One main focus of the 2019 Wisconsin Farmers Union Summer Conference was clean water. The conference this year featured a demonstration of water runoff from different kinds of farming practices. The demonstration was done by Pheasants Forever and showed how modern farming practices can limit water runoff and loss of nutrients while ensuring more of the rainfall actually infiltrates the soil.

Wisconsin's agricultural bounty is possible thanks in part to the state's voluminous supply of freshwater. At the same time, the use of this resource to grow crops and nourish livestock poses risks to the quality of these waters. The effects of agricultural practices on the state's rivers, lakes, wetlands and groundwater can come by way of soil erosion, water overuse, chemicals and livestock manure.

Wisconsin's meteorological winter begins every year on Dec. 1, but bonafide winter weather didn't arrive in the 2018-2019 season until mid-January. And it arrived with surprising force, as the atmosphere suddenly unleashed a sucker punch of pent up winter energy and some of the coldest and snowiest weather Wisconsinites have experienced in decades.

In a report from Reuters this morning, Louis Woo, special assistant to Foxconn Chief Executive Terry Gou suggested that plans for Foxconn manufacturing in Wisconsin may be scaled back again, and may in fact not include any manufacturing at all.