When John Steuart Curry, a Kansas native, became the first artist-in-residence at UW–Madison in 1936, his teachings boosted Wisconsin’s farms and varied landscapes onto the international stage. Regionalism, as his particular genre was called, lauded rural artists and subject matter over urban industrialization and modern abstraction. A description of Curry and his art can be found here. 

To this day, farming is central to Wisconsin’s identity. Images and literary works continue to depict Wisconsin’s family farms throughout our varied regions: the Coulee (La Crosse), the Driftless (Prairie du Chien), and the Drumlin (Horicon Marsh). Crop reports, pricing and trade wars are headline news here. World agriculture associations fill our hotels for their annual events and are major contributors to the state’s economy. 

Our idealized landscape is changing though. Now, set back from the road, long, low buildings with wall-size fans dot the landscape. These are confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), whose resident cows, pigs and poultry number in the hundreds of thousands. Additionally, monocultures of soybeans and maize destined for animal feed dominate farm acreages. 

Small, diversified farms have been disappearing from Wisconsin for several decades. Filling the void are industrialized or consolidated operations that produce row crops, cattle, hogs and poultry on an unprecedented scale. For better or worse, they represent food security for many, as well as profit through efficiency—economies of scale. As detailed in this article, they have outsized buying power with respect to suppliers, outsized political influence and outsized impact on our natural environment.  

Large-scale operations also have an advantage with respect to resilience over small diverse operations in the face of climate change. Between January and June this year, precipitation in many areas of the Northern Great Plains, the Southern Plains, and the Midwest was between 200% and 600% of the historical normal amount!  Some places saw twice as much while other places saw six times as much, almost doubling the previous record set in 2011. Waterlogged fields prevented many farmers from planting in a timely fashion (and some could not plant at all). The unprecedented amount of rain during the spring of 2019 adds another complication for farmers, especially those on small, family-run farms, which can get crushed financially, as described here. 

Climate Corner will focus on agriculture and climate change as we prepare for our next Public Issues Forum in the Climate Crisis Series. The Promise of Ag Stewardship convenes Sunday, February 16, at 1 p.m. at the E.D. Locke Public Library in McFarland.  See you there!

Splash photo of the Curry mural “The Social Benefits of Biochemical Research” taken by Robin Davies. Curry painted it on the walls of the Biochemistry building at UW–Madison (420 Henry Mall) while he was artist in residence.

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This blog is written by LWVDC’s Climate Team. If you receive blog posts by email, our system automatically inserts “by Brook Soltvedt.” Brook is the webmaster, not the author of the blog.