By Billy Mitchell, FSMA Training Coordinator Like a moth to a glowing jack-o’-lantern, you may be drawn towards towering shelves of mass-produced candy this Halloween season and tricked into thinking that local treats are a thing of the past. Do not be scared: farm-made, value-added products are alive and well in 2020. The old classics, … Read More
By Jeanne Janson, NFU Journalism Intern From mid-August through the end of September, Megan Brown spent countless hours fireproofing the livestock enclosures at her family’s ranch in Northern California and preparing to evacuate should the LNU Lightning Complex Fire—the third most destructive in the state’s history—get too close. Unfortunately, this has become a sort of … Read More
By Melanie Arthur, NFU Intern “Parking lot, go ahead and blow your horns. Let everybody know that you are here!” food safety trainer and technical service provider Darrell McGuire shouted at the crowd. Alabama farmers and ranchers – who had drove their vehicles up to the Bethel Spring Missionary Baptist Church to hear speakers present … Read More
By Tracy Heim, NFU Intern On the second Monday of every October, Indigenous Peoples’ Day is celebrated across the United States to honor the original inhabitants of the Americas. On this Indigenous Peoples’ Day, National Farmers Union (NFU) celebrates the invaluable contributions of Native Americans and the Indigenous origins of many practices currently used in … Read More
By Charlie Michel, National Farmers Union Education and Outreach Coordinator When a statewide COVID-19 lockdown upended their food safety event planning, Mary Howell and Mercedes Taylor-Puckett of Kansas Farmers Union (KFU) were quick to respond with creative solutions for delivering on-farm education to Kansas growers. A primary challenge was reaching producers in cities like Wichita, … Read More
By Hannah Packman, National Farmers Union Communications Director A year ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) abruptly relocated two of its major research agencies – the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the Economic Research Service) – from Washington, D.C. to Kansas City. The move forced dozens of experienced employees to quit, taking their expertise … Read More
By Melanie Arthur, NFU Intern The Covid-19 pandemic has created new challenges for our food system, especially for those operating or working on farms or in food facilities. To simplify and streamline pandemic-related decisions, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released a new resource, the Employee Health … Read More
By Hannah Packman, NFU Communications Director Many years before the coronavirus pandemic, there were concerns that meat plant workers were at high risk of contracting contagious diseases – concerns that have only ramped up in recent months. For one, meat plants are cold, which increases the risk of transmission. Masks are the obvious protection, but the physical demands and … Read More
Next week, hundreds of hundreds of farmers, ranchers, and rural residents will gather online to speak directly with their elected representatives and administration officials as part of National Farmers Union’s (NFU) virtual legislative fly-in. While signup for the full event has closed, we are opening several of the fly-in sessions to the public. All three are … Read More
By Hannah Packman, NFU Communications Director The farm economy was weak long before the pandemic. For years, chronic overproduction has severely depressed commodity prices. Global trade disputes that eroded export markets certainly didn’t help, nor did corporate control of the agriculture industry. But new pandemic-related disruptions have pushed down prices even lower than they were before – so much so … Read More