Schweitzer: Show up, speak up

More now than ever it is important for you to get involved.  

2025 has been a turbulent year. It started off with mass layoffs, pausing those layoffs, implementing executive orders, rescinding those executive orders.  Then came the announcement of massive retaliatory tariffs, and pausing those tariffs. All of this has added up to a whole lot of uncertainty. 

There have been more farm bankruptcies filed in the first half of 2025 than all of 2024. While cattle ranchers are experiencing strong prices, the rest of the agricultural sectors are suffering from low prices for their production and high costs of inputs. We are told that trade deals are being made, but they have not been signed. 

This year certainly has not been a good year for the family farm because of all of the uncertainty. Will we have a farm bill? Will we be able to market our crops? Will we be able to pay our bills? Will our future be as full of uncertainty as the past nine months? 

We can help shape the answers to those questions and our future. 

It is time for action. You must get involved in organizations like Montana Farmers Union that are advocating for policies that ensure the future of the family farm. 

As harvest wraps up, fall seeding gets finished, and calves get weaned the season of conventions begins. This is a time when you get together with others to discuss last year and plan for next year. Most organizations, including MFU, will debate policy that guides their leaders to advocate for your future, and this is where it is important for you to be involved in constructing policy. 

We must work together to focus on issues that impact the vitality of our farms and communities. Many would like to shift your focus to distractions that really don’t impact your pocketbooks or your day-to-day lives – so you don’t join together to make real changes that may impact the rich and powerful. The only way the Top 1% can keep getting richer and more powerful is to divide the rest of us.

Debating who can play in high school sports distracts you from cuts to rural hospitals and schools. Debating what books are allowed in libraries distracts you from cuts to programs that help you improve your soils and build infrastructure, on-farm storage, and local processing facilities. Who can use what bathrooms distracts you from noticing trillions in tax cuts for the wealthiest at the expense of services rural communities depend on. 

You must participate in the policy process and debates for the groups that you choose to represent you. That means making sure their policy is representative and focuses on issues that impact your pocketbook and your day-to-day life. Do not get wrapped around the axle debating issues designed to distract you from what is important. 

If you believe the consumer has the right to know where their food comes from, then make sure they have it in their policy to support mandatory country of origin labeling. If you want the right to repair your equipment, make sure it is in their policy. If it is important to you to stop corporate consolidation and to enforce antitrust laws, make sure it is in their policy. If it is important to you to support public schools, rural hospitals, and nursing homes, make sure that it is in their policy. If you support a fair taxation system, make sure it is in their policy. 

To protect your way of life, it is important you show up and speak up. While grassroots organizations like MFU amplify messages from members, if members don’t speak up and form policy that is relevant and crucial to their success, those messages are silence.