FARMERS UNION HOLDS MEMBERSHIP DRIVE

The Missouri Farmers Union, the latest farm organization with a mission to protect and enhance the economic interests and quality of farmers, ranchers and rural communities, is looking for new members.

The group, founded as a branch of the National Farmers Union, is conducting its first statewide membership blitz since it was founded eight months ago.

Joe Heckemeyer of Sikeston, vice president of MOFU, is making rounds in Southeast Missouri this week. Accompanying Heckemeyer on the membership drive are Jennifer Luitjens Behr, director of member services for the national organization, and four members of the Kansas Farmers Union: Vernon J. Deines, director of the Kansas group; Demil T. Mushrush, state secretary of the Kansas group; and John Strunk and Wilford Bergkamp, both of the Sedgewick County, Kan., Farmers Union.

The group was in Cape Girardeau and Mississippi County Monday."We'll be visiting with farmers on the farm and talking with people in coffee shops," said Heckemeyer, a former Missouri state representative from the 160th District and a farmer who raises poultry, cattle, trees and row crops. The Missouri Farmers Union, established March 24 as the 26th charter group of the National Farmers Union, has 200 members but only a few in Southeast Missouri.

During a meeting in St. Louis earlier this year, a total of 28 farm groups, including the NFU, Farm Bureau and others, met to discuss farm and rural issues.

The National Farmers Union competes with the Farm Bureau for membership but is smaller and takes a different approach to some agricultural and environmental issues. Some farmers belong to the MOFU and the Farm Bureau as well as other farm organizations. A major difference between the Farm Bureau and the Farmers Union centers on the current farm bill. The Farm Bureau wants to give the bill more time to work. "The NFU feels that the bill is working but that the bill's policy is not targeted for the independent farm family," said Julie Baker, MOFU secretary. The NFU is the second-oldest farmers and ranchers organization in the United States. It was founded at Point, Texas, in 1902 as the Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America. Today the group is headquartered in Denver, Colo."Only the Grange farm group is older," said Behr. The NFU has more than 300,000 members in all 50 states. The group works with legislatures in both the state and national arenas promoting issues that are important to the family farm, rancher and rural residents.

Leland Swenson, president of the NFU, will appear at a meeting of the Missouri Farmers Union Saturday at Columbia.

Since its founding the MOFU has worked closely with the attorney general's office on the state Mandatory Price Reporting Bill. The group is also pursuing ideas and plans of value-added and producer-owned cooperatives within the state for beef and pork. MOFU sponsored a Rural United Day in August that attracted more than 1,000 farmers. They discussed farm problems with state and federal officials.