Recap: National Farmers Union 2024 Women’s Conference

I had the great pleasure of attending National Farmers Union's (NFU) Women's Conference November 7-9 in San Antonio. This is the first time the event has been hosted in Texas! It rotates locations annually.

For those who aren't familiar, NFU is an advocacy organization representing family farmers and ranchers across the country. They've been around since 1902 and operate both nationally and through state chapters. State chapters have their own programs and conventions (depending on size) - they build membership for national through grassroots organizing and delegates from each state chapter help set organizational policy priorities. I've participated in multiple NFU events over the last few years - the College Conference on Cooperatives, Beginning Farmer Institute, Advocacy Training, and 2023 Annual Convention - and have found the organization to be impressive and aligned with my values. They have a solid democratic foundation for decision-making and operations that represent their members and they have increasingly diverse representation from young, beginning, Black, and Indigenous farm operators. NFU's staff and members are committed to bringing practical and progressive farm policies to local, state, and federal officials. Their biggest campaign right now is Fairness for Farmers (fighting corporate monopolies in agriculture) but that's far from all - the Farm Bill, Right to Repair, Country of Origin Labeling, and many other issues can be found in their policy priorities.

Now for the conference!

I attended to network and discover new resources for the farmers we work with in Texas. Here are my key takeaways on topics covered during the event.

LAND ACCESS

The Farmers Land Trust is relatively a new organization advocating for the farmland commons model, which takes pieces of conservation easements and community land trust models to create an altogether different legal structure centered on community-controlled farmland. The Farmers Land Trust uses 501(c)(23)s, an entity created by 3 or more nonprofit organizations coming together to hold and lease land; 99-year leases are then made with a farmer or group of farmers. The 501(c)(23) can only hold land, so the farmer has more autonomy and decision making power compared to other legal structures. It sounded like a viable model to preserve small parcels of land for community food production (the presenter said 3 acres was their smallest project), which has been a reoccurring roadblock to farmland preservation in Texas. This model does rely on a landowner willing to donate or sell the land below market price, however land donations for conservation easements happen all the time... why not for local food systems?

Obviously a lot of nuance comes into play with any land access project and the details are important. The Farmers Land Trust can provide services to organizations interested in learning more about their model and they have committed to providing open-source templates and resources on their website.

FARM FINANCES

I work on farm finances all the time, so admittedly I didn't learn a lot of new things here, but I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation from Sami Tellatin at FarmRaise. FarmRaise Tracks is a farm accounting software I'm getting to know and I believe is a great tool, particularly for new and beginning farmers who need a quick, easy-to-use, affordable software solution to farm accounting. Paid subscribers also have access to a funding library. Additionally, FarmRaise has a partnership with USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) and has built excellent free resources on accessing FSA programs in their FSA Educational Hub.

One thing that stood out to me during Sami's presentation is she pointed out three types of financial management they see among farmers they work with:

1. Off grid DIY = Uses paper records, Excel, etc. Cheap and extremely customizable, but also takes a lot of time.
2. Tech-enabled DIY = Uses an accounting software to help manage finances. The middle ground in terms of money and time.
3. 100% outsourced = Hires a bookkeeper and/or accountant to manage their farm finances. Typically a better fit for larger or more established farm businesses. Expensive and hands-off.

Which category makes most sense for your farm?

MARKETING

Emily Oehler of Golden Acorns facilitated an engaging workshop on story-telling and communication strategies. The interactive session is hard to summarize, but I'll share a few key points:

• 50% of the brain is dedicated to visual processing, so remember to use visuals to make your point (hence the power of platforms like Instagram).
• Its takes the average person 7x of hearing something before they remember it. So if you think you're repeating your message too much... you're probably not!
• People are 22x more likely to remember facts when they're told as a story.

She told us the key pieces of a story are:

• Why it matters (the fish hook)
• Who, what, where, when, and how
• Support tools (i.e., visuals)
• Call to action
• Repeat!

Other thoughts: Own your experiences and emphasize why you're the subject matter expert. What do you want others to think? How should someone feel after talking with you? Whether you're reaching out to your customers, donors, colleagues, or legislators... the same strategies apply.

COOPERATIVES

The final presentation was by diversified vegetable farmer Jessica Whiston of Terripin Farms in Quincy, IL. She rocked it and I was so pleased to spend more time connecting with her one-on-one the next morning.

Jess's talk was presented as being about cooperatives (NFU does a lot of work supporting coops), but it was and it wasn't. Jess runs a cooperative farm store but doesn't operate using a cooperative business model. She grows a variety of vegetables and flowers for direct sale and 100% of her production is sold through her farm stand. Her farm stand is truly a local-only store - it sells local products from 41 other farmers, all within 150 miles of her farm. She strategically purchases products she doesn't grow and makes sure all the big grocery items are available - meat, eggs, cheese, bread, value-added products - ALL local. She coordinates all of it, pays the farmers well, and runs a booming agritourism operation to draw people in with a corn maze, pumpkin patch, pumpkin slingshots (yup!), and U-pick flower fields. She's in the process of building a shared community commercial kitchen and bakery with storefront to provide a service to local farmers making value-added products and to keep staff employed year-round. Needless to say, she's busy and she's also killing it! Her gross sales are over $500k this year.

Based on her experience working with food hubs, cooperatives, nonprofits, and other organizations, Jess expressed that running her business as her own entity was more effective than trying to cooperatively manage. She is direct, transparent, and fully committed to developing local food systems through farming and by supporting other local farmers in her area. I found Jess truly inspiring and I hope we can get her connected with Texas farmers in the coming year!

Jess's closing thoughts for the room were:

• Nobody is going to work on your business as hard as you do.
• Think it through, but take risks and do what you want!

ADVOCACY & LEADERSHIP

Day 2 we saw presentations from one of NFU's lobbyists (who explained why that's not a dirty word) and from NFU members who shared their experiences since becoming chapter leaders. When it comes down to it, NFU is a membership organization who bases their advocacy work and programs on what they hear from the grassroots, so the best way to have your voice heard is to get involved!

You can join Texas Farmers Union and that gets you membership with National Farmers Union automatically. I hope to see more from Texas Farmers Union in the next year.

Based on my experience, I whole-heartedly recommend NFU's Women's Conference for women farmers looking to expand their network, educate themselves on a variety of agricultural issues, and who support policies driven by farmers with shared values around economic prosperity and social justice.