Wisconsin Citizen Activism Fights Against Big Ag

Clean water activists in Saratoga, Wisconsin fight for
water and oppose the siting of a proposed factory farm.

On Tuesday, May 2 the Wisconsin legislature will hold key vote(s) on a radical new policy that would obliterate protection for ground and surface waters.

Republicans exercise total control in the gerrymandered legislature and bear responsibility for the results.

By Don Ystad

Concerned friends and neighbors,

Here in Rome, Wisconsin it's not hard to project what life would be like were our lakes to be drained like Huron and others in the central sands around us. Imagine the effect on the $3/4 billion in property valuation around the lakes in Rome, and the reduced spending in area businesses as visitors stopped coming. Those are the concerns being ignored by our legislators and the agriculture lobbies as they consider fast tracking SB 76. They appear blind to the $20 billion in state tourism revenue affected, the quality of life of residents who enjoy these lakes, and the effect on local communities when their tax base erodes because the lakes have diminished.

Consider that our legislators in Wisconsin are being bought off for a paltry quarter of a million dollars per year by ag lobbyists. That is peanuts compared to the value of your combined lake properties. In Adams County alone, lakes properties account for one billion dollars in valuation, nearly a half of the counties $2,2 billion valuation. Agriculture; less than 1%. You pay the taxes, and the ag industry gets the benefit. And, we're ruining our lakes to boot, as 3 of our 4 in Rome are on the state's impaired list. If this doesn't stir you to action, you share some responsibility in allowing this to happen.

The solution?  Citizen activism. Speaking out. Sending letters and e-mails. Let your representatives know there is a down side to ignoring your rights. There are over 5,000 lakes area property owners in Rome. Thousands more in Adams County, and twice that in our whole central sands area. And, ten times more lake property owners than farmers in this state. And, we are allowing a lobby funded by a few dozen industrial farmers and growers and their suppliers to determine the future of our lakes, streams and drinking water wells. We have to speak out, and we have to stop voting in the people who blatantly ignore our rights to clean and abundant water. And, before you slam me as being anti-agriculture, consider that four generations of my family milked dairy cows in Clark County, WI. These big ag interests are doing the same to family farmers as they are doing to us, and that's not good for any of us. Where politics is concerned, silence is consent.

By Todd Richmond - Associated Press

TOWN OF OASIS, WISCONSIN - Cris Van Houten thought he was getting a little bit of paradise when he built his house on Huron Lake in Wisconsin’s central sands region. He could look out from his deck at the blue water and scuba dive in the shallows.

Less than 10 years later, he and his neighbors are watching their beloved lake dry up. The shoreline has receded at least 20 feet, leaving Van Houten with a new beach he never wanted, his dock high and dry, and scuba diving impossible.

Like other lake property owners, Van Houten blames the high-capacity water wells serving agriculture, particularly potato farmers. As the number of wells grows, Wisconsin finds itself in an unexpected fight. Despite being bordered on three sides by Lake Superior, Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River and cross-hatched with innumerable rivers, streams and lakes, the state no longer can take water for granted.

"We’re all pretty sick of what’s going on here," Van Houten, 73, said. "We’re losing our lake to make junk food."

Wisconsin Scientists' New Group to Access Threats to Natural Resources

Wisconsin Green Fire - "Voices for Conservation has been
formed in response to recent developments at the
state and national level that threaten science-based
practices and long-term vision in natural resources
management," (Woods Person). Wisconsin’s Green Fire: Voices
for Conservation website, and opportunities to join and/or
contribute are scheduled to be launched in coming months

Facing an unprecedented assault on natural resources by polluting industry, a group of scientists in Wisconsin will launch a private consortium offering science-based analysis into public policy-making and the political culture.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource, (DNR), now facilitates pollution, whereas in the past the DNR protected natural resources.

By Don Ystad

Fellow concerned citizens,

If you look at this from a distance, it's shameful that citizens and former DNR scientists have to rise up to fight the state DNR, a bureau formerly responsible for one of the greatest environmental programs in the country, and a legislature blind to the needs of it's citizens as it panders to a relatively small group of mega farmer lobbyists.  But, we have to also be grateful for the experts stepping forward to remind us of what we have to lose if we also don't step in.  In the current political environment, silence is consent.  Your inaction emboldens the politicians to continue pandering to the mega farm lobby while they threaten your wells, lakes and streams and destroy the family farm heritage we celebrate.

As we approach a blitz by the state Assembly to join forces with the state Senate to provide water rights in perpetuity to these mega farmers, even while your well, stream or lake runs dry or becomes unusable, ask yourself if this might be the right time for you to join forces with other like minded citizens and raise your voice in one of these groups - Concerned Rome Citizens, Protect Wood County, Central Sands Water Action Coalition, Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network, and the new statewide Citizens' Water Coalition of Wisconsin.  Take back your right to clean and abundant water.  You probably won't get a second chance.

Scientists form new group to address threats to Wisconsin’s natural resources

Wisconsin’s Green Fire: Voices for Conservation has been formed in response to recent developments at the state and national level that threaten science-based practices and long-term vision in natural resources management.

[Madison, Wisconsin – April 21, 2017]

Once regarded as a national leader in conservation, Wisconsin’s proud tradition of dedicated stewardship of its land, waters, and wildlife has been severely compromised. A new organization, Wisconsin’s Green Fire: Voices for Conservation (WGF), now seeks to reclaim that tradition of leadership for a new generation.

Under Governor Walker’s administration, budgets have been slashed for Wisconsin State Parks and public lands management, scientific research, the Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine, and the Wisconsin Environmental Education Board. Scientific information on climate change has been scrubbed from Department of Natural Resources communications and restrictions on Department of Natural Resources staff have limited access to science at public hearings. This is a partial list of changes by the current administration that make it clear that responsible, science-based, long-term management practices are no longer welcome at the table.

In response to these threats, a group of retired and active Wisconsin scientists with experience from a wide range of institutions—including the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR), the University of Wisconsin, federal natural resource agencies, nonprofit environmental groups, research institutions, and the private sector—have established Wisconsin’s Green Fire.

WGF is an independent, nonpartisan group. Its nearly 70 members represent a depth and breadth of experience in natural resource management, environmental law and policy, scientific research, and education.

Historically, Wisconsin managed its abundant natural resources based on sound science, wise economic investments, fair and open public process, and a shared conservation ethic. In the last six years that tradition has been eroded.

"Wisconsin’s Green Fire, (WGF), believes Wisconsin’s citizens deserve better. We believe there are many in Wisconsin who feel, as we do, that a state as beautiful and bountiful as ours deserves thoughtful stewardship." said WGF board member, Nancy Larson, who retired in the past year from WDNR’s water program.

Wisconsin’s Green Fire will help local units of government, nonprofit organizations, media, decision makers and citizens get the scientific information they need to address local and regional issues. The group will also be a source for those seeking experts who can and will take positions and bring scientific clarity and scrutiny to contentious and complicated environmental issues. Underpinning WGF’s mission is the belief that scientific research, knowledge and education are a basis for ensuring clean water, air, and healthy ecosystems for the economic and social benefit of society.

"In recent years, Wisconsin’s longstanding tradition of balancing natural resource conservation with human activities has been undermined," said Terry Daulton, a coordinator for Wisconsin’s Green Fire.  "Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources staff is no longer able to fully share their expertise with policy makers and the public. As a result, we are seeing new and unprecedented threats to Wisconsin’s water, air, lands and wildlife. Our goal is to be a voice for sound science in conservation."

The group takes its name from one of Aldo Leopold’s essay, "Thinking Like a Mountain". "We decided to use Green Fire in our name to tie us to Wisconsin’s conservation hero, Aldo Leopold," Daulton said. "Leopold’s land ethic relies on understanding that people are a part of the land, every species has importance, and human activities must be in harmony with nature. It also tells us, as citizens and as scientists, that we all share a responsibility for the land, for one another, and for future generations."

More information about Wisconsin’s Green Fire: Voices for Conservation, a website, and opportunities to join and/or contribute will be available in coming months.  For information now, you can contact terryldaulton@gmail.com.

Leonard Peltier: Water Is Life

Leonard Peltier - Image by Gary Stevens
Creative Commons 2.0

Leonard Peltier in CounterPunch

... I watch the events at Standing Rock with both pride and sorrow. Pride that our people and their allies are standing up and putting their lives on the line for the coming generations, not because they want to but because they have to. They are right to stand up in a peaceful way. It is the greatest gathering of our people in history and has made us more connected than ever before. We need to support each other as we make our way in these times.

Water IS life and we cannot leave this issue for our children and grandchildren to deal with when things are far worse for the natural world then they are now. ...

Family Farms, Yes; Corporate Agriculture, No

Industrialized agriculture is spreading in Wisconsin and across the nation.

It's toxic, cruel, predatory and without conscience.

This corporate model is also the first step towards foreign ownership of large swaths of American land on which foreign-owned corporate agriculture can pollute with impunity, (Mal Contends), transforming rural America into colonial status, (Mal Contends).

Whether the corporate entities owning industrialized agricultural operations are publicly traded or not, the model of corporate farmers is a clear and present danger to any community where these factory farms extract natural resources and inflict health and pollution costs onto the adjoining region and beyond.

In North Dakota, the North Dakota Corporate Dairy and Swine Farming Referendum, also known as Referred Measure 1, is on the June 14, 2016, ballot in North Dakota.

John Ikerd has the story, North Dakota as a parable for the nation.

By John Ikerd

FAIRFIELD, Iowa—Measure 1, the North Dakota referendum on corporate farming, is part of a national political strategy to remove all legal obstacles to the corporate takeover of American agriculture.

The campaign features a number of corporate myths:

Myth 1: Corporate farmers have the same values as traditional family farmers.

Reality: Traditionally, family farming has been a way of life as well as a means of making a living. True family farmers do not compromise their ethical or social values for the sake of profits. But large, publicly traded corporations have no ability to express the ethical or social values of their shareholders.

Corporations are legally obligated to serve the "common interests" of their investors. But the only "common interest" of the diverse investors in a large corporation is their interest in maximizing returns.

A corporation is not a person. It is a purely economic entity.

Myth 2: Large confinement dairy and hog operations will increase rural employment and economic development.

Reality: Large confinement animal feeding operations (CAFOs) employ far fewer and lower-paid workers than the family farmers the operations displace.

More than 50 years of research, including at UND, confirms that CAFOs depress rural economies, increase poverty and degrade rural communities' quality of life.

I recently compared a typical 1,000-cow dairy CAFO with a sufficient number of 50-cow organic dairy farms to produce the same amount of milk, using statistics provided by the University of Wisconsin Center for Dairy Profitability. The dairy CAFO would employ one manager and 15 milkers, while the 60 organic dairy farms would employ 30 dairy farmers and 30 milkers/workers.

As federal statistics confirm, whenever CAFOs have taken over industries—poultry, beef, pork, dairy—more than 90 percent of independent producers are lost.

CAFOs let corporations extract, not develop, rural wealth.

Myth 3: Corporate agriculture is essential to meet Americans' food needs.

Reality: New approaches to farming and food production are emerging in response to growing concerns about our industrial food system.

Genetic engineering, air and water pollution, antibiotic resistance, animal welfare and carcinogenic pesticides are just a few of these concerns.

The natural, organic and local food movements are the most visible responses to these concerns.

Free-range, pasture-based, grass-fed, humanely raised and hormone and antibiotic free are common labels for animal products.

Farmers markets and co-op grocery stores such as those in Grand Forks, Bismarck and Fargo provide markets for these products. Multi-farm food networks and home-delivery programs let sustainable farmers connect with hundreds of thousands of customers in distant cities.

This is the future of food and farming—not CAFOs.

Myth 4: Corporate farming is necessary to meet the demands of a growing global population.

Reality: Contrary to popular belief, today's industrial agriculture doesn't feed the people of the world. It mainly produces feed for animals and fuel for automobiles.

Most of the world's people feed themselves. United Nations statistics indicate that at least 70 percent of the world's population get their food from small scale family farms.

U.N. studies also show that production on these farms could be doubled or tripled without using industrial technologies or relying on outside corporate funding.

Myth 5: Corporate investments are needed to finance agricultural expansion.

Reality: North Dakota farmers have other means of financing legitimate agricultural expansions under existing laws.

Besides, corporations probably want the right to buy farmland more than the right to operate CAFOs. They know CAFOs are not a sustainable system of production and will face growing public demand for effective regulation. They also know there always will be a need for land to produce food, not matter how it is farmed.

About 70 percent of U.S. farmland is projected to change hands within the next 20 years. Farmland already nearly tops of the list of opportunities for speculative capital investments.

North Dakota's current anti-corporate farming law is an obstacle to such investments.
---
Ikerd is a professor emeritus of agricultural economics at the University of Missouri. At the invitation of the Dakota Resource Council, he recently spoke against Measure 1 in four cities across North Dakota.