A few days ago I happened upon a fascinating (and disturbing) report outlining the serious decline of Wisconsin’s family farms, with nearly half of Wisconsin’s family farms having disappeared in the last 15 years.
According to reporter Rick Barrett of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, about 360 dairy farms went out of business in Wisconsin in 2020, a trend that has accelerated in the last decade. Clark County sits in the middle of the state and at the epicenter of the crisis. Cows outnumber people, and there are more dairy farms than in any other county in the state. Hundreds of millions of dollars flow into the local economy from those farms.
While I’m a city guy through and through, I strongly believe Wisconsin’s family farms are one of the cornerstones of our state. Wisconsin didn’t become “America’s Dairyland” by accident – our family farmers earned our state that title through their hard work over generations. The fact that so many family farms in our state have disappeared over the past 15 years falls firmly at the feet of Wisconsin’s Republican legislators who’ve controlled much (if not all) of our state’s three branches of government for the better part of the last ten years.
The Republicans who’ve held power in Wisconsin over the past decade or so have been an absolute blight on this state, and I cannot wait until the day comes when Democrats win back the Assembly and the State Senate and finally start doing some good for our state.
In order to win back the Senate and the Assembly, the Democrats have to actually have a coherent rural and farm friendly agenda and get out in rural Wisconsin and work with the farmers. Right now they are not looked upon favorably at all…despite the fact that the Republicans continue to let farms die and support factory farms.
Agreed.