MOUNT VERNON — The Licking-Knox County Farmers Union was recently honored at the Ohio Farmers Union 75th Annual Convention. The local group was one of several county organizations that had membership gains over the past year.
“We weren’t chartered [with the OFU] until about six years ago,” said Duane Grassbaugh, Licking-Knox County Farmers Union president. “And we’ve been gaining members ever since.”
Membership was up considerably in 2008, according to OFU Membership Director Mary Grassbaugh, Duane’s sister.
“Last year we had a pretty good year,” she said. “We had 280 new members to the organization, and that was quite exciting. That was statewide. I think of those about 20 were new locally. There were a lot of renewals and some other people coming back. We’re doing good. It’s great because all the things we have been working on for so long are coming to fruition.”
Roger Crossgrove, executive director of the OFU, believes the increase in membership can be attributed to people’s concern for the quality of their food.
“I would say it’s true that people have a larger concern for where their food comes from,” he said. “And I think people are taking a look at their expenditures and are looking to get their food and produce at a reasonable cost.”
One of the issues Mary singled out was country of origin labeling.
“It’s been 12 or 13 years we’ve been working on it,” she said. “You can go into the grocery store and you can tell where your fruits and vegetables come from now.”
Although the organization focuses mostly on those who are actually doing the farming, the membership is not closed to others whose interests lie in tandem with the farmers union.
“We are the organization that lobbies for the family farm and consumers,” said Crossgrove. “We work for pricing justice, we also support farmers markets which offer people fresh fruit, vegetables and meat. We really need the support of the consumers and rural residents to accomplish our goals so we partner with them.”
The group is probably not as well known as the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, but it has been representing the interests of farmers, consumers and rural residents in general for more than 75 years.
The Farmers Union has a history of bucking trends. As far back as 1996 the National Farmers Union opposed what was called by many at the time, the Freedom to Farm Act.
“It was supposed to be the farm bill to end all farm bills,” Duane said. “The National Farmers Union was absolutely opposed to it. They said it wouldn’t work. They called it the Freedom to Fail act. And four years after it passed you couldn’t find one farm group that would take credit for the bill.”
On the local level, the group works to benefit the farmer and rural resident. One of its main focal points is affordable health care for rural residents.
At its national convention this month, the NFU called for policy makers to consider the unique challenges facing rural America when debating policy solutions to the nation’s health care system. A wide array of topics are important to NFU membership — renewable fuels from the farm, the 2008 Farm Bill, country of origin labeling, carbon sequestration, fair trade, market oversight, nutrition and health care.
“Rural Americans are uniquely affected by the skyrocketing cost of health care,” outgoing NFU President Tom Buis told the conference. “Lack of availability and affordability and the often far distances from medical facilities creates significant challenges to securing adequate health care.”
The local organization takes part in state and national programs and has input on policy issues and legislative efforts.
The OFU will host a Legislative Advocacy Day on Wednesday that will allow family farmers and rural residents to meet directly with lawmakers at the Ohio Statehouse. Issues will include concerns about renewable energy and production of fuels on the farm and the fluctuations of farm commodity prices especially in relation to higher input costs.
Keeping rural land in use for agricultural production is another focus of the organization. In the OFU’s policy statement it states, in part:
“We believe that local government, such as township trustees, zoning boards, county boards of health and county commissioners should represent the people of the community and have final jurisdiction over land use.”
“It’s a great time to be a member of the Farmer’s Union, ” said Mary. “It’s an exciting time.”
