# Wayne Cryts > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Wayne_Cryts > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Wayne_Cryts.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Cryts > Source revision: 1296907661 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|American farmer and activist}} '''Wayne Cryts''' is a former [Missouri](/source/Missouri) farmer who protested against American [grain elevator](/source/grain_elevator) [bankruptcy law](/source/bankruptcy_law) in the early 1980s. At the time, farmers who stored crops in a grain elevator did not retain an [ownership interest](/source/ownership_interest) in the crops if the elevator company went bankrupt. Cryts worked with 500 other farmers to remove his [soybeans](/source/soybeans) from a bankrupt grain elevator, leading to his arrest. In response, the [United States Congress](/source/United_States_Congress) passed legislation modifying the relevant [law](/source/law). Cryts later ran for Congress twice, but lost both times. ==Personal life== Wayne Cryts and his wife Sandy lived in [Puxico, Missouri](/source/Puxico%2C_Missouri), where they operated their own family farm until their marriage in 1964, when they worked on a farm together. The Cryts were members of the [American Agriculture Movement](/source/American_Agriculture_Movement), an organization that supported a [fair wage](/source/fair_wage) for farmers, from 1978 until the 1990s.{{cite web |url=https://library.semo.edu/findingaids/Wayne_and_Sandy_Cryts_Family_Papers_Finding_Aid.pdf |title=Wayne and Sandy Cryts Family Papers 1977–2010 |website=Southeast Missouri State University |access-date=June 25, 2022}} ==Grain elevator bankruptcy== In August 1980, the grain company in [Ristine, Missouri](/source/Ristine%2C_Missouri) became bankrupt. One of the grain elevators had stored Cryts' soybean crop from the prior year. Cryts traveled to Washington D.C. twice to petition the [Carter administration](/source/Presidency_of_Jimmy_Carter) for assistance, but there was little the government could do. In January 1981, Cryts contacted news reporters to warn the Ristine-based company that he would "take matters into his own hands" if it did not release the beans to him within the next month. When the company refused Cryts' ultimatum, Cryts embarked on a plan of [civil disobedience](/source/civil_disobedience): he would take the beans, pay off a loan that he borrowed against the beans, and accept whatever consequences came his way.{{cite magazine |last=Nuwer |first=Hank |date=September 1982 |title=Farmer hero of the soybean raid |magazine=The Saturday Evening Post |volume= 254 |issue=6 |pages=30–32}} On February 16, 1981, over 3,000 farmers traveled to a group of grain elevators in [New Madrid, Missouri](/source/New_Madrid%2C_Missouri), to support Cryts. At the elevator, a [US marshal](/source/US_marshal) served Cryts with a court order directing that Cryts' beans be sold to pay the [bankrupt](/source/bankrupt) company's debts. Nevertheless, Cryts, with 500 of the 3,000 farmers, spent the next two days removing the 31,000 soybean bushels from the elevator. Most locals sympathetized with Cryts' plight. [FBI](/source/FBI) agents and federal marshals did not interfere with Cryts as he removed the beans, and the media covered the story in a positive light. Local farmers sold the beans on Cryts' behalf, and a grand jury refused to indict Cryts for theft. Because Cryts refused to identify his [accomplice](/source/accomplice)s, the court fined him $300,000 for [contempt](/source/contempt_of_court) plus an extra $1,500 ''per diem'' until payment. After arrest, he was sent to the Pope County Detention Center in [Russellville, Arkansas](/source/Russellville%2C_Arkansas), where outraged farmers then [picketed](/source/picket_line) with their tractors.{{cite book | last=Bloodworth | first=Jeffrey | title=Losing the Center: The Decline of American Liberalism, 1968–1992 | publisher=University Press of Kentucky | year=2013 | isbn=978-0-8131-4231-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IVgyIh320sUC&pg=PA57 | access-date=June 25, 2022 | page=57}} In response, Congress changed the relevant law.{{cite book | title=Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978: Oversight on grain elevator insolvencies | publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office| year=1981 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NdRdnXPpUJYC&pg=PA5 | access-date=June 25, 2022 | page=5-6}} Cryts was acquitted of his contempt charges by a federal jury in June 1983.{{cite news |url=https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/1983/06/03/farmer-tickled-to-death-after-contempt-acquittal/62843252007/ |title=Farmer 'tickled to death' after contempt acquittal |date=June 3, 1983 |newspaper=[The Oklahoman](/source/The_Oklahoman) |access-date=September 12, 2022 }} ==Later years== Cryts ran as the [Democratic](/source/Democratic_Party_(United_States)) candidate for [Missouri's 8th congressional district](/source/Missouri's_8th_congressional_district) against Republican [Bill Emerson](/source/Bill_Emerson) in 1986 and 1988, but lost both times. The Cryts' farm fell into [foreclosure](/source/foreclosure) in 1987, and the Cryts began to teach students the history of the grain elevator incident. Cryts and writer [Jerry Hobbs](/source/Jerry_Hobbs) co-wrote a memoir, published in 2005 with the title ''One Man with Courage: The Wayne Cryts Story.'' ==References== {{reflist}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Cryts, Wayne}} Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Farmers from Missouri Category:American non-fiction writers Category:People from Stoddard County, Missouri Category:20th-century Missouri politicians --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Wayne Cryts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Cryts) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Cryts?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.