Welcome to FUE!

Add Farmers Union Enterprises to the list of time commitments and interests Jeff and I now embrace.  Have you heard of Farmers Union Enterprises before? What about Farmers Union Industries? I myself had heard of Montana Farmers Union and National Farmers Union, but not of Farmers Union Enterprises or Industries.  MFU, NFU, and FUE… Lots of acronyms here, folks.

 

FUE grew out of collaboration between five states: Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Originally, each of these five states’ Farmers Unions had put up some money to start a business that would benefit Farmers Union members in their states.  The original business was a rendering facility.  Now, there are several more businesses in industry and manufacturing that FUE is ultimately behind. Each involves agriculture.  Here is the website for Farmers Union Industries- http://fuillc.com/ Check out some of the businesses they have! Besides the rendering facility, there is also a metal works company and a great cat litter called Swheat Scoop (made from wheat by-products). 

Image source: www.walmartimages.com

 

FUE was also the brains and original funding behind two farm-to-table restaurants in the Washington D.C. area, Founding Farmers and Farmers and Fishers. 

Founding Farmers Restaurant

Farmers Fishers Bakers

Definitely going to have to try to get into one or both of those restaurants next time I am in DC!

 

Jeff and I are members of MFU as of December, so less than a year. I signed up at the Women’s Conference I attended last fall, although I think we were likely to join anyway, as we believe in the ideals Farmers Union embraces. Somehow we made an impression on the leaders of MFU, as we were asked to represent Montana in the Farmers Union Enterprises Leadership Program.

 

Farmers Union Enterprises at some point decided to begin a leadership training program dedicated to young couples and families.  Each year, there is one couple or family from each state selected to participate in the leadership program.  We are the new couple from Montana. It seems as though the commonalities among all the couples are a commitment to Farmers Union in their state, and some sort of demonstrated leadership potential.  The hope is that couples who complete the year-and-a-half of training will take on a leadership role of some sort in Farmers Union and/or in their local communities.  I think Farmers Union, in general, is seeing an aging population among its long-time leadership, so I think another purpose of the program we are in is to encourage younger membership and younger leaders to step up.

 

We will meet with the other four couples in the leadership program approximately once per quarter, usually corresponding with another Farmers Union meeting or convention in one of the five states.  We attend that function as part of the larger group of attendees, and then spend one or two days in intensive leadership training courses with our small group and our coordinator.  This time, we attended the MFU mid-year meeting in Bozeman, and then spent time training on time management, conflict resolution, and just getting to know each other.

 

There was also a great session in which the Farmers Union Presidents from each of our five states were present for a question and answer session.  We got to ask them about anything we wanted. Jeff got in a question about the prospect of the Farm Bill, and I got in a question on the outlook of women in leadership of Farmers Union. One thing is certain, the Farmers Union Presidents of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin each have a lot of personality! They were entertaining as well as very encouraging and interesting. It was clear that they are thrilled with the FUE leadership program we are in, which was a great affirmation.

 

Jeff and I are very excited to participate in FUE and feel honored to represent Montana for the next eighteen months or so.  The other couples and families we met all seemed like fantastic people with whom we had much in common.  We are really looking forward to getting to know each of them as time goes on, and hopefully establish some life-long connections throughout the Upper Midwest. I am also excited about learning more about Farmers Union—I did not grow up within the organization as Jeff did.  My early impressions are great- this is definitely an organization Jeff and I feel like we can support and be part of.  It’s very clear that their primary concern is family farm operations. 

 

I am planning to do a series of posts relating to Farmers Union, so stay tuned for more.  There will be at least one more post in which I’ll write more specifically about the conference we just attended in Bozeman, entitled, “From Seed to Table.”