IN MY OPINION: Wisconsin congressmen no help to state farmers struggling as costs surge

You would think it’s good that our state representatives are doing things for agriculture in the Farm Bill. 

Farmers should expect as much, with the House Agriculture Committee featuring two Wisconsinites — Republicans Derrick Van Orden and Tony Wied. Republicans control that committee, allowing them to craft the Farm Bill and its provisions that deal with everything from price supports for producers to food assistance for needy families.

Testament to the importance of agriculture in our state, one congressmen not on the committee, namely Republican Glenn Grothman, also got an amendment into the bill that just passed the House and is now in the Senate.

But digging into what they put into the legislation leaves much to be desired. Our leaders could do better, as the problems in agriculture are severe.

To start, the disruption to oil supply chains caused by Trump’s war on Iran has hit everyone at the pump, including farmers, who also are seeing the prices of other key inputs like fertilizer jump up in price. 

Wisconsin experienced in 2025 a surge of farm bankruptcies compared to 2024. Data from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) shows the decline going back further, when in 2004 there were about 12,000 dairy farms in the state, and as of 2026, that number has been more than halved, falling to about 5,000. 

Enter the Farm Bill, where lawmakers could do something about these matters.

Unfortunately, their work on this critical law has been woefully inadequate.

Wisconsin leaders would rather punish poverty than help farmers Grothman’s amendment pushed for greater oversight of low-income people receiving SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits, ensuring that they don’t buy soda, for instance. 

If taking food from hungry people wasn’t enough, Grothman and Van Orden also chose to vilify migrants. Rather than thinking of ways to legalize the people who make up 70% of the workforce on Wisconsin dairies, they spent taxpayer dollars to do political stunts by visiting the southern border. Van Orden did introduce legislation on farmworkers, but it dropped like a lead balloon as it forces workers to leave the country and reapply to return. 

Rep. Wied has tried, working to improve monitoring of organic standards and imposing fees on SNAP-authorized retailers. Still, these changes do little to fix an agricultural system hemorrhaging producers.

There are bills that could move our food and farm system in a different direction. For instance, the recently introduced Farmland for Farmers Act would prohibit corporations from acquiring agricultural land, as well as restricting them from accessing assistance from the USDA. With land access a primary challenge facing new and beginning producers, this legislation would help keep this resource in the hands of those poised to grow food for their communities. 

Unfortunately, instead of including items from such legislation in the Farm Bill, our lawmakers either engage in minor reforms, or take aim at vulnerable people. With a food and farm system in crisis, we need real change. So, if agriculture is our priority and being America’s Dairyland is to be more than a slogan for a license plate, perhaps we should begin with voting into office new people with new ideas.