US (WI): NSAC hosts 2017 summer meeting in Madison

This summer, farm and food advocates have more on their minds than just vacation planning and sweet corn picking. Even though the current farm bill doesn’t expire until next September, the content of the 2018 Farm Bill is already being debated in the halls of Congress, on the farm, and in homes across the country. Not surprisingly, the 2018 Farm Bill was also a primary focus of the Summer 2017 National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) Member Meeting. Twice a year the 119 member organizations of NSAC have the opportunity to gather and discuss the coalition’s policy and grassroots priorities for the year. This year, they were hosted in Madison, Wisconsin at the University of Wisconsin, Madison – the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems (CIAS) at UW Madison is an NSAC member organization.

Agriculture plays a very important part in the lives of many “Sconnies,” and the nine WI-based members helped to host this year’s meeting, including: Michael Fields Agricultural Institute (MFAI), Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES), Organic Valley (OV), Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA), and GrassWorks.

This summer NSAC visited two unique Wisconsin farm operations: Tipi Produce and R&G Miller & Sons.

Tipi Produce is a 45-acre organic vegetable farm near Evansville, WI, which was named 2016 Organic Farm of the Year by NSAC member group MOSES. Tipi is run by Steve Pincus, who started farming in 1975, his wife Beth Kazmar, who joined the operation in 1999, and their two children. Beth and Steve sell roughly half their produce direct through a local 500-share CSA, and the other half is sold wholesale to natural food stores (including NSAC meeting sponsor, Willy Street Co-Op) in the region.

Beth and Steve are dedicated to growing good food through good practices; that means: building the health of their soil, providing fresh food to their community, and supporting their workers with a living wage. Tipi Produce has no animals on their operation, and so they increase productivity of their land primarily through the use of cover crops. Beth and Steve also believe that listening to the land is important, and therefore they only grow the fruits and vegetables that are well-suited to their climate, soil, and farming practices. When NSAC visited, Steve and Beth had fields and hoop houses full of delicious looking carrots, tomatoes, cabbages, watermelon, leafy greens, and much more for us to admire and learn about.

Read more at NSAC