KFU is hopping in August…
4 Farm Bill Listening Sessions
and an awesome Farm Tour!
4 Farm Bill Listening Sessions
and an awesome Farm Tour!
Contribute your priorities for the next
Farm Bill and learn more about
local food and farm food safety.
Read Our Latest News
Bus Tour to Showcase Wichita-area Farms and Food Safety Management
By Tom Parker Like most farmers, Tom Brown, co-owner of Meadowlark Farm outside of Wichita, takes a dim view of what he considers unnecessary government regulations meddling in his operation. One such piece of legislation is the Produce Safety Rule-the [...]
Kansas Farmers Union Delegates to Attend 115th Anniversary National Convention
The National Farmers Union (NFU) 115th Anniversary Convention embodies true grassroots policy making, and four farmers representing Kansas Farmers Union will have a seat at the table this year. Delegates to the convention are responsible for reviewing the national organization’s [...]
Farmers Market on Wheels: Producer fills gap in Wichita-area food desert
by Tom Parker For Donna Pearson McClish, it all started with a question. It wasn’t her question, not then, though it would become hers in the weeks and months and years to come, and uttered in such a way [...]
Transition into New Presidential Administration Poses Questions for NFU
by Tom Parker As a new presidential administration prepares to take office following the most divisive election campaign in recent history and with a Congress whose members are increasingly distanced from the realities of common Americans, the National Farmers [...]
Kansas Farmers Union
is the state’s oldest, active
general farm organization!
is the state’s oldest, active
general farm organization!
We work to protect and enhance the economic interests and quality of life for family farmers, ranchers and our rural communities.
2016 STATE CONVENTION NEWS
UNDERSTANDING BACKWARDS:
Lessons from the 1980s farm crisis
Lessons from the 1980s farm crisis
Farm advocates reflect on the 80s farm crisis
to share knowledge that could prevent farmers,
mediators and advocacy workers from
making the same mistakes again
PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION:
New Administration Poses Questions for NFU
New Administration Poses Questions for NFU
Struggling rural and farm economies,
continued ag business consolidation,
and a push to get started on the next farm bill
are key issues for National Farmers Union.
“IT WAS A HELL OF A RIDE”
GIPSA Administrator Looks Back
GIPSA Administrator Looks Back
Larry Mitchell’s Reflections of a Texas Plowboy in Washington, D.C.
touches on tractorcades, lobbying, farm bills,
and heading the United States Department of Agriculture’s
Grain Inspectors, Packers and Stockyards Agency.
Hessman Elected KFU Vice President
Longtime Kansas Farmers Union board member Linda Hessman was elected state vice president on Thursday, December 8 during the organization’s annual convention in Wichita.
Hessman is a generational farmer’s daughter. She married into a generational farm family from Dodge City where she and her husband Jerry farmed and raised a cow herd in a family partnership for 34 years.
She is a Certified Mediator specializing in ag issues as well as a national Farm Aid Advocate. In 2015, Farm Aid honored Linda as one of its 1985 original Farm Advocates during its concert in Chicago. She’s also received the prestigious KFU Ruth Hirsch Award in 2012, and the National Catholic Rural Life Award for her work with farm & ranch families developing programs for rural areas. She served a 4-year term as a Kansas Wheat Commissioner. Rural communities and families, including her own, continue to be her passion.
Bauman Joins KFU Board of Directors
Rosanna Bauman is a farmer and serial ag entrepreneur from Garnett. Together with her parents and five siblings, Bauman has developed businesses that expand opportunities for local food production in eastern Kansas through USDA-inspected poultry and meat processing facilities and a non-GMO feed hub.
At the age of 17, Rosanna became the youngest certified HACCP writer in K-State’s training program. She used those skills when launching ANCO Processing, the only on-farm poultry processing facility in Kansas to process not only the farm’s birds, but also the neighbors. Once the smallest USDA-certified plant in the nation, ANCO has now grown to processing 50,000 birds in 2015.
In 2014, Bauman was one of 24 farmers selected from the U.S. to present in the National Slow Money Entrepreneur Showcase. Her family’s Feed Hub project was chosen to receive the 1st place, 0% interest loan. This innovative aggregation center for local grains provides non-GMO livestock grains for Baumans’ farm, and other’s in the region. Bauman’s Farm Feeds sold 70 tons of grain in 2015.
KFU thanks our members
for contributing to the 2017
Kansas wildfire relief efforts!
for contributing to the 2017
Kansas wildfire relief efforts!
More than 700,000 acres were burned in Kansas, and many families lost homes, livestock and fences to the blazes.
Get to Know Us
Meet Our Board
KFU’s board is composed of eight members. The state’s North & South Districts are each represented by three members. The President and Vice President are elected annually.
Meet Our Staff
In addition to the main KFU State Office in McPherson, Kansas Farmers Union also has three staff members that work from home-based offices.
Learn About Our History
The Kansas Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union, founded early in the last century, has made significant and varied contributions to agriculture and family farming in our state.
Learn About NFU
The key to the success and credibility of the NFU organization has been Farmers Union’s grassroots structure in which policy positions are initiated locally.
Learn About Our Projects
Get Insured with the Midwest Regional Agency
Midwest Regional Agency provides insurance protection to individuals, family farms and business of all sizes. Through our agents we strive to build better communities by protecting where you work, where you live, what you own and the ones you love. It is our individual and organizational goal to provide quality products and the highest level of customer service to not just meet our customer’s expectations, but to exceed them! LEARN MORE…
Latest News from National Farmers Union
NFUF Launching Needs Assessment Survey to Inform Food Safety
WASHINGTON (June 20, 2017) – The Local Food Safety Collaborative, a collaboration between National Farmers Union Foundation (NFUF) and the U.S. Food and Drug Association (FDA), today launched a nationwide food safety survey. The results will help the organization address [...]
U.S. Should Enforce Trade Agreements, NFU Says
WASHINGTON – National Farmers Union (NFU) joined a number of other manufacturing and agricultural organizations to support the U.S. Department of Commerce’s decision to investigate aluminum and steel imports under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Should [...]
NAFTA Objectives a Missed Opportunity for Family Farmers
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) this week released its Summary of Objectives for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Renegotiation, a document that will guide talks with Canada and Mexico expected to begin in mid-August. In response [...]
NFU Urges Trump Administration to Stay in Paris Agreement
Agreement Key to Mitigating Climate Change, Bolstering Rural Communities WASHINGTON – As President Donald Trump weighs the merits of keeping the United States in the Paris Agreement, National Farmers Union (NFU) is urging the administration to maintain U.S. commitments to [...]