Farm Workers

Farmers Can’t Do it Alone. What we need to fight the climate crisis. 

In inspiring numbers, young farmers are taking to the land to act on climate – but we know that our individual zeal, commitment, and fighting spirit will not be enough to achieve the drastic reduction in on-farm emissions that we so desperately need. “I can make my own individual actions but what we really need Read more

From the Frontlines: Notes from young farmers in the face of the climate crisis

The climate crisis is the greatest threat facing agriculture today.  As farmers, our livelihood is the land, and that puts us on the frontlines of the climate crisis.  As young farmers in particular, we are grappling with the onset of the climate crisis as a warning sign of what will come to define our lives.  Read more

Why I Farm: Reflections on my absurd career choice 

By Laura Fash I never thought I would be a farmer. A lifelong urbanite, my closest encounters with agriculture were my grandpa’s stories about growing up on a dairy farm and blasting by backroad acreage on my dad’s motorcycle. I had zero interest in rural life and couldn’t keep a cactus alive, let alone crops.  Read more

Op Ed: Farmers’ Mental Health has Economic Roots

Charlottetown, PEI The Island Minister of Agriculture, Bloyce Thompson said this past week that more Island Farmers are reaching out for mental health support through the PEI Farmers Assistance Program.  He noted that the number of calls in 2019 was 140, increasing to 293 in 2020. Minister Thompson said navigating a hot dry summer during Read more

National Farmers Union congratulates Beef Farmers of Ontario

January 22, 2021 To: Beef Farmers of Ontario via email: info@ontariobeef.com When the Beef Farmers of Ontario recently passed their policy calling for more diversity, equity, and inclusion in agriculture, they took a great step forward and set a great example for other commodity organizations in Ontario and across the country. “The NFU would like Read more

Union Farmer Quarterly: Summer 2020

In this issue … Messages from the Editorial Committee, NFU President Katie Ward (bilingual), Women’s President Coral Sproule and Regional Reports Articles: Catching up with Martha Robbins, new (returning) International Program Coordinator and Darrin Qualman who joins NFU to work on climate change and ag NFU National and Regional Conventions amid COVID-19 (bilingual) The NFU’s work during COVID-19 Read more

NFU-O Statement on the Deaths of Two Migrant Farm Workers

We stand in solidarity with the Migrant Rights Network and Justicia for Migrant Workers in their outrage over the death of Bonifacio Eugenio Romero and their efforts to improve migrant workers’ housing, working, and status conditions. Read more

Joint statement in regards to TFW restriction

TFW’s are an integral part of food production in New Brunswick. “This is cutting the means by which we have to produce. They want us to increase vegetable production but want us to hire people who may leave at the drop of a hat or before our season has finished” Read more

The Farm Income Crisis and the COVID 19 Crisis

Today, let us make sure that our current farm population has what they need to make it through the COVID 19 crisis and carry on to build an even stronger food system in the years to come Read more

Union Farmer Quarterly: Spring 2020

In this issue: Messages from the Editorial Advisory Committee, President Katie Ward, Youth President Stuart Oke; Regional Coordinators NEW MEMBERSHIP TYPE: What the Farming Unit means and why it was adopted NOUVEAU TYPE D’ADHÉSION: L’unité agricole : définition et motifs de l’adoption Articles: Knowing the borders of Canada’s Food System — by Bryan Dale, Carla Read more