>> I'm Frederica Freyberg.
Tonight on "Here and Now," a "First Look" at why some milk
producers are scrambling to sell their product.
After that our WisContext partners explore
the Farm to School nutrition program.
Birch tree burglars, they're sawing their way
across northern Wisconsin.
It's "Here and Now" for April 14.
>> Funding for "Here and Now" is provided, in part,
by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
>> In our "First Look" tonight, the clock is ticking
for more than 75 dairy farmers in Wisconsin who by the end of
the month won't be able to sell their milk to their processor.
>> Grassland Dairy alerted the farmers by letter April 1st that
it won't be able to buy their supply because the Canadian
market has dried up saying quote, The Canadian government
has put in place several regulations to prevent
this trade from continuing.
Grassland is now forced to cut back on our milk intake volumes
on a very short notice
due to not being able to process milk on lines
dedicated to our Canadian customers.
>> That letter came as a devastating blow to Wisconsin
farmers, including Jennifer and Shane Sauer of Waterloo.
>> When we opened the letter, I'll be honest.
There was shock at first.
And then Tuesday and Wednesday you thought more about it.
A lot of -- a lot of tears shed.
>> Jennifer and Shane Sauer are worried they won't be able to
continue running their 120-cow third generation farm
if they don't find a new processor soon.
>> You've done a lot of calling to different processors.
>> Getting the same answer every time.
>> And that answer's no.
They're full.
It seemed like there was some hope with that maybe, you know,
somebody will take your milk, but out of the 125 processors
that are in Wisconsin, you keep hearing
that same answer and that's no.
>> And 30 days, they say, just has not been enough time
to make new plans.
>> Unfortunately, people don't understand that cows
aren't a machine you can shut down for a week.
And when we had 30 days,
30 days is not enough to find another processor.
Now we're down to 11, 12 days, and it's getting close to time.
>> The Sauers say having to sell the cows would mean more than
losing their livelihood.
It would mean losing a way of life that's been in
their families for generations and one they hoped to pass
on to their children.
>> We put our heart and soul into it 24/7.
There's days we come down here and we don't even think of it
as a job.
This is the life we've chosen and this is what we know.
You have-- you've dealt with so many different things living on
a farm, and to think that, you know, we might have to sell
the cows and try to do something different --
>> Very scary thought.
>> The Sauers are just one of the farm families reeling
from the prospect of not being able to sell their milk.
This is getting urgent attention from Wisconsin officials.
The entire Congressional delegation and Governor Scott
Walker sent a letter to U.S.
trade representatives and the secretaries of commerce and
agriculture saying, quote, this situation underscores how
Canada's new pricing policies are not only undermining trade
with the United States, but are displacing fresh milk produced
by hard-working dairy farmers in Wisconsin
and around the country.
The letter continues, we urge you to take immediate action to
address this dire situation, where apparent unfair trade
practices are putting Wisconsin dairy farmers' livelihoods
at risk.
We look forward to working with you to break down these trade
barriers, enforcing existing rules and improve Canadian
market access for our producers in any future
trade negotiations.
>> We are joined now by Wisconsin Secretary of
Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, Ben Brancel.
Thanks for being here. >> Thanks for having me.
>> So what kind of response is Wisconsin getting to its call
for immediate action on this?
>> Well, I think the White House is reviewing what is the
appropriate avenue to get Canada to really own up and be part of
the discussions to deal with this issue.
>> Well, let's back up and have you help us understand why
Canada changed its milk import policies.
>> Well, Canada itself was reviewing its trade deficit,
trade issues.
I will say it that way.
One of the things they recognized is we had a product
from the state of Wisconsin that was moving into Canada.
It's about a $100 million value to the state of Wisconsin.
And they took a look at how could we change things so that
we wouldn't have that competition here
in our own country.
And they changed their pricing structure.
And that pricing structure change was targeted specifically
to this product.
And it comes from New York and the state of Wisconsin.
>> How does it break existing trade rules or constitute unfair
trade practices as was suggested in that letter?
>> Well, we're supposed to have free and open trade with the
country, Canada and the country of Mexico, under the NAFTA
agreements and it has worked very, very well for agriculture.
But now Canada has not only in dairy, but a couple of items,
found unique ways at the provincial level of government,
not the national level, but the provincial level of government
to put things in place that targets the products coming from
the United States and is causing some undue harm and that's what
we're here talking about today, the harm of some of our dairy
producers.
>> So in regard to that, what information do you have that any
of the 75 farmers have found alternative processors to sell
their milk to?
>> Well, we've been discussing this topic with the processors.
We've talked to the processor organizations.
We've talked to the milk handlers.
We've talked to the farm organizations.
Today we're going to have a discussion with the dairy
farmers themselves.
And we are opening up every channel possible to see if we
have an avenue of success.
And there has been reports that we are finding some of the milk
a home. >> Okay.
Any indication that farmers if they don't find that have to
start dumping milk?
>> Well, this is the first time ever in the state of Wisconsin's
history, ever, where milk produced here
could not find a home.
We're still hoping that that's going to happen.
If they don't find a home for your milk, I don't know how you
keep producing the product and staying with your livelihood and
staying with your farm.
And I think it leads some pretty serious decisions
for those farmers.
>> Now, this letter that Grassland sent to farmers April
1st apparently came as a surprise
to many of those farmers.
But was this something that state and federal officials have
been watching and working on for months?
>> Oh, for over a year.
Back in early '16 we started to worry about this change in
policy that Canada was putting in place.
We immediately started to have discussions with their
ambassadors, the embassies, counselor generals.
It was going through federal channels.
We were trying to make sure that it would not get fully imposed.
And we kept worrying about it.
And eventually in March, end of March, Canada informed Grassland
that that was the last loads of ultra-filtered milk they would
be allowing into their country.
>> What did your agency counseling the farmers affected
or what kinds of resources should it come to pass that they
cannot find a new market?
>> Well, we want them to talk to us.
We will help them walk through some of the decision-making
process, what is it that they have to do to disburse the herd
or would they sell the cows and keep the heifers with the
opportunity to come back into the milking system.
What kind of other things do we have to do?
Do we have to mediate with the lenders to see if the lenders
will help us give those farmers some latitude?
So we're standing at the ready.
But most of our energy right now is to hope that that never
happens and to work hard to see that it never happens.
>> How bad is this?
>> It's pretty bad for those farmers.
I don't care what you say about the industry, but when you know
what can happen to those farm families, it's bad.
>> Meanwhile, in the midst of all of this and in an ongoing
kind of effort, you're working to expand markets in Mexico.
>> Yes, we are, as we have been.
We try to find locations where we think there's an opportunity
for products from the state of Wisconsin to be sold and build
relationships.
Those take time to happen, but we've been very, very
successful.
This state used to be ranked 17 amongst the states of the U.S.
Today it's ranked 12th.
So our export market based on the other states and the numbers
we're given has improved.
>> How could any renegotiation of the North American Free Trade
Act from the Trump administration affect all of
this and Wisconsin?
>> Well, my hope is when they sit down and they take a look at
NAFTA and if NAFTA allows this to happen and this is not --
I just think there's a spirit of the law and there's the letter
of the law.
And I think Canada violated the spirit of the law.
And if you have to really get to the letter of the law, then we
have to open up that NAFTA agreement and make sure that
this does not happen again, where they can target a very
specific product and cause undue harm to our businesses here
and certainly our farm families.
>> Meanwhile, just ahead we are looking at the Department of
Agriculture's Farm to School program and that is a program
that we started looking at because there's a budget item
that cuts the coordinator position and the advisory
council for that program.
But that was a cut that actually you recommended as part of kind
of reining in costs in your agency?
>> Well, the legislature required every agency to review
all of its programs and find out if there was an opportunity
for a 5% reduction.
We listed a whole variety of items on that list for the
legislature's consideration and that was one of them, yes.
It was one of those.
And it's because the position was vacant and had been vacant.
We now have two other councils besides the advisory council
working on this project.
And we have other employees that we've redirected to work
on Farm to School programs.
>> All right.
Secretary Ben Brancel, thanks very much for your time
and good luck.
>> Thank you.
>> In tonight's segment featuring WisContext journalists
a look at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture's Farm
to School program in Wisconsin.
>> Last year we did green beans.
I think we did some potatoes, onions, sweet onions, sweet
peppers, green peppers, cucumbers and zucchini.
The kids get something good to eat and learn to like their
vegetable.
>> That's Columbus farmer Tim Zander talking about the produce
his organic farm provides three school districts as part of the
Farm to School program.
It's a program in the news right now because the governor's
proposed budget cuts its coordinator position.
This week, WisContext rolled out four online articles about
the statewide program that started in 2009.
We met up with Scott Gordon this week at Zander's farm as spring
vegetable planting was underway.
>> So we're here in a greenhouse on a farm in Columbia County.
This farmer takes part in the Farm to School program.
You've been doing reporting on this.
Tell me about the Farm to School program in Wisconsin.
>> Well, it's kind of a disparate thing and I think
that's really the crux of the story, is that Farm to School
programs are becoming a more popular thing in Wisconsin
and in other states.
But there's no standard way to do it.
And it encompasses buying local ingredients for school lunch,
but also things like taking field trips to farms,
educational things about nutrition, having school
gardens.
For each school or school district that does it, there's
sort of a whole different, you know, series of steps they have
to go through to make it work out just based on their local
circumstances and what's available and what kind of
prices are there.
>> One of the articles that you wrote was titled
"Farm to School by the Numbers."
What are the numbers that you can tell us
about in terms of participating districts?
>> So the most recent big kind of survey that the USDA has done
about this found that about half the school districts and private
schools in Wisconsin participated in Farm to School
in some form or another.
It's reached a little over a half a million students.
You can really see it playing out across the state in
different geographic areas, rural areas, urban areas,
different, you know, areas of different political
characteristics and other different population
characteristics.
So it really is quite widespread as far as I can tell.
>> What have you heard from various districts about why they
participate?
>> Well, people are interested in the nutritional benefits
for kids.
You know, they've also found that with these programs,
kids get more interested in the school lunch programs,
which is good for the districts on a lot of levels.
You know, for one thing they can get more reimbursement for
things like free lunch programs.
They also find when the students are more engaged with
agriculture and vegetables and thinking more about nutrition,
they're actually more likely to want to eat the stuff.
>> And what have you heard from farmers who participate?
>> Well, one thing we've heard is that-- from farmers and
school districts is that it's really a logistical challenge to
make this happen because a lot of school districts are already
kind of tied into this broader food system we have in America
that's more industrialized and held together by big
distributors.
And so as Tim Zander at this farm was saying a little
earlier, there's sort of an aspect of re-inventing the
wheel, where you have to figure out a distribution system that
works on a logistical and economic level to get this
produce grown and purchased and ordered and brought into these
schools and prepared.
>> What about the context, as it were, nationwide?
Is this a program that other states do?
>> Yeah.
And actually the Midwest regionally lags behind some
other regions in terms of its participation, which I was
surprised to find.
But there was an USDA research paper that came out recently
that found that.
>> Meanwhile, though, Wisconsin I've understood was kind of at
the forefront of this Farm to school effort and now we find
ourselves in the position where the governor's proposed state
budget would actually eliminate the funding for an overall
coordinator position.
What have you been hearing from people involved in this Farm to
School program about that?
>> Well, what a lot of people have told me from school
districts and from farms and from advocacy groups like REAP
food group in Madison is they really find this coordinator
position helps to bring together all these different pieces, all
these different parties who have to understand each other in
order to make it work.
You know, a farm might not know what a school cafeteria has to
go through to get a meal prepared and a school nutrition
person might not know what a farm has to go through to get
its produce to market.
And so what people are telling me is that this person really
helps to kind of bring all these people together and put a
broader logistical perspective on all the things that need to
happen.
>> Scott, thanks very much.
>> Thanks a lot Fred.
>> Scott's reporting can be found at WisContext.org, a
partnership with Wisconsin Public Broadcasting
and UW Extension.
As for the budget cut of the coordinator, farmers involved
in the Farm to School program expressed disappointment
because they say that person shepherds its growth.
>> That person is the person who holds the big picture.
We know who we're working with.
But if we want to see the program expand beyond just a few
districts that each farmer might be working with and see it have
more impact across the state, then we need somebody in that
position who can leverage other agencies and other groups, you
know, to get this local produce out into other institutions.
>> The dollar amount eliminated in the state budget for that
position and an advisory council for the Farm to School program
is just under $133,000 over the biennium.
The governor's office says the State Department of Agriculture
will continue to disburse federal grants toward
the program.
Now for a "Closer Look" at an unusual story unfolding
in northern Wisconsin.
That's where thieves are illegally harvesting birch
trees, thousands of them, and selling them to wholesalers
and merchants for home decor.
Washburn County has been the hardest hit.
The sheriff's department reports trees have been cut in as many
as 20 locations on county land as well as on private property.
Washburn County Forest Administrator Mike Peterson
was able to join us earlier this week for more on this.
>> When you first came upon a stand of chopped-off birch,
almost a clear cut by some of the photos you sent, what did
you make of it?
>> We knew pretty much immediately what it was from.
We had been hearing from surrounding counties about
issues with birch theft on county lands and other public
lands.
We knew immediately when we found it that we were dealing
with the theft of smaller diameter birch products.
>> Had you ever seen anything like this in your county?
>> We've similar things with other species.
But this by far was probably the largest issue with widespread
theft that I've seen here in 20 years.
>> What was it like when you saw that?
Some of those photos are kind of stunning, to just see this cut
off like that.
>> It was very bothersome to me, especially since white birch is
a fairly short-lived species.
You get to be about 75, 80 years old it starts to die out and
decay.
When we harvest white birch, we make a very concerted effort to
get white birch started, regenerated, regrown before we
harvest.
We've got hundreds and hundreds of hours in and a lot of money
invested into disturbing the soil underneath these stands so
we can get white birch to regrow.
And then to come back and look at some of these sites and see
that they've stolen all the one-inch, two-inch, three-inch
diameter material off of this, it's bothersome because in a lot
of ways they're stealing the future off these young forests.
>> When did this start happening?
>> We've been seeing it -- I think it really exploded through
late last summer, early last fall and over this past winter
it's been -- it's exploded tremendously from what we've
seen say in the prior year.
>> Because I understand that this wood, these sticks, the
logs are super valuable.
Can you describe that?
How valuable are they?
>> Well, I don't have exact numbers on the pricing, but, you
know, you can go on to any of the websites, like any eBay type
website, and you can see a lot of the stuff advertised for
sale, $40 or $50 or more for a single stick or birch.
Looks a lot of it is being used for that up north cabin
decoration-type material.
And it's all kinds of products.
It's everything from a larger diameter stick like a fake
fireplace log all the way up to the small branches and twigs
that they're using.
>> Any idea why the sudden market for it?
>> I think there's always been a market for it.
Some of the rumors that I've heard that a lot of this
material was being provided out of China.
And I don't know if they were growing it there themselves or
were importing it.
But there's rumors that there was some quarantine issues, they
could no longer bring that material in and out of Asia,
which seems to have forced that demand more domestic and locally
here.
We've seen a lot of wholesalers pop up that are buying this from
collectors and reselling it to other larger markets.
>> So these wholesalers pop up in the region.
Are those legal operations?
>> From my understanding they're legal operations.
I question whether they have an obligation to assure that their
procurement is sourced through legal methods.
>> And how would one make sure of that?
>> Well, that's something we're looking into, to see if there's
some way that they can have to comply with some legal
requirement to prove that their wood is sourced legally.
>> And where else is this happening?
I mean, it's happening in other states as well; is that right?
>> As far as I know, it's happening across most of the
northern tier of counties in Wisconsin.
I know Douglas County, Bayfield County has had issues, Ashland,
Iron.
Just about most of the counties in the north.
There seems to be a big market for purchase in northeastern
Wisconsin and also in the upper peninsula of Michigan.
>> So are people that are being caught doing this,
are they local?
>> The people doing this, the ones we've encountered
are pretty much local, say neighboring counties.
We have had a few people that have come down out of Sawyer
County that have been caught harvesting material.
It doesn't appear to be people coming from a long range,
out of the area.
Our local sheriff's department had explained it as the new
scrap metal salvage.
Years ago when scrap prices were high you saw a lot of theft of
copper wire and aluminum off of highways.
Law enforcement is looking at it as a new way to make a quick
buck.
>> Speaking of law enforcement, do those officials and foresters
like yourself have enough manpower to stop this?
>> We don't directly.
Our department, our foresters, none of us have law enforcement
credentials.
We have to rely on the wardens and the sheriff's department to
do that enforcement.
At least here in Washburn County they've done a very good job.
They've really stepped up and taken the enforcement very
seriously and gotten really creative on how they
do the law enforcement.
>> You were talking about how the care that's taken on the
part of foresters to grow these kind of birch trees
in these stands.
How about the regeneration of them?
Is that going to prove difficult now?
>> I think the regeneration will prove difficult because, you
know, we've utilized the seed source from the mature trees to
regrow these stands.
And if we have areas where they've completely taken all the
young birch, we may not have the ability to manage that site for
birch in the future because we are unsure whether we'll have an
appropriate seed source to get it to regrow.
>> How mad does this make you?
>> It makes me quite furious, actually.
You know, and it's really ironic because we have so many people
out there collecting this material on county lands.
We have no legal permit that allows anyone to come in and cut
those kind of products.
So it's very frustrating.
It's very difficult to catch these folks.
A lot of it's done on the weekends.
I think a lot of it is done at night.
I think a lot of people collecting know that they're not
doing it legally and are taking great pains to not get caught.
>> What should people see if they see someone cutting down
birch that doesn't look like a legal harvest?
>> We've encouraged everyone here to contact the sheriff's
department, contact the wardens, you know, public relations even.
Interviews like this have been very effective to get the
message out.
I think that's the best law enforcement we've had.
It was kind of comical.
We had a site that we found last fall and I think I've had six
different people turn that site in as a potential theft site.
That's a good problem to have.
>> People care.
Mike Peterson, thanks very much.
>> All right.
Thank you.
>> And now a final Wisconsin agriculture news story for
tonight.
A new bipartisan bill in the state legislature would require
two state agencies, the Department of Agriculture and
Veterans Affairs, to assist state veterans interested in
going into farming.
The program would also support vets already working in
agriculture and place a special logo on foods grown by veterans.
Next week, a report on the proposed right to carry
legislation.
I'm Frederica Freyberg.
Have a great weekend.