Author

Gary Wertish
Gary Wertish is president of Minnesota Farmers Union.
The Biden administration is right to fight corporate concentration in meatpacking
By: Gary Wertish - July 24, 2023
Corporate monopolies threaten the future of Minnesota’s rural communities. They have decimated local businesses, shipped jobs overseas and driven family farmers from their land. None of this is inevitable. It’s the result of policy choices. One of those choices has been to abandon rules meant to protect family farmers and ranchers from the predatory and […]
A legislative agenda for Minnesota’s family farmers
By: Gary Wertish - January 12, 2023
With the start of a new legislative session comes a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Legislative leaders are faced with a historic $17.6 billion projected surplus — by far the largest in history — and a DFL trifecta for the first time in nearly 10 years. Minnesota Farmers Union (MFU) has been advocating for family farmers and rural […]
Consolidation is driving family farms out of business — Opinion
By: Gary Wertish - August 17, 2021
Every August, Farmfest is a great time to reconnect with farmers and friends and catch up on others we know in common. I was reflecting on some of those people as I drove home from Farmfest this year and started thinking about the “ghost farmsteads.” You’ve likely heard of ghost towns, early villages which have […]