Spotlight Archive

A USDA Jobs forum, organized to fire up ideas and conversation on how rural Wisconsin can get itself back on its recession-weary feet, accomplished just that Tuesday morning at the Gateway Campus of Chippewa Valley Technical College in Eau Claire.

The mix of speakers raised dozens of ideas, questions and possibilities.

Stan Gruszynski, who spent ten years in the Wisconsin legislature, and now directs  the USDA’s Rural Development unit in the state, said something true of any crisis. “We need to be tolerant, to listen to one another.”

Make no mistake, many of the participants labeled the current state of affairs a crisis.

Net farm income in Wisconsin was cut in half in 2009, said Tom Lyon, representing state Agriculture Secretary Rod Nilsestuen. Milk prices fell 29 percent, he said.

Gruszynski also told the gathering that word had come from President Obama that he wanted to know what part of the economy was thriving, and what obstacles to growth the federal government could help with.

Chippewa Valley Technical College President Bruce Barker said, “now is the time to start growing a new economy, a growing economy.” Barker said the U.S. would be subject to “manipulation, speculation and strangulation” as long as it remained dependent on foreign oil.  

Lyon later noted that the state spends $16 billion on fuel for heating homes and driving cars. People like Mike Stifter, director of facilities at the UW River Falls Sustainability Institute, are working to change that. He told the audience of 100 that his organization is working on using biomass to replace coal, a fuel reviled by some for its pollution.

Barker said agriculture can be looked to for jobs, and he pointed out that throughout the economic downturn, food processing has remained a strong and expanding  sector. Think Nestle’s and Leinenkugel’s and ConAgra.

The technical college might be on to something greatly significant, Barker said. CVTC Agriscience students last fall grew a few test acres of canola.   Oil and meal from the plant show great promise for making canola an important Wisconsin crop. The oil processed from the canola, in preliminary results,  is easily cost competitive with diesel fuel, and is a direct competitor. The feed  or coproduct obtained when pressing the canola,  costs less per ton than soybean meal. CVTC will use the canola biodiesel next fall to fuel its fleet of instructional and other trucks.

Barker said that a biodigester used by the City of Eau Claire saves $200,000 a year. He said also that a giant turbine used to capture wind power has  6,000 parts and that there’s no reason why Wisconsin can’t make those parts.   Barker has encouraged green solutions in the operations of the technical college.

Lyon said that Wisconsin’s fertile soils and abundant water are the state’s greatest natural resource and that Wisconsin’s 78,000 farmers, tilling 15 million acres, represent opportunity. The state has 127 cheese processors and 600 varieties of cheese, he pointed out. He said he was gratified that nearly everyone now identifies food processing as a growth area.

Green energy will increasingly be cost competitive with foreign oil, and war is not necessary to secure steady supplies of energy, Barker said.   

“We need to regain our energy independence,” he said.    

Entrepreneur Rick Terrien thinks he has  other green solutions. Terrien is mounting an effort as the executive director of the Iowa County Area Economic Development Corporation to build infrastructure so that the 35 million people within a day of some part of Wisconsin can eat local food.  He points out that Chicago Public Schools buy 400,000 meals a day. The food is shipped in from east coast centers. He is building hub and spoke production and distribution infrastructure, including a 10,000 square foot rapid freeze facility. “The demand is there,” he says. “Twenty five acres …  a million pounds of carrots!” He says his market is hospitals, prisons and schools. “Push the money out there to the growers!,” he said, his voice charged with enthusiasm.

 

The forum was presented by USDA Rural Development, Chippewa Valley Technical College and USDA Farm Service Agency.