CHIPPEWA FALLS — Tara Daun has been hired as the Farmer-Led Watershed Council Coordinator for Wisconsin Farmers Union. In this role, Daun will work directly with farmer-led councils in Dunn, Pierce, Polk and St. Croix counties to increase farmer engagement, build council capacity, expand participation in incentive programs, coordinate water testing and programming, and foster conservation in the Mississippi River Watershed.
Several members and two Wisconsin legislators were recognized for their leadership and dedication to rural Wisconsin this weekend during the 90th Annual Wisconsin Farmers Union State Convention. Nearly 250
EB Ranch is steward to these endangered goats, and offers luscious goat milk soap and other diverse farm products.
Ridgeland, WI 9/7/2020 — My name is Erin Link and am a woman farmer that owns EB Ranch with my partner Robert Grundy. In 2013 I brought some of these rare, San Clemente Island Goats onto my farm. Now the herd and farm have grown and total SCIG populations in the US and Canada have increased from around 400 to over 800.
This past winter, not long before COVID-19 shifted so many things in our lives, I found myself sitting across from a friend at a coffee shop, debating the biggest problems facing rural America. At their root, many of those issues kept coming back to the same point, big money that is stifling the average American's voice and controlling what happens on Capitol Hill – and a lack of leaders willing to stand up to it.
Farming is one of the most dangerous occupations in America. In 2018, the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety reported 23.4 accidental deaths per 100,000 farm-workers. National Farm Safety and Health Week takes place every year during the third week of September to acknowledge the dangers when farming, especially now, while farmers are harvesting.
Even though my days as a farm journalist are getting farther and farther behind me in the rearview mirror, the desire to know what’s going on in the world is one that I still haven’t been able to shake. One day, I was reading Wisconsin Ag Connection as I do before chores every morning when I came across a piece titled “USDA Announces Production Controls on Cherries”.
When it comes to farming, one thing is certain – it connects us all. Many of us in western Wisconsin can trace our roots to farming. But even if we’ve personally lost a physical connection to the family farm, all Wisconsin residents have an obvious connection to Wisconsin’s agricultural heritage.
Today Governor Tony Evers announced a new program to directly pay Wisconsin farmers for losses during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to increase food security for Wisconsin residents. The Wisconsin Farm Support Program will provide $50 million in payments to Wisconsin farmers and $15 million in payments to combat hunger.
During the current pandemic, food insecurity has visited many families in the area due to unemployment and under-employment. Farmers Union Enterprises donated 30,000 pounds of pork ribs to the Feed My People Food Bank in Eau Claire today The ribs come from Redwood Farms, one of the companies belonging to Farmers Union Enterprises. Redwood Farms supplies premium pork products to high-end restaurants in New York, Chicago and other cities across the U.S.
