Though he hasn't tilled the land since, Lyman never has strayed far from agriculture. In the turbulent 1980s, while thousands of farmers across the country lost their land to banks, Lyman worked as an advocate for Montana farmers facing foreclosure and bankruptcy. He also made an unsuccessful bid for Congress running as a prairie populist who would support family farms and help make small-scale farming more profitable and sustainable. In 1986 Lyman moved his family to Washington, D.C., to become senior lobbyist for the progressive National Farmers Union. If I'm able to help move us to a more sustainable, humane agriculture, I'll be happy.
Family farms are generally much more humanely and sustainably run.
While at the Farmer's Union Lyman helped launch the Farm-Labour Coalition, which played a decisive role in persuading Congress to enact the National Organic Standards Act. A clash in management style with Rifkin led Lyman to depart the Beyond Beef campaign in 1993 to found Voice for a Sustainable Future, his one-man road show on food, the environment, animals and trade. Since then, Lyman has crisscrossed the nation, charging only for his airfare and supporting himself with money from his farming days, as well as funds from private foundations and individuals. Bruce Krug, a dairy farmer with 55 cows in Constableville, N.Y., recalls a gathering of dairy farmers who convened to listen to Lyman around Krug's dining room table. Krug, who met Lyman in the late 80's while starting a farmer's union in New York, calls the big man a friendly bull in a china shop, emphasizing the word friendly.