By John Stencel John Long, a pork producer from Weld County (Colorado), called me the other day with a very good question. “How can the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) continue to collect and spend producers checkoff dollars when the pork checkoff program has been voted down by producers and twice ruled unconstitutional by federal [...]

By John Stencel In September I had the privilege of traveling to Cancun as part of National Farmers Union’s delegation to the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations. Agriculture was a major part of these discussions, and disagreement over WTO policy on agriculture is what ultimately caused the talks to end. In a nutshell, the WTO [...]

By Paul Stout Over the years we have spoken out against mergers and acquisitions of large corporations and the decline of locally owned businesses in our rural communities. We also have talked about market concentration in our grain and meat industries. Today I want to speak to you about another type of concentrated power in [...]

By John Stencel Rocky Mountain Farmers Union’s Water Task Force and Board of Directors recently decided to oppose Referendum A and took the unusual step of asking Gov. Bill Owens to call a special session of the Colorado Legislature to address the referendum’s shortcomings before presenting it to Colorado voters. Proponents argue that the referendum [...]

By John Stencel Rocky Mountain Farmers Union is pleased with the July 8 U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals decision that the mandatory beef checkoff is not constitutional. It is the second court that has made this ruling. The plaintiffs, including the Livestock Marketing Association, the Western Organization of Resource Councils and individual producers are [...]