NFU Blog

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.

By Tom Buis, National Farmers Union President

The following letter was to the editor of TIME magazine in response to the magazine’s April 7 cover story, The Clean Energy Scam.

The Clean Energy Scam must be what Dwight Eisenhower was talking about when he said, “farming is mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the nearest corn field.”

It’s easy for those far away from the heartland to point fingers; yet rural Americans are the ones finding the solutions we need to decrease our dependence on oil.

Land conversion in developing countries, as explained in the article, has been occurring for decades. In fact, the Science article quoted by author Michael Grunwald uses land conversion data from the 1990s, long before the expansion of the ethanol industry and when commodity prices were at record lows.

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National Farmers Union President Tom Buis today held a media conference call to discuss ongoing farm bill negotiations and other issues of the day. In spite of some technical difficulties that had Buis joking he needed to put more coins in the phone, it was a very interesting discussion.

Buis reiterated NFU’s position that a new farm bill needs to be written - a straight extension or a baseline bill likely won’t be able to muster enough votes to pass. Buis said he’s a confident person and is confident all sides will come to an agreement and pass a farm bill in April.

Buis also discussed the Farmers Union Carbon Credit Program. Nearly 3.5 million acres have been enrolled since the program’s start and there is continued interest across the countryside from producers looking to help solve our environmental challenges.

By Tom Buis, National Farmers Union President

The farm bill unanimously approved Oct. 25 by the Senate Agriculture Committee is a good, fiscally responsible bill that includes record investments in conservation, nutrition, renewable energy development and specialty crop programs. America’s family farmers, ranchers, rural residents and consumers stand to benefit.

The Senate farm bill also contains a permanent disaster assistance program to aid producers affected by devastating weather conditions out of their control; allows for interstate shipment of state-inspected meat so producers can sell their high-quality products to their neighbors across state lines; and, after repeated delays, includes a means to implement mandatory country-of-origin labeling, giving our nation’s consumers the right to know where their food comes from.

Continue reading Tom’s Op-Ed that appeared the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on Nov. 30.

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.

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By Tom Buis, National Farmers Union President

June is National Dairy Month and I am pleased to have the opportunity to thank dairy producers across the nation for the affordable, abundant, safe and high quality dairy products they produce for consumers around the world.

As consumers face increased food retail prices this summer, they are often left wondering why. Too often, the media will say it’s the fault of the producer. Too often, consumers don’t understand that the amount of money they pay for groceries is very limited in its connection to the amount of money the producer receives for that product.

The assertion that dairy farmers are to blame for increased dairy products couldn’t be further from the truth. (more…)

NFU is urging all producers to take action and contact their representatives in the U.S. House and urge their support for agricultural disaster assistance.

Click here to contact your representatives.

The House Appropriations committee yesterday announced a vote on emergency domestic supplemental funding, including agricultural disaster assistance, would occur this Friday, May 11. The package includes $3.5 billion in disaster assistance and a one month extension of the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program, among other provisions.

The disaster funding would assist producers who suffered crop and livestock losses from weather-related disasters during fiscal years 2005, 2006, and 2007. Eligible producers must select one year from which to receive the funding. Eligibility would be based on whether producers carried crop insurance during the selected year. The package provides assistance for farmers who lost 35 percent or more of their crop in one of the covered years and for livestock producers in counties that received a Secretarial or Agriculture Department disaster designation during the covered time.

Virtually every state across the country has suffered from significant weather related losses either in 2005, 2006 or 2007. Losses are a result of devastating hurricanes, fires, floods, frost/early-freezing, blizzards, severe drought and more.

NFU President Tom Buis just returned from Capitol Hill following his testimony before the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Click here to read the full testimony.

Click here to read the news release and listen to audio.