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Commentary: State Scores A Rare Trifecta and No One Wins

by Lee Luft, Kewaunee County Supervisor

Wisconsin state officials can point proudly to their recent winsor can they?

Win #1: Ben Brancel and the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) have reportedly achieved Governor Walker’s long-term goal for Wisconsin milk production. The 30x20 goal (30 billion pounds of milk produced in Wisconsin by the year 2020) has been achieved three years early!

Win #2: In Northeast Wisconsin, Cathy Stepp and the Department of Natural Resources is batting 1,000 in approving every single CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, sometimes referred to as a “factory farm”) application or expansion. Each new CAFO or CAFO expansion has been authorized by our DNR without exception, regardless of the underlying shallow soils and cracked bedrock in this part of the state. These expansions have doubled the total cattle herd count to more than 100,000 animals in Kewaunee County alone over the past 30 years. Throughout the state, CAFOs have multiplied by 400 percent between 2000 and 2016 to just more than 250 large farms.

Win #3: In 1990 Wisconsin was said to have less than 6,000 high-capacity wells (wells pumping more than 70 gallons of water per minute). Today we have 12,700 such wells, a 112 percent increase! Following citizen complaints in Central Wisconsin related to failed wells, dried up lake beds, and streams that have ceased flowing, Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel issued his legal opinion that the State Department of Natural Resources (the agency whose stated mission is to protect our natural resources) lacks the authority to impose conditions on high-capacity wells based upon the cumulative impact new wells will have on state waters. Now the State Assembly and the State Senate have both voted to remove DNR reviews on permit compliance when high-capacity wells are rebuilt or when well ownership is transferred.

So we have: thirty billion pounds of milk (three years earlier than planned), a perfect string of new CAFO approvals (even in areas with highly vulnerable geology), and a more than 100-percent increase in high-capacity wells in just 25 years. Our government agencies, our legislature, and our administration have achieved a nearly perfect record. Shouldn’t this be cause for celebration?

Let’s ask the farmers. For those working to make a living in dairy farming, low milk prices continue to take a toll and the more large farm expansions are encouraged, the more downward pressure there is on milk prices. Even in agricultural markets that have government price supports or subsidies, overproduction will eventually drive down prices and then converting the oversupply of raw milk into dairy products such as cheese and butter drives down the value of those products as well. Who helps pay for the overproduction? We all do. Last year alone the USDA made two separate $20 million purchases of cheese products to help reduce a cheese surplus that it said was at the highest level in 30 years. The purchases were said also to help “the stalled marketplace for dairy producers whose revenue has dropped 35 percent over just the past two years. Still, the state of Wisconsin touts our success in achieving further production gains and when the markets can no longer accept the increased production we blame Canada. It’s hard to see that the dairy farmers and the dairy product producers in Wisconsin were real winners under these state of Wisconsin policies.

Let’s ask those living in areas with the greatest dairy growth. The most recent tests conducted by the USDA in concert with University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh indicate that more than 30 percent of the hundreds of unique wells that have been tested in Kewaunee County are unsafe for human consumption due to high levels of nitrates, coliform bacteria or E. coli. In Door and Kewaunee counties nearly every major waterway and water body is now listed on the EPA’s Impaired Waters List. Congressman Mike Gallagher is working to find ways to curb the runoff that is creating a massive dead zone in the bay of Green Bay and yet, thousands more cattle have been approved for these two counties in just the first months of 2017. Each mature cow produces more than twenty times the waste of an adult human. A 1,000cow herd addition requires spreading the untreated waste equivalent to 20,000 humans over land that may be unsuited to accept this amount of untreated manure. The herd size increases of just the first few months of 2017 in Door and Kewaunee county will add the human waste equivalent of the entire population of Green Bay to the hundreds of millions of gallons of liquid manure already being applied here. We would not even consider spreading that amount of human waste over our lands but that is exactly what we are doing here with cattle manure. So who were the winners when new CAFO or CAFO expansions were permitted in these areas? For those living in here with concerns about health, property values, and overall quality of life, the further expansion of large-scale farms did not seem like much of a win.

Let’s ask those who treasure the irreplaceable waters of our state. For those who value Wisconsin’s waterways, the continued approval of more and more high-capacity wells and more and more herd expansions in vulnerable areas, the resulting dry lakes and compromised water quality probably won’t feel like a big win.

Yes, our state can tout these new records but the real winners are hard to find. When will Wisconsin choose a course correction that no longer encourages increasing milk production into a glutted market or further expansions requiring the land spreading of millions of gallons of liquid manure over known vulnerable land, or the drilling of ever more high-capacity wells? Only when wethe individual citizens of Wisconsinget involved and require that our legislators demand a more reasoned approach and more accountability. Take the time to contact those who represent you and your area. Today is not too soon to start.

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