Will Rural Dairy and Ag Farmers turn away from Democratic Candidates ideas to save and futurize their businesses.

WKOW's Capital City Sunday's host A.J. Bayatpour became the first newsperson to ask candidates running for office what they would do to help dairy and ag farmers survive in Wisconsin. 

Bayatpour asked Democratic candidates how they would help, and guess what, that had solid proposals, which I've listed below. 

But first......I've never seen this same question leveled at Republicans, who have ignored farmers and taken their rural vote for granted. 

Did I mention Republicans did nothing for farmers, and took the whole year off? 

We're at a point now where Republicans like Rebecca Kleefisch have moved on from solving the farm bankruptcy problem to creating fake issues like this.

Here's how Scott Walker Republicans punished farmers; Republicans abandoned farmers completely under Walker. I wrote this back in Jan. 2016:

Scott Walker's $3.6 million budget cut to the UW Extension should get rural Republican voters riled up. It continues the Republican assault on their own rural constituents that keeps them frustrated and angry at their own government. The UW Extension "provides farmers with technical assistance, nutrient management and more," but those days are slipping away, thanks to cuts signed by Walker. UW-Extension, which applies research and expertise across the state in myriad areas, has been forced to restructure ... cut $1.2 million from county-level programs, $1.7 million from campus programs and state specialists and $700,000 from the administration.

In 2020, Gov. Evers forced Republicans to reconsider that bad decision, but...

Adam Warthesen, director of government and industry affairs at Organic Valley, said the state's efforts are coming too late for many dairy farmers who have gone out of business in the last few years. "We should be out in front and figuring out what's going to help agriculture earlier in every year," Warthesen said. 

They even wanted to make it easier for farmers to lose those farms...not kidding: Walker went after Rural Farmers Estates to Fund Medicaid:

WSJ-Dee J. Hall: The state Department of Health Services has new powers under the state budget to recover money from the estates of people whose loved ones have received Medicaid funding for long-term care … the Legislature’s own nonpartisan legal and financial agencies have warned that the changes … could violate federal law. Critics say the changes could prompt some elderly couples to divorce and make it harder for children to inherit the family farm or business. A couple’s home is exempted … But proceeds from the sale of that home could be taken by the state to repay Medicaid used to pay for a spouse’s nursing home or other long-term care. An elder law attorneys said, “It greatly expands the types of property the state can go after … In the past, the state could not go after the property of the (non-Medicaid receiving) spouse.”

Eight Democratic Ideas to help Dairy and Ag Farmers: Democrats have always had suggestions, ways to improve the industry by working with farmers and their groups in Wisconsin but were ignored. The articles timing couldn't be better. From June of 1951...

Governor Evers actually included huge benefits to farmers in each of his state budgets:

Evers’ bills would expand grant opportunities for small dairy processing plants, assist farmers seeking to expand or diversify their operations and establish five regional positions across the state to provide farmers with mental health support. The bills would also create 20 county-based positions with UW-Extension to provide farmers with free research and technical assistance.

It will be interesting to hear how Republicans trash many of these forward ideas without ever suggesting any constructive plans of their own:

Farmers are now dealing with the stacked-up effects of a pandemic, supply chain disruptions and inflation. 

1. Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson wants to bring back parity pricing, which ties commodity prices to production costs. "What this means is ensuring a consistent and fair price for farmers," Nelson said. "So this controls the up and down spikes, like what we're seeing right now."

2. Making broadband internet a public utility.

3. Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes' "Barnes for Barns" tour tied together ag and climate policy and shifting federal subsidies away from corporate farms. "Making sure our farms are more resilient in the face of climate change, which is making it harder for our small family farmers."

4. State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski's campaign touts a 12-page rural policy plan. She said her first act in the U.S. Senate would be asking for a seat on the Senate's agricultural committee, neither the Senate nor House ag committees currently have any members from Wisconsin. 

5. She would prioritize the development of a health care program specifically for farmers.

6. Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry said he believed a key solution was offering loan forgiveness to farmers. A bill doing just that was introduced in the Senate last year but hasn't been called for a vote. 

7. Lasry said he also would push to give credits to domestic fertilizer producers, hoping to lower costs and, in turn, make a crucial supply more affordable for farmers.

8. Both Nelson and Barnes specifically mentioned growth management, a concept supported by the Wisconsin Farmers Union and the Farm Bureau Federation, which aren't always on the same page. The idea is similar to a luxury tax in professional sports; if a farm decides to capitalize on high prices by increasing production, it has to pay a fee that goes into a pot that's divided among all farmers. That way, the theory goes, if the spiked supply depresses prices, smaller farms can weather that drop with the funds they receive through fee sharing.