National Farmers Union (NFU) articles

In 2011, we wrote a column, “Global warming is happening: How should farmers respond?” (http://agpolicy.org/weekcol/549.html). In that column we began by saying, “There was a time when one could legitimately argue that there was a lack of scientific agreement over the issue of the role of humans in global warming and even whether we were in a cooling or warming period. It is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the scie

While the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports a 40 percent decline in U.S. cropland soil erosion rates from 1982 to 2007, recent trends appear to challenge this progress. Record prices for corn and soybeans have diverted acres out of conservation programs and encouraged intensive production on a wide scale. Tree lines are cleared and wet areas drained, turning 120-acre farms into 120-acre fields. Innovations in tillage equipment, with supposed conservation intentions, appear to be e

A fable of six blind men and an elephant originated centuries ago somewhere on the Indian continent. In it the blind men try to identify an elephant by touching only one part. According to the fable each man came to a different conclusion as to what the elephant was. The parable illustrates that though opinions may vary, there’s some truth to be found in all of them.

That’s the way it is for conservation too.

Farmers conserve resources for different reasons. Some o

As the 2013 corn crop was being planted, futures prices were above $6.00 a bushel with an occasional bump above $7.00. Traders were concerned that the planting problems farmers were experiencing would result in reduced production. By the end of July, with fewer concerns about the size of the corn crop, the priced dropped below $5.00.

Since then the price has trended downward so that as this column is being written in late January 2014, the March 2014 futures contract price for corn

As the new farm bill nears completion, spending projections have been released showing the bill’s price tag approaches a trillion dollars over 10 years. These figures have turned some heads because nearly 80 percent of the spending in the bill will go to nutrition programs. This is how the bill is supposed to work – helping farmers to grow food and helping hungry people have access to it.

Some have criticized the farm bill for increases in overall spending, but th

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of meeting with a dedicated group of women farmers and ranchers who are actively taking on leadership roles in farm organizations, cooperatives, and in their communities. They had gathered in the sunshine state for the National Farmers Union Women’s Conference to discuss opportunities and challenges on their own operations, what they believe the future holds for agriculture, and the role of women in that future.

Women face a unique set of c

This month we are celebrating one particular aspect of the International Year of Family Farming: the consumer. In order to be successful, family farmers must always have consumers and their needs in mind, which is why NFU has been a long-time champion of Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) for meat, poultry and seafood. More than 90 percent of consumers want to know the origin of their food, and NFU is committed to ensuring that they are able to do so.

Our members understand the importa

The period of U.S. farm bills where the instruments were designed around compensation policies that used price support/supply management programs allowing farmers to remain in production during long periods of low prices—the result of four centuries of publicly-sponsored developmental policies—ended with the adoption of the 1996 Farm Bill.

In some important ways, the demise of price support/supply management programs can be traced back to three changes in the 1980s: 1) the

In August of 2013 the New York Times reported that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) gave the green light to four Chinese poultry processors to ship processed poultry to the United States.

The move was aimed to only allow the export of birds killed and slaughtered in the United States or Canada,

In the period between the 1930s and 1992, farm bills generally instituted compensation policies that took the form of price supports. These policies were designed to manage the surplus production that resulted from centuries of developmental policies while allowing U.S. farmers the chance, with hard work and good management skills, to provide their family with a livelihood. Compensation policies also allowed farmers to remain on the land until labor demands in other parts of the economy entic