NFU Blog

From NFU Summer Intern Kale Van Bruggen

On Tuesday, the three interns – Kale Van Bruggen, Mike Stranz and Tyler Fischer - were treated to lunch by Tom Buis and Katy Ziegler at North Dakota Farmers Union’s restaurant, Agraria, located on Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown waterfront.  We were very impressed with the upscale service at the restaurant as well as the “from our fields to your table” theme consistent with the entire dining experience. (more…)

Have you ever wondered about crop conditions around the country? Sure, you can learn about them on the news or look them up online - but now you can discover first-hand how America’s fields are doing from fellow Farmers Union members through our new Crop Conditions Blog.

What’s the catch? We need you to submit reports of how your crops are coming along. To do this:

1. Sign up for a Google account - it’s free!
2. Email your new Google username to us at nationalfarmersunion@nfudc.org
3. We’ll then activate your profile as a contributor to the blog and give you further instructions.

Good luck and happy blogging! Check out the blog today to see the first few entries.

**Thanks Minnesota Farmers Union member Tim Henning for the great idea!

From NFU Summer Intern Mike Stranz

On Monday, NFU President Tom Buis appeared on the Fox Business Channel’s Bulls and Bears to discuss commodity prices and their relation to rising grocery prices. Tyler and I got to tag along.

Fox News is in the same building as NFU, so it was only a brisk walk and an elevator ride away.

We were promptly escorted to the green room, where photos of notable politicians (John Kerry, Newt Gingrich, Howard Dean, Condoleeza Rice, Dick Cheney, Mike Huckabee and many more) adorned the walls. News anchors and other guests milled about. Hair care and make up were applied in full force and last minute facts and figures were streaming in. It was quite a scene.

A few minutes before going live, Tom was hustled into a studio with a newsy backdrop and seated before the camera. Tyler and I took up positions in a nearby cubicle with a live feed of the broadcast. The anchors in New York delivered their intro, Tom cleared his throat and we were live.

In all, the segment lasted about only two minutes. Tom fired his shots about how less than 20 cents of every dollar spent on food makes its way back to the farm, energy costs are driving up prices across the board and how farmers are responding effectively to free market pressures. He even noted that popcorn vendors at movie theatres are raising prices and citing higher corn costs – even though anyone who knows anything about agriculture can tell you that popcorn and field corn are two very different commodities. He covered a lot of ground.

If you want to be heard, you must have your sound bites ready to go – especially when you’re live on Fox News. That was today’s lesson.

Nearly everyone has wondered at least once why in the world we change our clocks twice a year to adjust for “daylight” hours. Most people will attribute it to farmers, who presumably need the extra sunlight for planting and harvesting crops. Others still will attempt to use an ancient tale of those living in nearly constant darkness to explain this strange necessity.

My intuition tells me neither is true.

Whatever the explanation may be, ABC’s 20/20 attempts to uncover the secrets behind the bi-annual tradition and debunk the myth that modern-day farmers actually need the extra daylight hours to feed and fuel America.

Watch the show, “Your Weather: Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity,” on Friday, April 18 at 10:00 p.m ET. ABC also ran a story, “What (or Who) Is Daylight-Saving Time Saving? Myths and Truths About Why We Change the Clocks,” yesterday about the time-change mystery.

On January 15, the FDA announced the findings of the department’s final risk assessment for the consumption of cloned animal products. The FDA’s announcement that food from cloned animals is safe to eat will likely pave the way for these products to soon be available to consumers.

While many people feel cloning animals has moral, ethical or social implications, the safety of consuming this food should certainly be studied further. The long-term effects of eating products from cloned animals are still unknown. Also, in light of recent food safety scares, many consumers have become disenchanted with the FDA’s procedures and decisions.

NFU’s e-newsletter recently asked about human consumption of products from cloned animals, as well as whether or not those products should be labeled. One consumer said, “Knowing the FDA’s history, I don’t trust these products have been adequately tested for consumer safety.”

So is this country ready for more food that could be risky or dangerous to our health? If cloned products do enter the market, they should be labeled as such to allow consumers to make an informed decision about what they eat and where it comes from. Along with implementing mandatory COOL, USDA should extend mandatory labeling procedures to food that comes from cloned animals or their offspring.

Another respondent to our poll said, “Why consume cloned product when natural is available?”

Assuming that products from cloned animals and their offspring are safe to eat, is it even necessary to clone animals for human consumption? There are plenty of farms in this country who are willing and able to provide natural animals and animal products to our consumers. The only people that stand to benefit from a closed-door cloned animal product operation are large corporations.

In the United States, the average grocery store’s produce travels nearly 1,500 miles between the farm where it was grown and your refrigerator. The industrialized method of food production is considered efficient and profitable for large corporations, but it can be harmful to our health, the environment and rural communities. Fresh produce from local, family farms can provide consumers with fresher, healthier products while reducing the carbon footprint left by reducing the transportation necessary to get the products from the farm to your table.

For Our Health - Buying local food from local farms means getting food when it’s at its prime. Fresh food from local farms are healthier and tastier because food doesn’t spend days on trucks and shelves losing valuable nutrients or undergoing extensive processing.

(more…)

Today is World Food Day, a worldwide event designed to increase awareness and action to alleviate hunger.

On this day, as a World Food Day sponsor, National Farmers Union recognizes the contributions that family agriculture producers make to the availability, affordability and quality of America’s food supply.

Americans spend less on food than anywhere else in the world! Of every dollar Americans spend, just 9.9 cents is spent on food.

Farmers receive only a portion of the food dollar, with the large majority going into marketing, processing, wholesaling, distribution and retailing. For example, an 18-ounce box of Corn Flakes is priced at $3.70 in Washington, D.C. grocery stores. The farmer’s share of that total? Five cents.

Recognize World Food Day — and the farmers who produce our food — today by:

1) Visiting NFU’s MySpace and leave a message thanking family farmers for their contribution to our nation’s food supply.

2) Subscribing to the NFU MySpace blog and reading the latest entry: “Food vs. Fuel.”

3) Visit World Food USA Today for events and ideas for fighting hunger. Share ideas of your own.

4) Becoming a “Friend of the Family Farmer.” More information is available here.

5) Reposting this so that your friends can recognize the day as well.

By Tom Buis, National Farmers Union President

It’s only natural that consumers want to know why prices are increasing at their neighborhood grocery. The big oil lobby and a host of special interest groups have begun promulgating the myth that increased ethanol production, and its demand for corn crops, is responsible for increased food costs. It’s a gross oversimplification and in fact, its plain wrong.

According the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), non-farm costs including marketing, processing, wholesaling, distribution and retailing account for 80 cents of every food dollar spent in the United States. For example, an 18-ounce box of Corn Flakes is priced at $3.70 in Washington, D.C. grocery stores. The farmer’s share of that total? Five cents. There is a lot more at play than corn prices. Furthermore, Americans spend less on food than anywhere else in the world. Of every dollar Americans spend, just 9.9 cents is spent on food.

(more…)

As we become increasingly dependent upon the Internet, a large portion of rural America is left without the possibility to get online unless using a painfully slow dial-up phone line connection. As the world moves more high-tech, the content online is more complex and requires faster connections.

A recent article in Computerworld highlights the problems that rural internet users, and Internet Service Providers, struggle with. Covering the vast distances between houses in rural America with broadband infrastructure is much harder, more costly and more time-consuming than in urban areas. But does this mean that rural Americans should be denied the Internet access that other Americans enjoy?

Is having access to high speed Internet as essential to society as having access to a telephone? Missouri Farmers Union president testified before the House Small Business Committee Subcommittee on Rural and Urban Entrepreneurship on exactly that. Internet access for rural Americans is just as important as it is anywhere else in America.

Your thoughts and concerns are encouraged—post a comment below!

Read more about NFU’s rural broadband connectivity policy.

After five years of delays, mandatory country-of-origin labeling is set to be implemented in 2008. The house farm bill passed at the end of July includes language to efficiently and cost-effectively implement this law that so many have been waiting so long for.

A recent consumer poll released by Zogby shows that 94% of American consumers believe they have a right to know where their food comes from. While knowing where food comes from does not necessarily make it safe, it can help consumers make wiser, safer decisions during their next trip to the grocery store, and according to the poll, 90% of consumers agree. 88% even believe that all retail food should mandatorily be labeled.

Read more about NFU’s COOL policy.