Leave it to Madison's Michael Feldman, host of public radio's "Whad'Ya Know?" to come up with a brand for the raw milk movement in Wisconsin: The Teat Party.

And in the NY Times, too.

New Hampshire just joined the list of states allowing gay marriage, after a quick trip through the legislature and a world-record-breaking signing by the governor. 

And yet, Wisconsin has somehow lost its progressive way on this issue.  2006 was the sad year in which Wisconsin legalized discrimination, both legally and morally.  It's time to fix this. Let's try again.  Let's keep trying until we get it right.

“Imagine a way to take cow manure and turn it into electricity. Imagine taking a something we need to get rid of on the farm and turning it into something that makes money. Imagine a way to create manufacturing jobs in Western Wisconsin and keep our environment clean.”

This is message I brought to several hundred dairy farmers gathering in Madison this past week. I know it sounds like science fiction, but it is a real world technology that has a lot of people excited. It’s called anaerobic digestion.

We have a lot of cows in Wisconsin- about 1.3 million of them and they generate a lot of manure. Managing that manure is often a challenge for farmers. Some dairy farmers have discovered installing anaerobic digesters on their farms is a whole new way to deal with their cow manure.

Once again, factory farms get a pass from a major environmental law 2/27/2008

If you live downwind from a mega-farm, don't put away those gas masks just yet.

The Natural Resources Board voted today to approve a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) rule that grants "sources of hazardous air pollution associated with agricultural waste" (read: manure) yet another exemption from state requirements concerning toxic air emissions. Now, these sources of pollution won't have to meet state requirements until July 31, 2011.

There has been discussion of an opportunity for activists concerned about factory farms to meet and perhaps consider forming in informal network across the state.

One opportunity to do this will be at Fighting BobFest, September 8, in Baraboo at the Sauk County Fairgrounds.

At noon, there is a breakout session entitled A Place at the Table: Food, Agriculture and Democracy with Curt Meine, facilitator; Will Allen, Jeanne Merrill and Paul Johnson.

See  http://www.fightingbobfest.org/schedule.htm

This might be an opportunity to begin to collect names and email addresses on a list, meet one another, and quickly consider next steps.

You might want to pass this invitation on to others across the state with whom you have been in touch on this important issue.  This forum should be a good opportunity to raise some questions with the speakers and those in attendance and invite others to participate.

Incidentally, Paul Johnson is an Iowa farmer, former DNR head in Iowa, and former Chief of the NRCS under President Clinton. He is an outstanding agriculture progressive, well worth hearing.

I will be there, standing to one side or the other of the venue, and we perhaps can meet quickly and see if there is interest in a longer discussion.

Since Borges is out on vacation, I thought I'd bring up the fact that the 2400 head Vernon County CAFO operation that she blogged about recently is probably going in . The Vernon County Board has voted to not support a moratorium on CAFO operations. More details when we have some.

Update -

There's now an article in the Vernon County Broadcaster .  Although there will be no moratorium on large animal operations --

The board did, however, approve two measures to address farm growth and land planning. On a pair of 15-14 votes, the board approved an animal siting ordinance limiting animal units and approved a measure to begin comprehensive planning.

The animal siting ordinance deals with farms with more than 500 animal units. That ordinance only gives the county oversight on the location of such an operation and is basically a permitting system. The ordinance is very similar to state legislation formulated for counties.

May 14-15 statewide conference at Monona Terrace in Madison. We'll ask conference participants to review and help us shape a set of recommendations and action steps. The proposals were formulated with extensive public input over the past two years of this Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters project. We'll issue a report later this year summarizing our findings and offering a final set of recommendations. We need concerned citizens to attend the conference and offer their insights and input. Registration information can be found at this_website. The conference will include in-depth discussions of important topics and will also offer arts and cultural activities focusing on the richness of rural life in our state.

This is a recent news release from the Cornucopia Institute in Wisconsin in regard to Wal-Mart increasing the amounts of "Organic" food in its stores and the likely outcome for both farmers and the organic food industry.

Ronnie Cummins, 218-226-4164

Steve Sprinkel, 805-290-0988

Daniel Stranahan, 206-794-3656