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Kansas Farmers Union: 2018 News Releases
Below are the news releases distributed in 2018. Click on any headline to read the complete release, download the PDF and get links to supporting materials.
November 2018
2018 Kansas Farmers Union State Convention to Highlight Opportunities to Enhance Rural Resilience
Rural Resilience: Opportunities and challenges facing rural Kansans is the focus of the 2018 Kansas Farmers Union state convention to be held November 29-30 at the Prairie Band Resort, Mayetta. In addition to building resilient communities, conference sessions will focus on economic opportunities with food systems development, alternative financing for food and ag projects, healthcare, and grazing. The general public [...]
October 2018
THE FORGOTTEN CROP: Kansas Legislature legalizes cultivation of industrial hemp
By Tom Parker Like many farmers, Rod Flaman spends a fair amount of time thinking while sitting in his combine. Recently, hemp harvest had just begun, and he wondered if it would be on the upslope or the downslope of the seesaw trajectory that defined his experiences with growing industrial hemp since it was legalized in Canada in [...]
Industrial Hemp Focus of Statewide Meeting Series October 22-23
The opportunity to grow a new specialty oilseed crop in Kansas offers potential for diversification for Kansas farmers looking for an alternative crop, or for new farming enterprises interested in cultivating industrial hemp. In a series of meetings across the state, Canadian farmer Rod Flaman will share how the Canadian hemp market has evolved and how he grows and markets [...]
January 2018
Bridges between Generations
By Tom Parker When Andi Blair first laid eyes on Comanche County in southwestern Kansas, it was nothing like she had expected. She was heading to Protection to take up a four-year teaching job, but instead of dust devils and tumbleweeds listlessly sauntering under a merciless August sky, the land was green and verdant and freckled with late-season wildflowers. [...]
AMERICA AT THE INTERSECTION OF HOPE AND DOUBT: A politician’s perspective on the 1980s farm crisis
By Tom Parker In February of 1979, thousands of disgruntled farmers flooded the streets of Washington D.C. with an estimated 900 tractors and hundreds of support vehicles. The uniquely American protest was organized by the American Agriculture Movement, whose members felt that government and industry leaders were out of touch with the needs of farmers, and that crop [...]
Reflections on the Evolution of a Beginning Farmer
By Tom Parker When Jason Schmidt returned to his family farm to take over from his parents, he was experienced in sustainable and regenerative agricultural systems from South Africa to Colorado, New Mexico and Kansas, and filled with an unwavering optimism that the knowledge and ideas he espoused would transform their conventional dairy operation to an economically and ecologically [...]
BRIDGES: Making connections in a changing world
By Tom Parker Sarah Green wanted to discuss semantics. And bridges.As a member of the planning committee for the 2017 Kansas Farmers Union convention, she was instrumental in combining a diverse assortment of speakers, discussions and forums ranging from policy, personal narrative, history and art into a thematic whole, minus the thematic. “Your convention planning team is philosophically opposed [...]