By Hannah Packman, NFU Communications Director Climate change is not a future or hypothetical problem – year after year, farmers and ranchers across the country are enduring more frequent and extreme weather events and natural disasters. This year has been no different. In California, dozens of fires have burned through hundreds of thousands of acres, destroying farm … Read More
Blog
Small Rural Towns Embrace Urban Farming
By Billy Mitchell, NFU FSMA Training Coordinator The term “urban farming” evokes images of gleaming greenhouses scattered across New York rooftops, shipping containers full of greens in Charleston, South Carolina, or raised beds in the shadow of the Oakland A’s stadium. But in small rural towns, some farmers are adopting practices that are hallmarks of … Read More
Attacks on USPS Threaten Rural Communities and the Democratic Process
By Hannah Packman, NFU Communications Director The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has been experiencing financial issues for many years, but dwindling mail volume during the pandemic has made matters worse, severely cutting into the agency’s revenue. Unlike most other government agencies, which are funded by taxpayer money, USPS funds itself with revenue from postage and postal service. Though the … Read More
Derecho Flattens Crops Across Midwest
By Hannah Packman, NFU Communications Director Hurricane-force winds tore through the Midwest this week, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. The storm, known as a derecho, passed from South Dakota to Ohio, knocking out power for more than a million people, blowing down trees, damaging buildings and grain bins, and flattening crops. In … Read More
Pandemic Assistance Favors Certain Farmers Over Others
By Hannah Packman, NFU Communications Director According to new analysis published this week by NBC News, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has disproportionately helped certain kinds of farmers more than others with its Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). The publication asserts that the agency “favored large, industrialized farms over smaller, diversified ones, provided loopholes … Read More
JBS Plans to Buy, Convert Lamb Processing Facility
By Hannah Packman, NFU Communications Director Brazilian company JBS, the world’s largest beef and pork processor, plans to buy the second largest lamb processing facility in the United States and use it to process beef instead, drawing concern from farmers, legislators, and anti-trust advocates. The plant, which is based in Colorado, processes about 350,000 lambs … Read More
Making Food Safety Practical and Profitable
By Billy Mitchell, FSMA Training Coordinator A mountain of paperwork just to wash your hands. Out of control costs with no end in sight. Common sense concepts lost in a maze of regulations. For a lot of growers, these are the real and perceived barriers that come with keeping our food safe. In the past … Read More
Farmers Market Pivot and Provide Safe, Local Food Systems
By Billy Mitchell, NFU FSMA Training Coordinator Just five short months ago, National Farmers Union (NFU) members attending the organization’s annual convention breezed through Forsyth Park Farmers Market in Savannah, Georgia. Today, the scene would be unthinkable: customers hugging farmers, friends standing shoulder to shoulder, shoppers testing produce ripeness with their bare hands, families generously … Read More
How Has the Pandemic Affected Food Prices?
By Hannah Packman, NFU Communications Director In the last 12 months, food prices at grocery stores have risen 5.6 percent – the largest annual increase in nearly a decade. The severity of price increases vary drastically depending on the product; beef prices, for instance are 25 percent higher than they were a year ago, while those for … Read More
Despite Bumpy Rollout, Food Box Program Supports Farmers and Hungry Americans
By Billy Mitchell, NFU FSMA Training Coordinator Like most rural back roads, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farmers to Families Food Box Program has had a few bumps along the way. But it’s also done what those dirt roads do: connect farmers to their communities and bring fresh, safe, and nutritious produce to friends … Read More
Regenerative Agriculture Unites Ranchers and Beekeepers
By Jeanne Janson, NFU Intern The answer to rapidly declining pollinator populations and the climate crisis may lie in an unexpected place: climate-friendly cow pastures. As climate change, disease, predators, and other factors decimate hives around the country, beekeepers are looking to pastureland managed with regenerative agricultural practices for a more sustainable future for their … Read More
This Dairy Month, Let’s Give Dairy Farmers Something to Celebrate
By Bobbi Wilson, Wisconsin Farmers Union Government Relations Associate Every June for the last 83 years, Americans have celebrated dairy farmers. A tradition that began as a way to encourage consumption of milk during peak production season has since become an annual celebration of the hard work dairy farm families perform every day. In Wisconsin, … Read More
LGBTQ+ Farmers Work to Build Queer-Inclusive Rural Communities
By Jeanne Janson, NFU Intern To understand how to build thriving rural communities, all we need to do is consider the ground beneath our feet. Healthy soil is complex mixture of organic and inorganic elements: clay and sand, worms and fungi, plant matter, and minerals. This hodgepodge forms the foundation that sustains all life on … Read More
The Scientific Case for Paying Farmers to Use Cover Crops and No-Till
By Dr. Deb O’Dell Scientific research helps make the case that farmers should be paid to apply no-till and cover crop practices to mitigate the effects of and adapt to climate change. Through the work that is being done at the University of Tennessee and elsewhere, scientists have found that cover crops are one of … Read More
Juneteenth and the Broken Promise of “40 Acres and a Mule”
For many Black Americans, Juneteenth is a day of celebration. Observed on June 19th, the holiday commemorates the day that the last slaves were freed in the United States in 1865 – two-and-a-half years after President Abraham Lincoln ordered their independence with the Emancipation Proclamation and two months after the Confederate army surrendered. There is … Read More
Identifying Conservation Opportunities: Resource Stewardship Evaluation Tool with Will Cannon
The Resource Stewardship Evaluation Tool (RSET) is a free program offered through National Farmers Union (NFU) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). It is available to help Iowa farmers, ranchers and land owners improve their working lands conservation efforts, and consequently improve topsoil and nutrient retention, as well as safeguard Iowa’s waterways. Will Cannon … Read More
To Protect Rural Communities from Floods, Climate-Resilient Dams are Needed
By Jeanne Janson, NFU Intern America’s infrastructure has a climate change problem. The Edenville Dam in central Michigan collapsed in May after heavy rain—nearly five inches in 48 hours—falling on already saturated land pushed the Tittabawasse River to record heights. The torrent poured into the surrounding area, destroying roads, homes, businesses, dams and farmland in … Read More
Senate Democrats Want to Know What Farmers Need to Address Climate Change
By Jenny Hopkinson, NFU Senior Government Relations Representative The Senate Democrats’ Special Committee on the Climate Crisis is seeking input on how the federal government can best assist and support farmers, ranchers, and rural communities as they respond to and mitigate the effects of climate change. The committee is asking for details on changes needed … Read More
Member Spotlight: Brent Brewer
By Jeanne Janson, NFU Intern National Farmers Union (NFU) represents a diverse group of 200,000 family farmers and ranchers and food advocates, united by the belief that strong farm families and rural communities are vital to the health, security and economic well-being of our nation. In our Member Spotlight series, we will be sharing stories … Read More
Member Spotlight: Donna Pearson McClish
By Jeanne Janson, NFU Intern National Farmers Union (NFU) represents a diverse group of 200,000 family farmers and ranchers and food advocates, united by the belief that strong farm families and rural communities are vital to the health, security and economic well-being of our nation. In our Member Spotlight series, we will be sharing stories … Read More
Identifying Conservation Opportunities: Resource Stewardship Evaluation Tool with Lee Tesdell
The Resource Stewardship Evaluation Tool (RSET) is a free program offered through National Farmers Union (NFU) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). It is available to help Iowa farmers, ranchers and land owners improve their working lands conservation efforts, and consequently improve topsoil and nutrient retention, as well as … Read More
Identifying Conservation Opportunities: Resource Stewardship Evaluation Tool with Ruth Rabinowitz
The Resource Stewardship Evaluation Tool (RSET) is a free program offered through National Farmers Union (NFU) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). It is available to help Iowa farmers, ranchers and land owners improve their working lands conservation efforts, and consequently improve topsoil and nutrient retention, as … Read More
Soil Health Shields Oklahoma Farm from Changing Weather
Editor’s note: This is the first in what will be an ongoing series that highlights the work farmers and ranchers are doing to adapt their land and operations to the effects of climate change. For more information on climate change and agriculture, check out NFU’s new climate website here. April was unseasonably cold in Central … Read More
On Earth Day, New Tools for Farmers to Advocate for Climate Policy
By Rob Larew, NFU President Today, National Farmers Union is unveiling to our members a new climate change resource center as part of our effort to support sound federal policy and the efforts of U.S. family farmers and ranchers in responding to the effects of global warming. Through this new website, we hope to share … Read More
American Agriculture Depends on Every Link in the Food Supply Chain
By Hannah Packman, NFU Communications Director Under ordinary circumstances, National Agriculture Day is an opportunity to celebrate the family farmers and ranchers who feed, fuel, and clothe our country. But these are no ordinary circumstances: a global pandemic has upended modern life as we know it. To slow its spread, millions of Americans are staying … Read More