Latest news with #familyfarm
Fox News
12-07-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Trump's border crackdown prompts Arizona farmer to seek better agricultural labor solutions
An Arizona farmer is pushing for a more functional approach to the hiring of skilled labor in agriculture amid President Donald Trump's border crackdown, telling Fox News Digital that the current system is sowing fear among Hispanic workers. During a visit to the remote, mountainous landscape of Dudleyville, Ariz., farmer Scott Heartquist expressed a desire for more collaboration between business owners, workers, and immigration authorities to find practical solutions that address labor needs — while also upholding the law of the United States. "There's a humanitarian side that everybody's like, 'I feel for them,'" Heartquist said, referencing skilled workers looking to enter the country. "And I even understand that our system isn't set up for them to easily come in." While some farmers have experienced issues with migrants trespassing on or stealing from their properties, Heartquist said his personal relationship with and support for the Hispanic community has allowed him to run his business without issue. "Immigration is such a touchy subject and, you know, we were just talking about it — my staff. They're all legal, but a good portion of the people in the community aren't. And so, we see it, we have it around. We have much less of an issue with it now," he continued. The family farm began on a small piece of land in Arizona. After surviving bone cancer, Scott Heartquist's wife, Christie, worked with her husband to teach their children where their food comes from by growing and raising a healthy meat supply. The family operates its own inspected processing plant at the ranch, providing hormone-free, steroid-free, vaccine-free, and antibiotic-free grass-fed and grass-finished beef, pork, and lamb to locals. The Heartquist family has cultivated not just a solid business but also a close-knit commune. Several family members and staff live on the Heartquist Hollow Farm property in Dudleyville — often sharing fresh meals and stories after a hard day's work. During a warm summer's evening dinner, Saúl Márquez, a butcher at the farm, said he is thankful that the family has provided good working conditions and strong benefits to their immigrant workers. Márquez also praised God for allowing his daughter to flourish as a citizen in the U.S. — a milestone that helped him and his wife obtain permanent residency three years ago. "My friends say that you earn very well here. So, you risk coming here illegally because it's the American dream. It's the American dream. And everyone is going to take a risk. Before, it was easy, now it's not easy," he told Fox News Digital. He also recommended that immigrants explore legal pathways to come to the U.S., such as work visas for farm jobs, rather than trying to enter illegally — stressing that the current political climate has heightened concerns among both documented and undocumented Hispanic workers. "You hear a lot of things about the new administration," Márquez said. "We are, and the people are, very scared. Because I have friends and family who, unfortunately, do not have documents yet. So right now, there is a lot of fear with this administration that people do not want to go out to the stores." A combination of factors — including labor shortages for meat cutters and the cumbersome process of obtaining visas — has made it difficult for the Heartquists to hire workers with the skill set needed to provide the community with a wide range of grass-fed, pasture-raised meats. Heartquist claimed that many of these issues stem from the Obama administration. "You had some abuses going on in some areas, and instead of dealing with the individual abuses, they just cut visas. And so, they made it more challenging for us to get the visas," he said. "I can tell you right now, there are 16-and-17-year-olds in Mexico and Central America that are cutting meat. To be able to bring them in, give them more training, teach them food safety issues, and all of those pieces would be amazing. We just can't. It's not built into our system," Heartquist continued. Without a more robust system and discussions about the potential to bring in workers from other countries to fill these labor needs, Heartquist predicted that immigration issues will continue to proliferate. "We're going to have mass deportations that are going to happen right now. The administration will change in three years," he said. "Maybe it'll still be strict on the border, maybe it won't, and so we'll have another onslaught, another flood of people coming in. The problem that we face is... There's a small portion of that community that's really just not good people, and it gets bled out onto the whole community and that's not fair."
New York Times
03-07-2025
- General
- New York Times
My Brother and I Haven't Spoken in 4 Years. Can We Reconcile?
My brother and I haven't talked for four years over a dispute about a family property. Our parents were looking to downsize from our family farm. I offered to buy the farm, but the price was beyond my budget. So I asked them to give me the undeveloped smaller portion of the farm instead, and proposed that this would be considered my version of my brother's having previously received financial support with his own down payment at roughly the same value. When I told my brother about this, he became angry that I had done an 'accounting' of the support that we have each received. We both said things in the exchange that were not nice. I attribute some of my not-so-nice words to unconscious resentment that my brother and I used to talk about how we would do our best to keep the farm in the family, and when the moment came to do something, he didn't. I think about our argument frequently, but my brother seems to have written off the relationship entirely. Even when I have implored him that our parents are in the last years of their lives, our kids are growing up without uncles, aunts or cousins, and we ourselves will get old and die, he doesn't show any willingness to reconcile. He even rejects that we tolerate each other in the name of our parents and children having the opportunity to be together. I don't even fully understand how our once-strong relationship ruptured so traumatically in the first place, given that it seems like a fairly normal inheritance dispute, which makes me think that the relationship wasn't as strong as I had thought. Is there anything I can do to heal this rupture? From the Therapist: You're carrying a great loss — not only of the relationship with your brother, but also of a future in which your family remained cohesive, the farm stayed in the family, and your children grew up with a sense of connection across generations. I don't know if your brother will be willing to reconnect, but you can make it more possible by changing your approach. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Daily Mail
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
British schoolgirl, 15, turns up to her school prom on the back of the family cow
A farmer's daughter made quite the entrance after arriving at her school prom on the back of a cow. Chloe Fitton, 15, turned up to her school prom in Bolton, Greater Manchester, on the back of five-year-old British Blue cow Oasis. A hilarious video from the event shows the fifth-generation farmer in her stunning blue prom dress while riding on the back of the cow. The beauty was led by her father Richard, 43, and brother Thomas, 19, and the family posed for snaps with the graduate and the farm animal before the event. Chloe was following in the footsteps of her big brother, who turned up to his school prom in 2022 on the back of a massive yellow tractor. The 15-year-old, who lambed a sheep when she was just six and has been nicknamed 'Miss Moo' by her mother since birth, has now racked up more than 600,000 views on her TikTok account. Chloe is going on to study agriculture at college in September and hopes to one day take over the family farm. She said: 'Everyone's been on horses or horse and carriage, so I just thought I'd do something completely different that nobody had ever done before. 'Everybody was very pleased, I definitely got the loudest clap off every body.' Chloe's family drove her and Oasis using a trailer to a Tesco car park about 400 yards away from the prom venue, held at the Bolton Wanderers' Toughsheet Stadium. They then made the walk together, which followed 'lots of practice' with the cow. Chloe had to leave her bovine friend behind as the prom started, as she wasn't allowed inside the stadium. Her mother, Louise, 44, said: 'Nobody knew she was going on a cow at all until we got there and we turned up, everybody was lined up watching the cars going, and we trotted through on the cow. 'We parked it on Tesco car park – we were pushing our luck a little bit. It turned quite a few heads – they were wondering why there was a cow in the car park. 'The cow was quite happy to be out, I think – she was quite happy to be in the limelight. She just loved it. Both of them were smiling ear to ear.' Louise said there are 'no plans on the horizon' for Oasis to be turned into beef burgers, and they hope she will produce more calves to stay in the heard. She added: 'She looked absolutely amazing, I'm so proud. 'We've always encouraged our children to be individuals and to be true to themselves. 'Being farming children in an urban area is really hard, you do feel like you've got to change to fit in. 'But Chloe has always been true to herself, a true farmer's daughter, a farmer through and through, and the whole thing of being on the cow just finished that off. It's something amazing.'
ABC News
29-06-2025
- General
- ABC News
Aged care service helping elderly farmers
The Federal Government's new home care program for elderly people was supposed to roll out this week, but it's been delayed until November. In south west Victoria one couple in their 80s loves the current service run by the local council. They say it helps them spend their final years on the family farm, watching over the next generation.
Fox News
26-06-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Owner of 175-year-old farm 'shocked' as New Jersey town tries to seize land for affordable housing
A 175-year-old family farm in New Jersey is fighting to stay afloat as its co-owner is speaking out against efforts by the local government to seize the land for affordable Henry discussed his and his brother Christopher's historic farm in Cranbury, New Jersey, and how they are fighting back against the eminent domain initiative during "Fox & Friends.""We got a letter on April 24 informing us of this unfortunate decision that they [Cranbury officials] wanted to take the entire 21 acres," Henry said on Wednesday. "So, of course, ever since then, we've been pushing back. And now they're saying, 'Well, actually, we'll just take half of it and leave the house.' That would leave us with a non-viable farm for at least 40 cows and many sheep." The Cranbury Township Committee announced an affordable housing plan that will allow local officials to seize the Henry family farm through an eminent domain seizure. This stems from a New Jersey mandate ordering that towns in the state build more than 146,00 affordable housing units by 2035, according to a report. "It makes me feel terrible," Henry said. "It was a shock. We are surrounded by warehouses, been turning down developers for years. We just wanted to be left alone and take care of our place like my ancestors did before us." The Henry family bought the farm in 1850 and have turned down developers for years in an effort to keep the property in the family. "Fox & Friends" co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked Henry what the farm property meant to his family, whose descendants had owned the land since before the Civil War. He remarked that it symbolized much more than just his family, but the entire Cranbury community as a whole. "It's a part of our legacy, and I've said it's part of the town of Cranbury, too," Henry said. "It's a historic farm which helped the town to grow. I mean, you couldn't go to a grocery store then; the farmers were providing the food directly around the town." Cranbury residents have shown strong support for the Henrys. A GoFundMe created to help the family pay for legal costs has raised over $100,000 as of June 26. The case has also attracted the Trump administration's attention. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins took notice of the Henrys' land battle earlier this month, writing in an X post that "the Biden-style government takeover of our family farms is over," and that the USDA is "exploring every legal option" in aiding this particular case and similar ones across the United States.
