The local version of PolitiFact recently tested a claim made by Governor Scott Walker that Wisconsin imported 10% of the milk it needs. The governor is quoted as saying Wisconsin farmers need to increase milk production to meet the needs of Wisconsin’s dairy plants. Although this doesn’t seem plausible given the state’s history as a major source of dairy products, Politifact found the statement to be Mostly True!
Why haven’t Wisconsin’s dairy farmers kept pace with the needs of our dairy industry? Well we can’t blame Governor Walker for this one yet…although he’s made darn few moves to improve the state of Wisconsin’s farmers during his time in office.
The real culprit is fifty years of TOTALLY incompetent regional planning that has allowed robust family dairy farms disappear under the bulldozer…only to be replaced with mcmansions and strip malls and big box stores. Places like Brookfield, Oak Creek, New Berlin, Greenfield, Oconomowoc, Jefferson county and Ozaukee county should all be careful mixtures of small towns, tasteful housing and modern family dairy farms. Urban/suburban sprawl is a curse in more ways than one and the removal of prime farmland from southeastern Wisconsin will continue to haunt us economically and environmentally forever.
If you want to lay the first bit of blame…lay it on President Dwight Eisenhower and his danged interstate highway system.
Interesting comment pulled from another blog about the Gogebic mine…but relevant to the future of farming in Wisconsin:
From the Republican Party resolutions passed at their 2013 state conventon:
“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, by the Republican Party of Wisconsin that the Wisconsin State Legislature shall be urged to introduce legislation to terminate all regional planning districts in the State of Wisconsin;”
Wisconsin produced a record amount of milk in 2012. Production isn’t dropping. It went up 4% last year.