the agriculture industry contributes $88.3 billion to the state’s economy annually, according to the wisconsin department of agriculture, trade and consumer protection. wisconsin has made a name for itself as america’s dairyland. these days that reputation is suffering as milk prices plummet and dairies close. according to the united states department of agriculture, there were 8,110 wisconsin dairy herds in january 2019, down from 10,541 in january 2014.

cals is working to address this issue by preparing students for the changing industry.

for example, cals’ wisconsin school for beginning dairy and livestock farmers has helped new dairy farmers stay afloat by teaching them how to create business plans and keep their costs low.

wsbdf graduate, andy jaworski said that the school helped him create his first business plan, which he uses to run his dairy farm. jaworski said the goal-setting wsbdf requires is important because it adds practicality to the passion for farming many students have.

“a lot of people have this idea of how they’re going to run this farm—it’s going to be all wonderful and kind of all rainbows,” jaworski said, “but to actually sit down and come up with a business plan… that’s a whole different side.”

richard cates, a farmer and former director of wsbdf, said that the school teaches students goal-setting to help them navigate the business side of farming. the school also trains students for the real world by teaching them how to get bank loans and by critiquing their business plans, according to jaworski.

current wsbdf director nadia alber, said that the school gives students much needed support through connections with mentors and internships. alber said that these connections are important to “be able to survive” in the agriculture industry. these agricultural networking opportunities are also available through uw’s collegiate farm bureau.

jessica wendt, a uw senior majoring in agriculture business management who serves as the collegiate farm bureau president, said that group members attend conferences and tours to learn about the agriculture industry.

these conferences open “different opportunities from seeing different parts of the industry, talking to different people, really starting conversations to find where people are most passionate,” wendt said.

these mentorships are important because, according to alber, wsbdf “can’t teach everything in the classroom.” teaching students about all aspects of agriculture also gives them a wide array of skills and experiences, which, according to wendt, gives them the tools needed to adjust to a changing industry.

one way uw has helped students adjust is through the teaching of management-intensive rotational grazing. wsbdf was the first school in the country to teach managed grazing, according to the wsbdf website. farmers utilizing managed grazing divide their open pastures into smaller paddocks; livestock are then moved from paddock-to-paddock. managed grazing ensures the cattle graze each paddock when the grass is most nutritious and gives the grass time to regrow. managed grazing cuts farmers’ costs by reducing the need for expensive grain-based feeds.

cates said that managed grazing makes sense for new farmers because of its low start-up costs and because it gives them a niche in the commodity market.

cates’ own grass-fed cattle business catered to a market looking for naturally raised beef, and he later taught his students to take advantage of such markets. jaworski, the wsbdf graduate, said that being grass-fed and certified organic helped him find a good market via the organic valley dairy cooperative.

“as i learned about value-added products in the class and that being a strong suit for your business, it was a no-brainer for me to pursue that,” jaworski said.

alber said that looking into niche products and markets is an important part of goal-setting because it helps students think through their business plans before they “get in over their head.”

wsbdf and the collegiate farm bureau also work to spread awareness about agriculture and encourage students to enter the industry. while the dairy industry may not be very lucrative currently, according to jaworski, it is a cyclical business and there are ways for farmers to “stay afloat.” wendt added that there will always be demand for food and those who produce it. 

alber said that wsbdf knows how to prepare students to enter the changing industry.

“they’ve come to the right place… but you have to be innovative in a time like this and there is opportunity in crisis,” alber said, “as long as they have a plan.”

20 miles west of sacramento, a woman walks her dog down a dirt road in the twilight. they walk past a 22-acre organic farm on uc davis campus. the dog doesn’t sniff out the jackrabbit nibbling grass in the vineyard, but the rabbit hops away when a volkswagen pulls up. jorge berny, a postdoctoral scholar, hops out and starts to prune a row of tomato plants on the student-run farm, hoping to finish while there’s still light in the sky.

not far north, there is a very different scene on the schreiner farms, which is well over 100 times the size of the student farm at 15,000 acres. a combine scrapes a field of dead sunflowers from the earth. with a growl, the towering green tank collects the seeds and hurls most of the plant out the back; fertilizer for next year’s crop. a few miles away, a tomato harvester picks up a stream of the red fruit, leaving behind a wake of pancaked green plants.

schreiner farms is a conventional operation. they use varieties of crops genetically modified with modern breeding techniques. researchers at places like bayer’s r&d farm carefully breed varieties for specific purposes such as disease resistance, size and taste. conventional farms are also free to use synthetic fertilizer and ten varieties of genetically engineered crops.

the vast majority of food americans eat daily comes from conventional farms. organic farms only cultivate 1% of u.s. agricultural land, and the rest is considered conventional. organic farmers play by a different set of rules. they cannot plant genetically engineered plants, and they must use natural fertilizer. the result is a product that some view as more pure, and that in most cases was produced in a more sustainable way.

raoul adamchak, the uc davis professor in charge of the student farm, says that organic farmers could benefit from being allowed to use some genetically modified organisms. he says most of all that conventional farmers could learn a sustainability lesson from organic growers. organic and and genetic engineering may not need to be enemies the way they have often been made out to be.

in these diptychs, i compare six scenes from the organic student farm with scenes from schreiner farms and the bayer’s r&d farm, both of which i associate with conventional farming.

i’ve found this to be the case with many of my millennial cohorts, who support notions of “healthier,” “chemical free,” “environmentally friendly” and the like, without fully understanding the regulations set by the usda and the resulting frameworks within which organic farmers operate. this past september, branding consultancy firm bfg surveyed 300 shoppers with the majority being under the the age of 35. they found that 70 percent were buying organic foods, but only 20 percent could actually define “organic” with confidence. more than half of the respondents qualified as “concerned, but confused,” not only demonstrating a lack of true knowledge about “organic,” but also, and more importantly, a willingness and sincere desire to support and actively seek out foods they believe to be better for themselves and the environment.

in an effort to broaden both my own knowledge and experience, i took a suggestion from a friend last spring and subscribed to the world wide opportunities on organic farms network. wwoof operates as an educational and cultural exchange program connecting travelers with opportunities to work on farms all around the world in exchange for room and board.

i spent hours going through their many pages of farms in locales across the country. the farm bios were compelling, detailing their mission, operations and tasks for which assistance was needed. many owners simply seemed eager to have open natured and hard working visitors to add to their communities for one, two, three weeks to several months. the photos from each farm absorbed both my attention and imagination for many hours — scenes of coastal and mountain landscapes, vibrant flora, collections of gorgeous produce and value-added goods, smiling faces and dirty hands. my mind was reeling at the thought of rolling around laughing in the soil as i sat at my desk in my dorm room.

pay it forward farm, who is now one of my closest friends. her message was full of excitement for the upcoming growing season and the ensuing projects and plans. after a few days of back and forth correspondence we established three main things:

1. we were both extremely excited individuals by nature
2. i was coming to her farm in andover, n.h.
3. my internship would be geared toward regenerative and sustainable agriculture (which later evolved into an intensive crash course in permaculture)

with the reality of the upcoming farm internship, the excitement i felt made me realize that this truly was a step in the right direction. this was something i wanted to do with my life. that “something” wasn’t exactly clear to me yet, but i knew that a farm, dirt and growing things with other excited young people greatly appealed to me.

that summer, after receiving a funding grant from my school for the planned internship, i packed my jeep, said my goodbyes and hit the road for new hampshire.

“nature always wears the colors of the spirit.” — ralph waldo emerson

my experience at pay it forward farm was phenomenal. at the risk of being too cliché, there is no other way to put it: it was life changing. for six weeks i lived with a dynamic influx of young people: camp counselors, a timber framer, a poet, a musician, a photographer, a barista, a dancer, a phish addict, a selectman of the town — and the man i’m marrying in just over a year from now. my housemates, my farm family, were dreamers, go-getters and change-makers — they were absurdly inspiring. adding to the absurdity were the friends who passed under the wooden “pay it forward” sign, who were of that same spectacular caliber: artists, writers, politicians, architects, war veterans, sailors, outdoorsmen, countless farmers and just all around good-people.

the friends at pay it forward farm gathered around a bonfire at a celebration.

in addition to these characters, i also became better acquainted with different versions of myself. the versions that had been hiding behind the desks, the city walls and the metro stops. the sides of myself that weren’t afraid to be open, to be weird, to be perfectly content with the realization that the career path that i was gravitating toward was not going to be filled with riches, stability, status or even be considered a “career” at all. this was ok with me.

“food is not rational. food is culture, habit, craving and identity.” — jonathan safran foer

our days were never uneventful. there were always projects, meetings and things to be done. in the gardens, we planted, watered, weeded and harvested. we taught kids about where their food comes from, and watched them as they planted seeds in the soil. we met with other farmers in the area and supported them at farmers markets, work parties and provided emotional support during slaughterings. i helped sophie with community events, and attended local policy and permaculture meetings. i engaged with the new hampshire permaculture meet up as they planned their annual gathering, and learned from todd workman, who is in the process of revitalizing franklin — new hampshire’s poorest city — into a permaculture center.

when the sun set and the days were done, our family gathered to cook together and sit round the kitchen table or the old wooden electric spool outside, laughing off the trials of the day and toasting to the successes. we cooked for each other, sharing favorite recipes and stories. we held parties with our farming friends, where any and all we ran into were invited and offered whatever food and drinks we had. we spent our nights under the stars talking, sometimes about heady, epistemological ideas and hopes for the future, and other times about joys and frustrations from the day. we laughed a lot, sometimes we cried, i think once or twice there was some yelling, but man, we just lived.

during these weeks my existence was materially simple yet spiritually rich, and i felt much happiness as a result. what resonated most was that the nourishment of my body, and by extension my soul, mainly came from less than 50 miles away. we ate salads, radishes, beans and herbs from the gardens we managed. our eggs were fresh every morning from our four chickens. we baked our own bread. mountains of kale, basil, chard, beets and garlic came from our farming friends. rich new hampshire maple syrup flowed from a friend’s sugar shack five miles down the road. raw milk came from the next town over. insanely delicious french pastries were baked by a friend basically next door. the hay and goat manure used in our gardens were local. almost every step along the way, from planting, to harvesting, to purchasing and consuming, we knew the face of that member of our local food system. this was the ideal.

local macarons by tarte and homemade french bread, typical fresh treats at the farm.

the not-so-ideal was that we were a group of young farmers and workers facing a mountain of practical problems. there were the hardships of financing projects, inadequate compensation in time and money, dependency on weather in determining the day’s market success (or lack thereof), and finding ways to constantly harness the necessary energy each day while oftentimes lacking the necessary support — economic, social and political. though we were well nourished, strong and highly productive, living this life took a toll on some.

i met meghan young, a young farmer and recent graduate of the university of new hampshire majoring in microbiology, during the slaughtering of two of her pigs. she is the founder of garlic hill farm, and after a long winter and several feeding sessions per day, emotions were running high. she told me that she would be putting her farm on hold after the summer growing season because it was just too hard. she was too young, she was broke and she was mainly alone. she blew her back out twice last season, leaving her unable to work, and struggled with chronic lyme disease. sunstroke was a big issue for her, especially during the summer season. hydration and protective gear are key, she warned. to live this life, you have to be very careful to protect yourself.

if done carefully, though, this life can be rewarding. sophie began her permaculture farm in the hopes that it would serve as andover’s first community center for regenerative agriculture, and she has far surpassed this goal. meghan began her farm with the mission of providing local and sustainable food to her community, and though temporarily on hold, she certainly accomplished this goal during its first year of operation, at the cost of both her wallet and health.

this experience showed me just how hard life is for those who strive to supply our communities with alternatives to the dominant industrial food system. my farming friends — my family — may waste less, flush less, wash less and do many other things outside the norm, but the social benefits, visible progress and a tight knit community is what keeps it going. it’s what inspired sophie, meghan, myself and many others to pursue this life. though i am not planning on becoming a farmer, as i enter into my last semester of college i look forward to pursuing paths in food policy and justice, to advocate for the economic, social and political support of my friends — our friends. the friends who rise at 5 a.m. to harvest the fresh produce we enjoy at farmers markets, the friends who nourish the soil as well as our bodies, and the friends who are willing to take a hit financially and physically to ensure that local, organic and sustainable food remains an option.

looking back on my experience now, i smile. i smile because i now know many of the farmers in my own local food system, because i’ve since met many other food activists who understand their battles, and i smile because i am still flushing less, spending less, wasting less and living so much more. 

eva working at the penacook community garden.

eva moss is a senior studying anthropology at sewanee, the university of the south.