By Liz Brownlee, Nightfall Farm My farming tools change constantly. Today, I’ll need a pitchfork to muck out the laying hens’ winter stall in the barn. Tomorrow, I’ll open my laptop to email CSA members a reminder about pickup this Saturday. Wednesday, our first meat chicks of the year arrive; I’ll use my hands to … Read More
By Lisa Everhart Myers, Demeter Farm I am currently in a state of, what I will call, “information-induced paralysis.” What, you may ask, does this highly technical term mean? Is it life-threatening? Painful? Let me explain. Information-induced paralysis is a condition that occurs when one needs to make some sort of big decision so said person … Read More
By Sherri Dugger This is the blog I wanted to write last week. March 8 was International Women’s Day, and I began the day thinking I would write a little something about women’s work on the farm. Then I got to doing all my other work and never found time to write. Today, I will … Read More
By Sherri Dugger I was an easy sell. When I first met Rob Davies, marketing manager for Indiana Farmers Union, in late 2016 at a local coffee shop in Danville, Indiana, it took him about 15 minutes to sell me on a union membership. The irony: I was there to sell him advertising for a … Read More
By Lisa Everhart Myers Demeter Farm We moved to the country because I wanted to see the sky again. Okay, it was a little more complicated than that, but, at the heart of it, I really just wanted to see the sky again. From our screened-in porch in Broad Ripple, an urban neighborhood on the … Read More
By Liz Brownlee Nightfall Farm My husband, Nate, knew one thing as a high schooler: he would never, ever work as a farmer. His high school summer job was on a grain farm near Franklin, Indiana, and while his bosses treated him well, the work was not, in his opinion, the most fun or rewarding. … Read More
By Sherri Dugger “There is power in numbers.” It was a simple concept. It was cliché. It was also the truth, and it was the only way I knew to explain to 25 female farmers how Indiana Farmers Union and National Farmers Union worked. “I believe in transparency, and I believe in truth,” I went … Read More
By Matt Perdue, NFU Government Relations Representative The harvest season is a special time of year for farmers. It’s their opportunity to, quite literally, reap the rewards of months spent working long hours in the fields, nervously tracking weather patterns, and precariously balancing finances. But for many farms across the drought-stricken Upper Great Plains, 2017 … Read More
By Tom Driscoll, Director of NFU Foundation and Conservation Policy Farmers are the original conservationists, and no one knows the soil that sustains us better than the farmers who work it. Family farmers have a strong partner in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in supporting and coordinating efforts to protect our environment and shared … Read More
By Matt Perdue, NFU Government Relations Representative Farming is a risky business. A sudden storm, enduring drought, or proliferation of crop disease can decimate a crop. Even when farmers produce a bumper crop, market downturns can still make it a struggle to make ends meet. In Montana’s “Golden Triangle,” farms of all sizes and types … Read More