SDFU Initiatives

Biofuels

 The transition to an American-grown, renewable energy future for the U.S. is well underway. The growth of renewable energy use in transportation fuels has been a success story for all Americans. For the U.S. to realize the full potential of the renewable energy sector, we should promote clean, higher-blended ethanol and advanced biobased fuels.

Cattle Market Reform

 Livestock markets are highly consolidated, with just four companies controlling 85 percent of processing of fed cattle. These companies prevent farmers and ranchers from getting a fair price for their livestock while they overcharge consumers and rake in massive profits. Increased transparency and robust price discovery will bring about greater fairness in cattlemarkets. 

Cell-Cultured Protein

Technology has advanced to where proteins are able to be produced using cell-cultured technology. A major issue with this new technology is how the proteins will be labeled. The livestock industry does not support labeling foods produced using animal cell culture technology as meat. 

Country of Origin Labeling

 Clear and accurate food labels are an important tool that helps consumers make informed decisions and allows farmers and ranchers to differentiate their products. SDFU supports conspicuous, mandatory, and uniform labeling for food products throughout the processing chain and calls for reauthorization and full implementation of mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for agricultural, aquaculture, and wild-caught seafood products. 

Inventory Management Soil Enhancement Tool (IMSET)

The American family farmer has lost global market share of agricultural commodities from 73 percent in 1996 to 37 percent in the year 2020. Throughout this same period of time more native grasslands and marginal soils have been utilized to grow crops, jeopardizing soil health across the nation. As farmers experienced this loss of market share globally, American farmers have increased America’s stockpile of farm commodities forcing even lower farm-gate prices, not to mention causing environmental harm to soil, air and water quality. No other industry would see this as acceptable to survive, let alone to grow into the future.

Premium E-30

South Dakota Farmers Union wants all auto owners to know they can legally save $4-$15/tank, support our troops and grow our local economy by purchasing 94 octane premium E30’s, providing more power, cleaner engines and dramatically fewer poisonous tailpipe emissions identical to those found in cigarette smoke.

Right to Repair

All major equipment manufacturers refuse to make tools fully available for farmers to repair modern farm equipment themselves, leaving them no choice but to take their broken equipment to a licensed dealership. This leads to inflated prices, missed planting or harvest windows, and long wait times.

Farm Bill

The Farm Bill is America’s most important farm and food legislation, and it needs to be a strong piece of legislation to truly help our farmers, our land and environment and our consumers. South Dakota Farmers Union works hard to ensure America’s Farm Bill is best for our members and consumers.

President Donald Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill into law, authorizing and funding America’s farm and food programs through fiscal year 2023. Though there is still significant work to be done to improve our food system, many of the provisions included in the bill are victories for Farmers Union members.