farm policy
Farmfest - come show your support for the RFS at MFU's new booth and new location
ST. PAUL
(July 26, 2012) – Farmfest is set to be at Gilfillan Estate outside Redwood
Falls, Minnesota on Tuesday, August 7- Thursday, August 9 and Minnesota Farmers
Union (MFU) has a new booth and location and exciting things going on. 
“Farmfest is always an exciting part of the summer because there are so many rural folks in one spot discussing farm policy and sharing farm ideas,” said Doug Peterson, Minnesota Farmers Union President. “We have a new booth and new location, which is just west of the forum tent, and we invite you to stop by the MFU booth and check the markets, the weather, and try your luck at winning a Cenex gas card, plus sign our petition in support of homegrown fuels and the Renewable Fuels Standard.”
Minnesota Farmers Union activities:
Peterson returns from World Farmers Organization General Assembly in Rome, Italy
St. Paul (June
11, 2012) – Minnesota Farmers Union (MFU) President Doug Peterson returns from
Rome, Italy and the World Farmers Organization (WFO) General Assembly. The WFO is an organization that brings
together farmers from organizations that represent agriculture and their coops.
Farmers from all agricultural sectors across the world gathered to create
policies and advocate at a true farmer-level for the improvement of economic
and social conditions and for world food security. 
Impacts of a farm policy do-over for historical 1998 to 2010
(September 30, 2011) - Over the last 13 years, 1998-2010, government payments for crops totaled $152.2 billion for an average of $11.7 billion per year. Keep in mind that these numbers do not include government subsidies to crop and revenue insurance products and other products that have been promoted as a substitute for ad hoc disaster payments.
In the present political climate with the focus on debt reduction, most observers are expecting that the House and Senate ag committees will have less money to work with even though there are a significant number of current farm programs whose funding will end with the end of the current farm legislation.
In this policy climate, are there a set of policies that would cost less, but maintain farm income under a wide range of price and production conditions?
To answer that question, we examined the 13 years from 1998 through 2010. During that period, local elevator corn prices were as low as $1.50 a bushel for an extended period of time (well below the cost of production) and as high as $7.00 a bushel—other crops saw similar numbers. For us this seemed like the perfect period over which to identify a set of policies that would reduce government payments, allow farmers to earn most of their income from the market, and maintain the value of production adjusted by government payments and variable costs.