Supply Management: Cherries, Cows, and Cognitive Dissonance – Oh, My!

August 31, 2020Blog

By Brittany Olson, Wisconsin Farmers Union Member This piece originally ran in the September/October issue of Wisconsin Farmers Union News and is available for distribution. Learn more about the Rural Voices project at www.wisconsinfarmersunion.com/rural-voices or on the WFU blog. Even though my days as a farm journalist are getting farther and farther behind me in … Read More

Climate Change Poses a Real and Imminent Threat to Agriculture

August 27, 2020Blog

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

Small Rural Towns Embrace Urban Farming

August 26, 2020Blog, Food Safety

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

NFU Urges Trump, EPA to Reject Gap Year Waiver Requests

August 21, 2020Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 21, 2020 Contact: Hannah Packman, 303-819-8737 hpackman@nfudc.org WASHINGTON – Several months after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth determined that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had improperly issued small refinery exemptions (SREs) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), the agency revealed that it has 98 pending requests for … Read More

Attacks on USPS Threaten Rural Communities and the Democratic Process

August 20, 2020Blog

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

August 13, 2020Blog

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

JBS Plans to Buy, Convert Lamb Processing Facility

August 11, 2020Blog

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

August 5, 2020Blog, Food Safety

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

August 3, 2020Blog

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