Brad Olson, president of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation and a farmer in northern Polk County, is raising the alarm over a growing trend of local ordinances that stand to hurt the state’s agriculture industry.
These regulations, often appearing in a patchwork across communities in the western and northwestern portions of the state, are framed as environmental protection but end up blocking farmers from expanding their businesses.
“If the cost of expansion is so great that you can’t afford to do it or justifiably do it, you’re being kept from expanding,” Olson explains.
Olson details some of the extreme measures being proposed: increased per-head fees on livestock, mandatory tire washing, and strict operating hours, such as allowing farming only from 8-5, Monday through Friday, with no farming on Saturday or Sunday. Olson says these measures are frankly unattainable.
He attributes the momentum of these regulations to pressure from vocal groups at local town and county board meetings, especially in areas that do not have large-scale agriculture. He notes there is little to no scientific study to back up claims that these ordinances improve water or soil quality.
The Farm Bureau’s strategy involves encouraging local farmers and other organizations to attend town and county board meetings to prevent or reverse these ordinances.
“It needs to be an all-hands-on-deck,” Olson says. “It needs to be every ag organization across the state working together to get our members to those town board meetings, to those county board meetings, and have our voices heard.”
