Love cheese? Love your farmer, too

I am a fan of cheese. This was true long before I moved to Wisconsin or started working on behalf of dairy farmers.

My love for Wisconsin’s primary dairy product is shared by many in Wisconsin. For us, cheese is also a source of pride. It is something we do well and our state is known for globally. We dominated the U.S. Cheese Championships this year in Green Bay. After the judging, people from across the state took to social media to show their Dairy State pride.

More recently, a bill that would designate cheese as our state’s official dairy product sailed toward passage in the state Legislature. Milk is already the state beverage and the dairy cow is already the state domestic animal, so cheese will be in good company.

In the polarized political environment where it is difficult to reach consensus, this bill passed unanimously in the Assembly. It is great that people get excited about cheese, but I wish that our leaders could get just as excited about helping our farmers be successful.

This past month saw us make progress on the issue of high-capacity wells. While this issue matters more to some dairies than others, the future growth of dairy farms will depend on farmers being able to rely on existing well infrastructure and a predictable permitting structure for new wells.

The bill that DBA has joined with the rest of agriculture to support will primarily address existing wells. While some may have wanted the bill to do more, it is a step toward more predictability for farmers and a common sense regulatory scheme for the small portion of this state that is having water management issues.

I wasn’t expecting unanimous votes on this bill. Still, it did pass by a healthy margin in the state Senate and will move on to the Assembly. In fact, there is a good chance the bill will be on the governor’s desk by the time this newsletter reaches your mailbox.

What is disappointing is that some of the bill’s opponents have shown they have little knowledge and even less appreciation for what our dairy farmers do. On the floor of the Senate, we had a lawmaker accuse farms of stealing their neighbors’ water and pumping as much as they possibly could. This is not true. It does not even make agronomic or economic sense.

This same politician will probably go on to support the bill to designate cheese the state dairy product. He might send a congratulatory tweet to a local company that wins a cheese competition, but he does not hesitate to defame farmers publicly.

We are also proud of our dairy processors’ success, but we know we would not have all of our great cheesemakers without our state’s dairy farmers. They deserve our support, too.

For politicians, this does not mean always voting the way DBA would like. We would be happy to take that as we understand there can be differences of opinion and some issues are more complex and politically sensitive than others. But, it does mean lawmakers should be willing to have the dialogue. DBA certainly is.

If we cannot agree, we will hopefully still end up understanding each other better. It also leaves us open to the possibility of working together in the future.

Love cheese. We just ask that you share some of that love with dairy farmers.