Farmers Will Be on Nov. 4 Election Ballots

Thursday, September 18, 2008 7:34 AM CDT

Key races in last week’s Primary Election turned in favor of candidates with agricultural jobs and/or backgrounds.

This was true in the 47th Assembly District where Eugene Hahn of Cambria is not seeking re-election. The winner in the four-way primary for the Republican nomination was Keith Ripp, 46, who not only is a producer, he is also the president of the Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board and a past president of the Wisconsin Corn Growers Association.

Ripp is also involved in local government, serving as Supervisor for the Town of Dane. He is also a founding member and past president of the Lodi FFA Alumni organization.

Over in the 50th Assembly District where Rep. Sheryl Albers is not seeking another term, dairy farmer Ed Brooks won over three other Republicans for the right to be the Republican candidate on the November ballot.

In addition to dairy farming, Brooks is the current town of Reedsburg chairman and is also chairman of the board at Foremost Farms, USA. His list of ag-related activities is a long one, including serving as director and chair of the Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives board, a member of the DATCP’s Working Lands Initiative and has been a member of UW-CALS Board of Visitors. Last but not least, he is a former 4-H project leader.

In the 49th Assembly District Travis Tranel, Cuba City, an organic dairy farmer, got the GOP nod to face incumbent Phil Garthwaite (D-Dickeyville) in November. Garthwaite also has farming credentials.

WFBF Endorsements

The Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation’s WFBF) political action arm, Volunteers for Agriculture Committee (VAF), released its endorsements in a number of key State Senate and Assembly races for the Nov. 4 election. VFA endorsed candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties.

In the State Senate, the VFA endorsed incumbent Senators Sheila Harsdorf (R-River Falls), Julie Lassa (D-Stevens Point) and Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse).

Thirteen Assembly incumbents earned VFA endorsements. They include: Representatives Al Ott (R-Forest Junction), Gary Tauchen (R-Bonduel), Mark Honadel (R-South Milwaukee), John Murtha (R-Baldwin), Jeff Mursau (R-Crivitz), Andy Jorgensen (D-Fort Atkinson), Phil Garthwaite (D-Dickeyville), John Steinbrink (D-Pleasant Prairie), Amy Sue Vruwink (D-Milladore), Louis Molepske (D-Stevens Point), Jerry Petrowski (R-Marathon), Mary Williams (R-Medford) and Lee Nerison (R-Westby).

Also endorsed by the VFA are two WFBF members who are challenging first-term incumbents in the Assembly.

Nathan Russell, Sauk City, is a former State FFA President, and is seeking the 51st Assembly District Seat.

Debi Towns, a dairy farmer in Rock County’s Town of Porter, is seeing to win back the 43rd Assembly District.

WFU invites candidates

On Sept. 21, St. Croix and Dunn County Farmers Unions, along with the UW-River Falls Farmers Union chapter, will co-host a “Meet the Candidates” picnic at Gerald and Charlotte Croes’ farm in Deer Park.

The county chapters have invited the candidates from senate district 10, assembly districts 28, 29 and 30, and both presidential candidates to attend the event.

Each candidate will have the opportunity to discuss farm policy and rural Wisconsin issues, then field questions from the audience. Invited to the event are assembly district 28 candidates, Ann Hraychuck (D-incumbent) and Ken Mischinske (R); assembly district 29 candidates Chris Buckel (D), John Murtha (R-incumbent) and Craig Mohn (libertarian); assembly district 30 candidates Sarah Bruch (D) and Kitty Rhoades (R-incumbent); and senate district 10 candidates Alison Page (D) and Sheila Harsdorf (R-incumbent).

Both presidential candidates, democratic nominee Barack Obama and republican nominee John McCain, have also been invited.

The event is free and open to the public, beginning at 1 p.m. with a pig roast. Everyone is encouraged to bring a dish to pass and bring a friend.

Cell phones and safety

If it is proven that the engineer of the commuter train in California was in fact paying more attention to text messaging on his cell phone than to red lights along the track that might have prevented the crash and resulting fatalities, more states may join in legislative efforts to curb unsafe cell phone use by drivers. Hopefully such a ban would apply to train engineers as well.

We all have our own horror stories to tell. I’ll spare you reading about mine, but suffice it to say that nearly always when the driver ahead of you or beside you is driving erratically a glance in the mirror usually reveals a cell phone in the driver’s hand.

Many can and do more than one thing at a time when we are talking n but driving, except in rare circumstances, shouldn’t be one of them. Driving, especially on today’s highways, requires undivided attention.

Wisconsin is not one of the 27 states that have cell phone use restrictions for drivers. But the City of Marshfield, as of Sept. 1, banned the use of handheld cell phones while driving. Exempted are drivers making 911 calls and those using hands-free headsets. Marshfield is the first city to enact such a ban n but I doubt it will be the last.

Busy people seldom complain about waiting rooms n whether in a doctor’s office or an airport. That’s because it gives them time to think. Today, some waiting room situations are a nightmare because one is bombarded on all sides by different conversations, many unfit for public broadcast.

Just as Wisconsin lawmakers jumped on the bandwagon and quickly put in place the state’s No Call List, they just might want to tackle cell phone use during the next legislative session.

Switchgrass

Something tells me a Green Bay area farmer must have been reading his copy of Agri-View on the way back to the house from his mailbox.

That’s because about 12:30 p.m. last Thursday I had a call from Joseph Dworak who had read my story about switchgrass being used in Alliant’s planned expansion of its Nelson-Dewey generating plant at Cassville. He already has a field of switchgrass n ready and waiting.

Although the first paragraph of my story indicated there were still “a lot of ifs” in the proposal that would utilize switchgrass, Dworak wanted some more immediate information.

My suggestion was that he call Bill Johnson, manager of biofuels development for Alliant Energy. Johnson later reported he’d talked with the farmer and tried to answer some of his questions.

This reminds me of stories a few years back about the rebirth of industrial hemp as a crop for southern Wisconsin. Many farmers, especially in the Waupun area where an abandoned hemp mill still stands, were very interested in the prospect.

Unfortunately, industrial hemp can’t be grown until the Drug Enforcement Agency decides it no longer needs to be placed in the same classification as heroin! North Dakota has already gotten its ducks in a row and has legislation in place that will allow industrial hemp to be planted as soon as n or whenever n the DEA has a change of heart.

There is no prohibition against growing switchgrass. In fact it already dots the Wisconsin landscape and can be used for hay.

Can there be any doubt that Wisconsin producers are anxious to hear of new uses for their crops n and want to stay on top of the latest scientific advances? Okay, with industrial hemp, it’s not science but regulation.

COOL

COOL isn’t new! Country-of-origin-labeling or COOL, part of the recent Farm Bill, requires food to be labeled with the name of the country where it originates.

But I can’t resist sharing a recent “find” in a cookbook that is probably well over 100 years old. Tattered and barely holding together the cookbook includes ads from a number of Sauk County businesses of the time. My grandmother grew up in that area and my sisters and I believe the cookbook we found probably belonged to gram’s mother.

What caught my eye was a recipe for “Lemon Surprises” but it wasn’t a recipe for a specific food. Instead it urged “Sunkist Lemon Juice and sugar be tried on waffles or pancakes, on Honeydew and other melons, on consommé (hot or iced), on soups such as tomato, bean, lentil and mock turtle and on seafood chowders.”

At the very end of the recipe these words appeared: “Product of the United States of America.” My assumption is that this refers to the Sunkist Lemon Juice. Just how COOL is that?

Siting Board

The Livestock Facility Siting Review Board will meet via teleconference on Sept. 19 from noon to 1 p.m. The call will originate at the DATCP boardroom, 2811 Agriculture Drive in Madison.

Agenda items include an update on the status of the case involving Larson Acres, Inc. v Town of Magnolia, Docket No. 07-L-01 and an appeal on Racine County granting permit for Noble Farm.

The board will also discuss how it can best utilize DATCP technical assistance and board procedures to better administer future cases. It will also look at possible future agenda items.

The board’s next meeting will be on Oct. 17.

Capitol Notes:

- After a long wait, Dick Cates’ book about the Town of Arena (called Voices from the Heartland) is about to be published. Cates will give a reading from the book on Oct. 16 from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Overture Center in Madison.

- During the sign up period that ended on Aug. 31, nearly 281,000 Wisconsin residents placed their cell phone numbers on the state’s Do Not Call list.

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