual National Grange Convention Edition | Wednesday , Nov. 16, 2016

Herd gets special treatment, makes plans

I A N J H B S N S D T U W Z N T H B U T G N R A N R C F V G P N X L C A O M O T O N Q F O P S G W N S I I O O I R P U R D E L E G A T E S F E O T J F D L V P H N A W V F G D N A M V C A T E D C M J I N V I A P C C U V U F I U L C A N K B L D O N W B D N T Q E R C G F C Y O N R Z I U U O R G J P J C C J B R O H M Q Y S G O L D D U X L R G V M N O I S S E S U T L S Y N T O G N I W K Y R E Q V G X M P C M Y F B J V H Q E W Z O X M Z H P W T M A Y P

COMMUNICATIONS CONVENTION DELEGATES GOLD GRANGE JUNIORS NATIONAL OFFICERS PATRONS SESSION YOUTH

WORDFIND

COMMUNICATIONSCONVENTIONDELEGATESGOLDGRANGEJUNIORSNATIONALOFFICERSPATRONSSESSION

The Herd comes marching one by one hurrah, hurrah. War wounds, dog bites and other miscellaneous injuries have been mended. Dusty the Bull had a calcium transplant to his horn, Frieda the mouse had her leg re-attached and Beatrice had a tail transplant. A haircut, fur fluff, and powder shower was given to all members of the Herd. They are now refreshed and ready to return to the frontlines. The Herd has been on a three-year mission from Willie the Sheep to encourage positive interactions between Grange members and to help connect members to social media. The Herd has even helped raise money for causes throughout the Grange year.

The Herd held a round table discussion of what their mission will be for the next year. They have their work cut out for them as the 150th National Session begins and will surely play an important role during the 150th anniversary celebration.

BY ANN KEETONTracFone Communications Fellowannkeeton@gmail.com

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Use this code to figure out the secret message of the day. Write the correct message on the slip of paper and put it in the CODE BOX at the back of the session hall and be entered for a chance to win a prize!

DeCIPHER