Purchase an NFU Farm Unit Membership

If you farm as a co-operative, collective, or partnership where the majority of the farm’s labour or management is provided by individuals involved in actively operating the farm, you may join as Farm Unit members. Up to 4 individuals comprising a farming unit are recognized under a Farm Unit membership.

Jump to the form

Why Join the NFU

Promote and Defend Family & Cooperative Farming in Canada

Members of the NFU believe that, through an organization that represents producers of all commodities produced in Canada, it is possible to promote the family and cooperative farms as the most appropriate and efficient means of agricultural production. Our goal is to work together to achieve agricultural policies which will ensure dignity and security of income for farmers while enhancing the land for future generations.

Build Food Sovereignty

Food sovereignty is about people having power in the food system to make decisions that will ensure food and farming serve communities and health, and are not simply means to enrich a few large corporations. Food sovereignty means we work together to ensure there is economic justice in the food system, a healthy eco-system, young people involved in food and farming along with the older generation, making sure that agriculture is primarily about feeding people (not cars or corporations) and that there is local control over the land and production decisions.

Protect the Environment

We depend on the environment. Rural and urban people must take joint responsibility for how it is treated. Progressive, environmentally-conscious farming people are troubled by environmental problems, but current agriculture policy and the kind of economics it promotes make it very difficult for many of us to change our farming practices.

We work for fair prices for the food we produce so that we are not forced to ‘mine our soil’ just to remain viable. We promote public policy which fosters farming practices that lead to long term environmental and financial sustainability.

Strengthen Rural Communities

Society is enhanced by a balance between larger, more industrialized urban centres and stable, vibrant rural communities. Stemming the current rural depopulation and the dispossession of farm families requires renewed commitment to, and investment in, rural communities. The accelerating drain of wealth and people from the countryside is neither just nor sustainable. The NFU works with allies, creating social and economic strategies to achieve a just and healthy balance between rural and urban communities.

A Proud Heritage

Progressive farm movements have been at the forefront of the struggles for social and political justice in the past including the fight for Medicare in Saskatchewan (and eventually all of Canada), better publicly-funded education and social services, and equality for women (e.g. farm union women led the campaign for the vote and later Matrimonial Property Acts).