Farmers Union to host Havre food resiliency workshop May 18

Montana Farmers Union will be hosting a free event in Havre May 18, “Rebuilding Food Resiliency,” as part of the union’s spring workshop series.

“The American Rescue Plan, when you read about it, one of the goals is to rebuild food resiliency. That means investment in infrastructure to get local regionalized processing going again, it means increasing the ability to store food products, and the programs that will be available for communities to to invest in their own communities for regional processing,” Montana Farmers Union President Walter Schweitzer said Wednesday.

“I really don’t know, and I don’t think anybody really knows right now, what’s available, and what will be available. This will be the first opportunity for people in the local community to hear from our state leaders and our congressional leaders on what they’re thinking and what their planning,” he added.

Another key part of the event will be a discussion with a representative from the office of Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. The discussion will focus on funding for rural broadband, rural hospitals and emergency services.

“Our members, they farm and ranch in rural Montana and they depend on their broadband service and many of them don’t have it. Then our rural hospitals are critically important to each and every one of our members. Investing to secure their future is critically important,” Schweitzer said.

Schweitzer said MFU also is in the process of starting a meat processing cooperative. A press release said MFU Special Projects Manager Matt Rains will give a presentation on how to join the co-op. 

“Really, what this is going to be talking about is our plans for doing this. We’re not at the stage where we can recruit cooperative members yet, but we’re just giving them a bit of an advance notice,” Schweitzer said. 

The MFU press release said producers will have the opportunity to process livestock not just for sale locally, but across the U.S. and for export.

“This is going to be a livestock harvesting facility that will harvest cattle, sheep, hogs and even bison. This will be cooperatively owned by producers from Montana that will be able to utilize the facility to harvest their livestock and package them for sale to their customers,” Schweitzer said.

The Northern Plains Resource Council will also be presenting an overview of the Commercial Property Assessed Capital Enhancements — C-PACE — program. 

“It is for commercial property, which includes ag businesses,” Schweitzer said. “C-PACE is a financing tool that allows property owners to secure 100 percent of the upfront financing for energy efficiency, water conservation, and renewable energy upgrades to commercial businesses, buildings and businesses.”

“The cost of these upgrades is repaid as a small assessment on the property’s annual tax bill,” Schweitzer said. “C-PACE financing is designed so that the annual energy savings from these upgrades is greater than the assessment on the annual property tax bill. The savings that you’re going to make is going to be actually more than the additional cost on your taxes.”

Schweitzer said the Montana Department of Agriculture has received funds for investing in local communities. Director Mike Foster and Deputy Director Christy Clark will be attending the event to discuss programs which will be using these funds.

A local development authority will also be speaking about various programs for people who might need assistance or want to get involved.

“We’re pushing these organizations, the rural development, our state Department of Agriculture, and our federal congressional delegation, to come explain to us the programs that will be available, so that we can pursue and be on the front end of applying, so that we can for sure, get some of this funding for our local communities,” Schweitzer said.

The workshop will be at 6 p.m. at the 4-H Chuckwagon Building at the Great Northern Fairgrounds, Tuesday, May 18.