Monday, January 20, 2020

Tuesday is dairy lobbying day at the State Capitol

There is a media alternative to the Trump Impeachment trial which opens Tuesday, as WisEye will cover the powerful Wisconsin dairy industry'
File:Confined-animal-feeding-operation.jpg 
second annual State Capitol Dairy Day event beginning at 10:15 a.m., the group reports:
This year's event is being held in conjunction with the annual Dairy Strong Conference (Jan 22-23) so register early and make plans to help DBA amplify dairy’s voice in the state Capitol.
We encourage DBA corporate and farmer members to participate in this event. This is our opportunity to share real-life experiences from the farm that will inform elected officials regarding pros and cons of legislation before them.
  • Time: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Where: Wisconsin State Capitol, Room 412 East
ABOUT DAIRY DAY:
Join DBA members and staff on January 21st in Madison as we hear from legislative leaders and administration officials as they provide updates on important agriculture and dairy matters pending before the Assembly and Senate. Help educate lawmakers and their staff on important issues like dairy/milk labeling, crop insurance, nutrient-trading, livestock facility siting, and more, as we conduct office visits and talk personally with individual legislators and their staff.
With the legislature set to adjourn in early Spring and lawmakers heading home to campaign, making your voice heard now is critical. You can help shape the legislative agenda and impact what gets done, or doesn’t, in Madison. Mark your calendar and make your voice heard on Tuesday, January 21st with DBA at Dairy Day at the Capitol.
Note the DBA's strong connections to GOP pols like Scott Walker, as reported by Wisconsin Democracy Campaign:
The Dairy Business Association (DBA), which was created in 1999 and is based in Green Bay, is run by agri-business and large dairy interests that support looser agriculture and environmental regulations and enforcement. The group is backed by dozens of wealthy special interest sponsors that have contributed more than $2.1 million to statewide and legislative candidates, including more than $710,000 to Republican Gov. Scott Walker in recent years.
Those sponsors (Table) include big-name law firms, banking, energy, and large agri-business interests, like Foley and Lardner, Alliant Energy, American Foods Group, BMO Harris Bank, Cargill, Merck, and Monsanto.
The DBA’s backers give it considerable political clout that helps it move a lobbying agenda, which includes legislative bills and state rules to loosen land use, high-capacity well, wetland, groundwater protection, and factory farm regulations and enforcement. Factory farms are formally called concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and house several hundred or thousands of cows, hogs, chickens and turkeys. 

Additional background from this blog, here

5 comments:

Jake formerly of the LP said...

It's hilarious how Big Ag is pretending that USMCA is the cure-all for the farm crisis. In fact, it's the existence of Big Ag and all of the advantages the GOP gives them that leads to the overproduction and pollution that is wrecking the farm economy and rural life.

My only question is why do rurals keep voting GOP when this is the outcome?

Maynard McKillen said...

The DBA will minimize acknowledgement, and discourage public awareness, of the rise in small family farm bankruptcies in Wisconsin, while pushing for legislation to make CAFO's even more free from oversight and regulation. DBA "successes" in this latter category will result in still more contaminated wells and groundwater, more rural air pollution, more destruction of wetlands, and more rural poverty and depopulation.
The DBA is a corporate lobbying entity capable of doing even more economic harm to Wisconsin than ordinary Wisconsinites realize. It is rife with contingency thinkers bent on wringing short term profits from rural Wisconsin. The fact that their efforts will lead to long term pollution of the air, land and water, pollution that will be cleaned up/paid for by the ordinary Wisconsin taxpayer(!) (This is also called Socialism for one-percenters and corporations!) is not something the DBA will admit.

Anonymous said...

Surprising that they need a lobbying day. I assumed the GOP had DBA on speed dial so legislators could get their marching orders in a hurry.

Anonymous said...

Secretary Cole joked that some people refer to himself, Erick Ebersberger and Brian Weigle as the 3 stooges.

Jake formerly of the LP said...

Same. Must be for PR reasons.