In this episode, we interview Mary Dougherty, a Bayfield resident near Lake Superior. Mary talks about how organizing in rural communities takes many deep conversations and finding common ground to bring people together. We discuss how Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) affect the community and the environment. She explains how these facilities externalize costs to the community and internalize profits for corporate monopolies. Mary also discusses the potential threats to local water...
Jul 02, 2024•32 min•Season 2Ep. 5
In this episode, we discuss the impact of immigration on rural communities and the systemic issues that have led workers to leave their homes. We hear from Rodrigo Cala, an immigrant, farmer, and former farmworker, as he shares his experiences moving to a new country and the challenges faced by immigrant laborers. We also speak with Christine Neumann-Ortiz, the Executive director of Voces de la Frontera. She sheds light on the systematic factors driving worker migration and issues affecting farm...
Jun 25, 2024•16 min•Season 2Ep. 4
In this episode, we talk with Kristy Allen, a beekeeper in Western Wisconsin. She sheds light on the impact of agricultural consolidation on bees, family farms, and rural communities. Kristy shares her firsthand experiences with beekeeping, including the challenges posed by land use, pesticides, and the need for diversity in forage. The conversation details the interconnectedness of bees' wellbeing and the way we treat our land to grow food. Kristy Allen lives in Grantsburg, Wisconsin, and is a ...
Jun 18, 2024•37 min•Season 2Ep. 3
In this episode, Ed Gorell, a lifelong farmer and member of Wisconsin Farmers Union's board, shares his insights into the transformation of farming in Wisconsin, particularly in the wake of trade agreements like NAFTA. He discusses how family farms and small agricultural operations have been increasingly overshadowed by large-scale industrial farming. Ed's personal journey, from growing up on a farm to venturing into the poultry industry, provides a firsthand account of the challenges and change...
Jun 11, 2024•25 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Welcome to Season 2 of the Farmer-Labor Podcast! In this episode, host Zoe Sullivan will be speaking with Brittany Olson. Brittany is a fifth-generation dairy farmer from Barron County, Wisconsin. They discuss the challenges farmers face, including mental health struggles faced by farm youth, the impact of financial pressures and razor-thin profit margins on farmers' wellbeing, and more.
Jun 04, 2024•13 min•Season 2Ep. 1
For this episode, we’ve brought back Dennis Olson, a senior policy staffer at the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, to discuss projects and policies that UFCW and others are building through a farmer-labor alliance to advance shared interests. Dennis discusses the complexity of building a farmer- and worker-owned supply chain, why a revived cattle herd and fair rules for the market are an essential labor and climate policy, and the PRO Act, which would restore the human rig...
Jul 21, 2021•39 min
This podcast features a conversation between Angela Lang, Executive Director of Black Leaders Organizing Communities (BLOC) and Julie Bomar, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Farmers Union (WFU). They’ll discuss the issues that are common to Black residents of Milwaukee and rural residents and farmers in “out-state” Wisconsin. Their conversation shows the need to do the hard work of breaking down barriers, confronting racism, and working together on shared issues to build a stronger Wisconsin....
Jun 25, 2021•41 min
This episode we’ll meet Nick Webber, the organizer for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 953. Nick’s journey into Wisconsin politics and organizing, which began when he was just a high schooler, shows how unions, campaigns, students, teachers, and families all push a person into organizing, and how work sometimes becomes much more than that. Nick’s story brings us through Act 10, the Obama years, and to the Wisconsin of today.
Jun 09, 2021•31 min
This episode explores the farm activism of the 80s through one of its core leaders, former Wisconsin Farmers Union Executive Director, Tom Quinn. Tom’s story reveals the tension between the New Deal generation and those that came after, and how relationships with labor came together, though in limited ways.
May 28, 2021•24 min
In the following two episodes, we’ll hear from leaders in farm activism and students of its history. Farmers have long been organizing into movements, with varying degrees of success and solidarity. Their insights and memories inform our work for the future. For this episode we talked with two historians of farm activism, one amateur and one professional, about farmer-led political organizations of the early 20th century, National Farmers Union and the Nonpartisan League. Their insights and memo...
May 20, 2021•37 min
This episode, we’ll look at the structures that make people more powerful together than they are as individuals. We'll cover the basics of unions and coops through the personal stories of labor leaders in the state, and WFU camp director Cathy Statz.
May 07, 2021•33 min
In this chapter, we listen to union leadership and farm policy advocates about power in the workplace, a way to rethink farm prices, and keeping workers informed during coronavirus confusion. It's about fair wages and fair prices, and how they're connected.
Apr 22, 2021•25 min
In Chapter 1, we discuss how in recent decades corporate power has put downward pressure on farmers and workers, and why to confront the challenges of today, we need to strengthen old alliances and build new ones across the supply chain and labor force.
Apr 05, 2021•31 min
