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California Farm Research and Legislative Committee
records
MS.371
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: California Farm Research and Legislative Committee records
Creator:
California Farm Reporter
Creator:
California Farm Research and Legislative
Committee
Creator:
McDonald, Grace, 1889-
Identifier/Call Number: MS.371
Physical Description:
16.35 Linear Feet
6 cartons, 1 half carton, 6 flat boxes
Date (inclusive): circa 1940-1999
Abstract: This collection documents the research
and advocacy activities of the California Farm Research and Legislative Committee
(established in 1941) and its official publication, the
California Farm
Reporter
. This collection is largely composed of materials documenting the
Committee's work on issues affecting farmers, workers, and consumers in California, as well
as some materials pertaining to broader national and international issues in the 20th
century. The bulk of the materials in this collection likely belonged to Grace McDonald,
executive secretary of the Committee and editor of the
Reporter for over 30
years. Materials directly produced by the Committee span 1941 to 1974 and include Committee
memos, reports, and promotional materials; the professional and personal correspondence of
Grace McDonald;
Reporter article drafts; meeting and event announcements,
agendas, and minutes; speech transcripts; membership and subscription records; and financial
records.
Language of Material:
English .
Collection is open for research.
Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by the creators and their heirs.
Reproduction or distribution of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair
use requires permission from the copyright owner. It is the responsibility of the user to
determine whether a use is fair use, and to obtain any necessary permissions. For more
information see UCSC Special Collections and Archives policy on Reproduction and Use.
California Farm Research and Legislative Committee records. MS 371. Special Collections and
Archives, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Unknown source of acquisition, possibly Grace McDonald in 1980s.
The California Farm Research and Legislative Committee was a coalition of farm, labor,
cooperative, consumer, church, community, and professional groups dedicated to building a
rural-urban alliance in California and across the United States. The Committee was
established in 1941 and, although the year and circumstances of its dissolution are unknown,
operated until at least 1974, the latest date of the Committee's original materials included
in this collection. The
California Farm Reporter was the official publication
of the Committee, providing subscribers monthly updates on issues affecting farmers,
workers, and consumers in California and beyond. The Committee used the
Reporter to engage in a wide range of advocacy work, leveraging research to
organize Committee members and associates around issues spanning farmer and labor
cooperatives; price controls, taxes, and subsidies; the plight of family farms; migrant
labor; wages and working conditions; water availability and utility rates; livestock,
poultry, and dairy; crop production; public health and safety; hunger and nutrition; social
welfare programs; and even broader national and international issues.
The California Farmer Research and Legislative Committee was formed after the Central Labor
Council of Santa Clara County, AFL-CIO was asked to help bail Santa Clara County prune and
apricot growers out of bankruptcy in 1941; the organizing that led to a $25-million
appropriation for farmers ultimately became the California Farm Research and Legislative
Committee. Grace McDonald served as executive secretary of the Committee and editor and
publisher of the
California Farm Reporter from 1941 until her retirement 33
years later.
The Committee faced regular financial obstacles throughout its existence. By 1972, the
Committee was forced to consider whether it would be able to continue publishing the
Reporter as an independent, cooperative news publication. While they had
once heavily relied on financial support from organized labor, in later years the Committee
struggled to raise sufficient funds from its members and associates. Following the desire of
the Committee's long-time executive secretary, Grace McDonald, to ensure the self-reliance
of the Committee beyond her impending retirement, the Committee eventually established a
nonprofit, the Farmer Consumer Associates, Inc., which continued to sponsor and house the
Reporter. The Committee was renamed at least twice in its existence,
changing first to the California Farmer Consumer Information Committee and then to the
Farmer Consumer Associates. In the 1960s, the
California Farm Reporter was
renamed the
California Farmer Consumer Reporter.
Grace Burnham McDonald was born in 1889 in New Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of a
clinical professor of neurology at Yale University. McDonald inherited a sizable sum of
money after her first husband, the son of a wealthy Kentucky whiskey maker, died in the
early 1920s. She used this fortune to further industrial and agricultural labor interests
across the United States for the remainder of her life.
In the 1920s, McDonald helped found the Workers Health Bureau in New York City, which
established the first health and safety code for workers in the building trades. In the
1930s, McDonald moved to Santa Clara, California, and worked alongside her second husband,
Joseph McDonald, to advance the railroad unity movement. In 1941, McDonald helped establish
the California Farm Research and Legislative Committee and the
California Farm
Reporter
. According to materials in this collection, McDonald's work on behalf of
the Committee and
Reporter was largely voluntary and unpaid; a collection of
typists, librarians, writers, and researchers worked alongside McDonald to publish the
Reporter from the Committee's office and research library at McDonald's
home in Santa Clara.
Throughout her life, Grace McDonald was involved in many political efforts and
organizations. McDonald died on her 95th birthday in 1984 in San Jose.
This collection documents the research and advocacy activities of the California Farm
Research and Legislative Committee (established in 1941) and its official publication, the
California Farm Reporter. This collection is largely composed of materials
documenting the Committee's work on issues affecting farmers, workers, and consumers in
California, as well as some materials pertaining to broader national and international
issues in the 20th century. The bulk of the materials in this collection likely belonged to
Grace McDonald, executive secretary of the Committee and editor of the
Reporter for over 30 years. Materials directly produced by the Committee
span 1941 to 1974 and include Committee memos, reports, and promotional materials; the
professional and personal correspondence of Grace McDonald;
Reporter article
drafts; meeting and event announcements, agendas, and minutes; speech transcripts;
membership and subscription records; and financial records. Materials not directly produced
by the Committee, but included in their records, span 1936 to 1982. Presumably materials
used for Committee and
Reporter research, these include press releases,
reports, event proceedings, speech transcripts, legislative documents, newspapers,
newsletters, and promotional materials produced by various agricultural and labor
organizations and government agencies. These materials span a wide range of topics that the
Committee often classified by issue area: agriculture, labor, consumer issues, corporations,
politics, social issues, the environment, and utilities. Recurring topics include farmer and
labor cooperatives; price controls, taxes, and subsidies; the plight of family farms;
migrant labor; wages and working conditions; water availability and utility rates;
livestock, poultry, and dairy; crop production; public health and safety; hunger and
nutrition; and social welfare programs. A smaller selection of materials span broader
national and international political issues and events, such as anti-communist persecution,
the Cold War and atomic warfare, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and the 1973
Chilean coup d'état. Forms of materials in this collection include correspondence, reports,
statements, newsletters, newspapers, agendas, minutes, legislation, and Rolodex cards.
The records in this collection are arranged in alphabetical order by title of folder, with
Rolodex cards arranged at the end.
The
California Farm Reporter and the
California Farmer-Consumer
Reporter
newsletters are available via UCSC Library Search (Call number HD1775.C2
C35).
This collection was processed by Carrie Hamilton with assistance from Alix Norton in the
Center for Archival Research and Training (CART), 2023-2024.
More information about Grace McDonald can be found in the following sources:
Grace McDonald Papers, 1936-1969. Collection Number 5203, Kheel Center for Labor-Management
Documentation & Archives, Cornell University Library.
Grace McDonald Papers, BANC MSS 85/139 cLOCAL, The Bancroft Library, University of
California, Berkeley.
Oral history of Grace McDonald, n.d., interviewed by Sherna Berger Gluck. University
Library, California State University, Long Beach.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Agriculture -- California -- Periodicals --
Archives
Business records
California farm reporter
Agriculture -- California
Conservation of natural resources
Water -- Law and legislation --
California
Consumer protection --
California
California -- Politics and
government