As the state of Wisconsin considers eliminating funding for the farm-to-school coordinator position at the Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection in its 2017-19 budget cycle, advocates fear they'll lose a crucial leg up for farmers and school districts.
Farm-to-school programs can take a variety of forms. In Wisconsin, the USDA reported that 73 percent of the 775 schools and districts surveyed participated in some type of farm-to-school program.
A glut of milk and cheese has had the dairy industry struggling with lower and more volatile prices for a several years. Now there's growing price uncertainty on the horizon for soybean growers.
Schools in rural areas of Wisconsin with decreasing populations also face a decline in student enrollment, a trend causing budget anxieties for district administrators.
The amount of money a school district in Wisconsin receives from the state in a given year depends on a series of funding equations that factor in enrollment, student poverty, local property values, transportation needs and other criteria.
In an attempt to educate and advocate for state control of the gray wolf population, Wisconsin state legislators Sen. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, and Rep. Adam Jarchow, R-Balsam Lake, hosted the Great Lakes Wolf Summit in September 2016.
In hindsight, it's plain to see that the boom in prescription opioids that started in the late 1990s coincided with an increase in opioid-related deaths in Wisconsin and across the U.S.
