Blog

By Roger Johnson, National Farmers Union president This week marks a milestone in the history of our country and a legacy of President Abraham Lincoln. While he is known for many accomplishments, a little-known fact is that he established the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) 150 years ago. On May 15, 1862, Lincoln signed into … Read More

By Tony Jarboe, NFU communications coordinator NFU has released a new curriculum that highlights 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives. The curriculum is available here. It provides six separate lessons for college and adult students and introduce how cooperation works to help individuals work together to accomplish goals they could not achieve on their … Read More

By Michael Bowman, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union member Last Thursday, the White House hosted a “Champions of Change” event, inviting 12 from more than 500 program alumni to meet with President Obama and share the stories of their work. I was honored to be one of those chosen to attend and was part of a … Read More

By Brittany Jablonsky, NFU government relations representative Today the Senate Committee on Agriculture marked up its draft of the 2012 Farm Bill (entitled the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012) and passed the final version out of committee on a bipartisan 16-5 vote. The manager’s amendment offered today incorporated a number of changes … Read More

By Brittany Jablonsky, NFU government relations representative Last Friday the Senate Committee on Agriculture released a draft of the 2012 Farm Bill. The Committee plans to begin its markup of the bill tomorrow morning at 9:00, and markup is expected to continue through Thursday. NFU is pleased with many of the provisions in the bill, and … Read More

By Justin Sherlock, NFU intern On Thursday, the White House hosted a panel titled “Innovations in Renewable Energy” which is part of the Champions of Change recognition efforts that are being done. In essence, the White House was honoring individuals who have helped spur innovations that are advancing the renewable energy industry. One honoree, Lt. … Read More

By Brittany Jablonsky, NFU government relations representative This morning the Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the health care law passed just over two years ago. Farmers Union members have always felt that access to affordable, quality health care is the right of all citizens, rural … Read More

By Tony Jarboe, NFU communications coordinator Missouri Farmers Union President Richard Oswald has a great write-up of NFU’s 110th Anniversary Convention in La Vista, Neb., in the Daily Yonder today. He discusses NFU’s approach to policy creation, the special orders of business that were passed, and the new NFU logo. Below is an excerpt from … Read More

The following speech was delivered by New England Farmers Union member Tess Lavoie-Brown at NFU’s 110th Anniversary Convention in La Vista, Neb. Thanks to folks at the National Farmers Union for inviting me to speak. I am a new voice, and it takes enormous confidence for them to bring me here. I say I am … Read More

By Jan Ahlen, NFU government relations representative Rural America is under increased economic stress. What once was a thriving sector of the economy and a boon for rural economic development, American agriculture employs fewer people every year. As a result, there are fewer jobs for young people. Today’s farm children would rather move to cities … Read More