Agriculture
Too hot to handle
The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and Consumer Protection was charged with testing hemp fields to ensure the crop didn’t contain too much THC. The agency had 18 inspectors to collect and test thousands of samples within a matter of weeks. Read more
Carolyn Fath Ashby
A riverway runs through it
It might seem like a miracle today, but 30 years ago Democrats and Republicans came together to protect the Lower Wisconsin Riverway. Will politics ever again work so well? Read more
No milksop
With The Milkweed, Pete Hardin has been a hard-edged voice challenging exploitative food processors, bullying seed companies and self-serving agricultural groups that he feels habitually abuse the farmers who enrich them. Read more
A farm is more than fields
There is a deep history of African American farms and cooperative living strategies. UW-Madison professor of environmental justice Monica M. White writes of its impact on farming movements of today in her new book, "Freedom Farmers." Read more
Tear down the wall
Over the last couple of decades Midwestern dairy farmers and the Mexican workers who endure danger and hardship to come north and milk their cows have developed a deep, interdependent relationship. Read more
Kattia Jimenez
The comeback crop
Wisconsin was once a leader in hemp production. Now that growing hemp is legal again, many farmers are trying to relearn what their grandparents knew well. The learning curve is steep. Read more
Sharon Vanorny
Will this woman flip the state Senate?
Democrats agree that their quest to flip the state Senate hinges on whether Kriss Marion, an organic farmer, can topple the Republican incumbent in Senate District 17, a seat once held by Republican maverick Dale Schultz. Read more
Snapped
A system that allows food stamp recipients to use their benefits at local farmers’ markets has been upended. Read more
Documenting the undocumented
"Los Lecheros,” a short documentary making the round of film festivals, explores the intertwined fates of Wisconsin’s farmers and undocumented dairy workers. Read more
Ben Jones
Sacred ground
A farmer north of Madison has preserved her land for farming — and made some of it available to Hmong farmers. Read more
Seeds of a movement
Sustainable farmers and seed savers are highlighted in the Food and Farms Film Festival. Read more
Eric Lewandowski
Hometown hero
L’Etoile founder and celebrity chef Odessa Piper talks about the future of farm-to-table and why she keeps coming back to Madison. Read more
Linda Falkenstein
Beautiful bovines
Photographing dairy cows is no do-it-yourself, amateur art. Cybil Fisher has made a career of it. She has a few tools at her disposal, including a team of cow wranglers, spray paint, an orange monkey on a stick and a bucket of feed. Read more
WHS 38801
Ag campus, u rah rah!
Tours from the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation will highlight an overlooked Mad City gem, the ag campus. It’s the home of distinctive architecture as well as the site of important discoveries from butterfat to vitamins. Read more
Linda Falkenstein
“The food system is broken”
Keynote speakers at the National Farm to Cafeteria Conference focus on nutrition and food justice. While farm-to-school programs now exist in all 50 states, there’s much yet to learn about spreading programs. Read more
Lauren Justice
A time to plant
Equinox Community Farm uses a “water wheel transplanter” to make planting season go a little smoother. But as Steven Potter learns, it’s still hard work. Read more
Real Life CSAs
How has the community model worked out for small farms? Even with the economic boost of money paid upfront, farmers face many challenges and need to keep innovating. Read more
A better way
Humane options for slaughter of local meat and poultry grow. In the wake of the closing of Black Earth Meats, there are other processing plants who want to do the right thing. Read more
DNR to factory farms: How can we help?
Large factory farms have been criticized as being heavy polluters and cruel to animals. Wisconsin’s DNR is trying to attract more of them. Read more
The open-source seed movement in Wisconsin
Farmers have traditionally gathered and saved seeds from one growing season to plant in the next. But this age-old tradition is being threatened by corporations that are increasingly restricting access to seeds through patents. Read more
