Immigration
Now showing online: Our film on rising immigration tensions in America’s Dairyland
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‘Los Lecheros’ (Dairy Farmers) played at 25 film festivals, bringing immigrant labor on dairies out of the shadows.
Letters to the Editor
Thank you for a wonderful story that lifted my spirits today
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This letter was written in response to the Center’s Oct. 16, 2018 collaborative report with HuffPost titled: As Trump disparages immigrants, Midwest dairy farmers build bridges to Mexico.
Immigration
As Trump disparages immigrants, Midwest dairy farmers build bridges to Mexico
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The Puentes/Bridges program is a small nonprofit that organizes annual trips to Mexico to bridge the cultural gap between farmers and immigrant dairy workers — and the families they left behind.
Immigration
How undocumented immigrants became the backbone of dairies — and how to keep the milk flowing in America’s Dairyland
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Farmers, experts say reliance on immigrant workers, many of them in the U.S. illegally, will continue unless dairies — and Congress — make significant changes.
Economy
No sanctuary, fewer farmhands: Coping with the Trump agenda in America’s Dairyland
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In Milwaukee County, the debate over ‘sanctuary cities’ continues, while in rural Wisconsin, informal networks form to help immigrants avoid deportation
State of Change: Water, Food And The Future Of Wisconsin
America’s Dairyland and Trump in the rearview mirror as workers return to Mexico
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The Hernandez family and other dairy workers are heading back to Mexico amid hostile rhetoric and rising immigration arrests in the Midwest and nationwide.
State of Change: Water, Food And The Future Of Wisconsin
Under Trump, Wisconsin dairies struggle to keep immigrant workers
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Dairy farmers raise wages to attract and keep Mexican and Central American employees. Workers cite hostility and heightened enforcement.
Groundwater supply
Big farms, frac sand mines could feel force of judge’s groundwater ruling
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Two weeks ago, Administrative Law Judge Jeffrey Boldt approved the state Department of Natural Resources’ issuance of permits for a large and controversial dairy farm in Central Wisconsin. But he also reduced the amount of water the farm could pump from proposed high-capacity wells and required the DNR to consider the impact of the withdrawals in conjunction with other, nearby wells — a concept known as cumulative impacts.
digesters
How to make a digester profitable: Veggies and poker chips
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The greenhouse and its veggies are one example of a new cottage industry popping up across the country to capitalize on the waste energy, methane gas and the nutrient-rich solids that are emitted from a digester.
Dairy
Manure digesters seen as best hope for curbing lake pollution, but drawbacks remain
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Since 2001, manure digesters have been popping up across the state. Wisconsin now has 34, the most in the nation, with two more scheduled to begin operating by 2015. In all these digesters, bacteria eat biomass like manure, food scraps or whey and emit energy in the form of methane gas.
Environment
Mega-dairy’s growth plans hotly debated
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A four-day hearing on challenges to the expansion of a Kewaunee County mega-dairy illustrated deep divisions, ranging from neighbors who shared fears of polluted wells and illness to fertilizer and feed dealers who showed up to express their support of big farms.
Environment
Disputed expansion of dairy watched for statewide impact
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In a Green Bay hearing beginning Tuesday, a controversial attempt to expand a dairy farm set to become the fifth largest in Wisconsin will be challenged in a case that could have a far-reaching impact on how Wisconsin regulates industrial-size livestock farms.