Norwegian Farm Culture - The Farmers and Politics

The Farmers and Politics

The farmers made a strong opposition in the Norwegian Storting from 1835 and forwards. After some years, they got a reputation for making investments difficult. It was well known that the farmers owned most of the country's real estate, and thus, also the resources. As time went on, the farmers and the growing bourgeois communities clashed in the parliament several times. The farmer's opposition, as it was called, was in many cases unwilling to pay the expenses in the gradual building of the nation.

After the breakthrough for parliamentarism in 1884, the farmers joined the liberal left-wing party under Johan Sverdrup. Here they remained for many years, sometimes breaking out and joining again in the tumultuous history of the party. From 1920 the farmers made their own political party in Norway, called the Farmer's Party (Norwegian: Bondepartiet) later Centre Party (Norwegian: Senterpartiet). The party and their name lost goodwill during the 1930s, because of the ill-reputed government of 1931 with Vidkun Quisling acting as a secretary of defence, representing Bondepartiet in the government.

After the crash of 1929, many farmers lost their properties, and a crisis-plan was established. In this, the newly formed Nasjonal Samling (NS) party played a role, and many farmers in gratitude voted, or joined the NS the following years. As the tides turned during the 1930s, the farmers got out of the NS, mostly because they didn't need them anymore. Some of the most wealthy farmers stayed on. This turned out to be a problem for them as World War II came to Norway. In recent years, some historians accuse the entire farmer community in Norway for being sympathetic to the NS. That is not, strictly speaking, true. Although some of the greatest landowners in Eastern Norway and Gudbrandsdalen was on the inside, this was not the case in other areas. Vinje and upper Telemark was reputedly free from NS influence, and the party never found support there.

After the war, it has been the goal of both the Norwegian right-wing party Høyre and the Labour party, who took power in 1935 and kept it almost ever since, to reduce the number of farms in Norway. The Labour party wanted space and manpower for industry, and rather wanted people to join their affiliated unions than possibly favouring other parties. Høyre wanted to get rid of the farmers because of an ancient grudge, dating back to the 19th century. The Norwegian property laws became a hindrance for free trade, and so were the farmers, they claimed.

When the tensions rose in Norway because of the EEC, later the EU, Norwegian farmers positioned themselves with the strong No-block, and with support from other left-wing groups, they stopped Norway from joining the union twice. This is also a reason for right-wing grudges against the farm culture.

Today, many Norwegian farms and farmers struggle to make much money due to the globalisation of the food market. Most Norwegian farmers produce their goods, mostly food, for the sake of their own, and continue and old tradition of "self-preserving". This philosophy has been strong in Norway at all times. They are, of course, sceptical of the WTO agreements, and instead wish to join sides with the farmers of developing countries rather than be aligned to farmers in the USA. As Norway is considered a modern industrialized country, this is somewhat difficult to explain. The explanation may lie in the fact that Norway is still a small country with a small market, and no threat to anyone. The farmers claim that free trade would kill off the entire agriculture of Norway, as they would not be able to compete for very long.