Great Falls Area Chamber of Commerce

39 Great Falls Area Chamber of Commerce www.greatfallschamber.org F E AT U R E D Q & A 2021 MFU Board of Directors: Sarah Rachor, Jeff Bangs, Will Downs, Erik Somerfeld, Ben Peterson, Sig Rudie, Tom Clark, Jan Tusick, Walter Schweitzer, Rollie Schlepp and Brett Dailey. What is unique about your business? Montana Farmers Union is one of the oldest and largest farm organizations in Montana representing the family farm, not large corporations, or special interests. Only producers are allowed to vote. This makes us very different from other agriculture organizations advocating for the agricultural industry. Consequently, MFU has lobbied for COOL, Country of Origin Labeling for beef, something other agriculture organizations will not do because the large multinational packers do not want COOL. MFU lobbied for Right to Repair farm equipment, something other agriculture organizations will not do because equipment manufacturers do not want it. These examples are endless and show up in our education offerings as well. What has been your biggest success? There are many, but one especially relevant to the Great Falls Area Chamber of Commerce is Montana Farmers Union is a 20% owner in Farmers Union Enterprise, a farmer-owned business since 1929. We own and operate several companies, including Redwood Farms, a hog slaughter processing over 2000 hogs per day; Midwest Grease, which cleans and recycles restaurant grease into livestock feed ingredients and biofuels; Central Bi-Products, a full service rendering company with facilities in 3 different communities; Northland Choice, making protein-based pet food ingredients; Performance Pet, the largest custom pet food canning facility in North America; ARTEX, a manufacturing company building for 40 years the toughest line of manure spreaders; silage trailers; truck boxes and several other value-added ag businesses. What has been your biggest challenge? The biggest challenge facing family farms today is corporate concentration. Only four corporate monopolies process eighty- four percent of our beef, the majority-owned by the Brazilian cartel. Four corporate monopolies control over 80% of the seeds, chemicals, and fertilizers farmers need to grow their crops. Three corporate monopolies make over 95% of the tractors we use. Just four companies buy over 80% of our crops. Montana has only one railroad to get our products to market. These corporations do not play fairly, and they are price-gouging families and farmers. Farmers Union is trying to reign in these monopolies by getting our courts and congress to force them to play fairly. When corporations are forced to play by the rules, our local business and producers can compete, leading to a more robust and healthy community. What are your plans for 2022 or in the future to grow and develop your business? Montana Farmers Union is excited to announce the formation of a mobile harvest unit and a partnership with the Montana Premium Processing Co-op to bring local meat processing to the Hi-Line. We hope to partner with MSU Northern to establish a meat processing curriculum to train our next generation of butchers, inspectors, and meat processing entrepreneurs. This will allow producers to sell their livestock direct to the consumers. MFU is leading by example. We are showing Montana communities we can fix the supply chain and get back to feeding ourselves. Anything else you would like to share or let people know about your business? Montana Farmers Union proudly owns and operates Arrowpeak Camp on 160 acres in the Highwood Mountains. The name Arrowpeak comes from a peak on the skyline to the east of the camp. The property structures have evolved. The camp hosts youth from ages 8 – 19 who enjoy the beautiful location and participate in the fun and educational leadership opportunities. Camp is a labor of love and costs just $80 per week for children of members. Montana Farmers Union provides nearly $100,000 a year in grants, scholarships, and startup capital for value-added businesses and co-ops around Montana. What have you done to overcome the challenge(s) of 2020/2021? Have you been able to turn any of it into opportunities? How has it changed your way of doing business? The covid pandemic put a microscope on our food supply, and we all found out it was broken. The consumer was rationed meat, dairy, and produce while the livestock producer was euthanizing livestock, dairy farmers dumped milk down, and vegetable growers were plowing in fields; this is a broken system. Consumers started paying attention to the food system, and MFU created a foodsecurityforus.com outreach program. MFU hired a local media firm to help develop and promote an award-winning program. It explained our food system and how it started over 50 years as a cheap food policy. The cheap food policy is more about corporate control of the food dollar than providing quality food at a reasonable price. Our food system was concentrated in the guise of efficiency, but what we found out came at the expense of resiliency. Fifty years ago, communities in Montana had packing plants, flour mills, bakeries, and home delivery milk. Montana raised and processed over 70% of our food. Now it is less than 10%. We had grocery stores with Montana food in all our small towns. MFU discussed the solution to a more resilient food supply: raising and processing our food locally, which will provide healthier food and healthier communities by providing good-paying careers for families all over Montana. Because of the risk of spreading covid at live educational events, MFU started doing more online webinars, town hall meetings, and online educational programs, bringing much of what we do online into the homes of our members. Our annual convention was held live in Great Falls in October and streamed online. That may become the new normal. Photo provided by Montana Farmers Union

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