{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221033356/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/in-the-news/immigration-vital-to-wisconsin-agriculture-farmers-tell-baldwin", "Immigration vital to Wisconsin agriculture, farmers tell Baldwin", "2013-12-09", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Immigration vital to Wisconsin agriculture, farmers tell Baldwin\t\n\t\t\t\t\n                \n            \n            \n            \n                \n                    By:\u00a0\n                    Mike Tighe\n                \n            \n            \n                \n                \n                \n            Monday, December 9, 2013\n            \n\t\n            \n            Immigration reform must ensure a supply of farm workers from other countries to help sustain Wisconsin agriculture, several farmers and ag representatives told U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin on Friday in La Crosse.\nImmigration and reforming crop subsidies in the federal farm bill dominated discussion during a roundtable that the Wisconsin Democrat convened at Dairyland Power Cooperative.\nBaldwin\u2019s session with nearly 20 farmers, educators and officials in the ag industry came as a congressional conference committee wrestles with a new five-year farm bill. Negotiators are snagged over the House version, which would cut $40 billion from food stamps over 10 years, and restructuring subsidies.\n\u201cSixty percent of the milk in Wisconsin is harvested by immigrants,\u201d said John Rosenow, a Buffalo County dairy farmer with 500 cows.\nRosenow told of a Minnesota customer whose Community Supported Agriculture enterprise had 30 workers, several of whom were deported after an immigration audit deemed them illegal.\n\u201cPeople who had been working for him for 12 years he had to let go,\u201d Rosenow said. \u201cIt almost killed his farm.\u201d\nRosenow, who said eight of his 20 employees are from Mexico, said that, at a time when farm labor is in short supply, \u201cWe found this great source of workers in Mexican immigrants.\u201d\nBeyond the economic issue of providing farm workers is the moral aspect that it also benefits the immigrants, he said.\nHe recently visited families of some of his workers in Mexico, where he said a building boom \u201cis the direct result of their jobs here.\u201d\n\u201cThese are people,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are not illegal aliens. \u2026 You need to get to know them as people.\u201d\nJohn Jones, who farms 900 acres with 100 cows near Bangor, said immigrants really want to work, while many Americans eschew hard labor.\n\u201cWe need the immigrants if you don\u2019t want a lot of people to go hungry.\u201d\nAgriculture faces a dearth of workers in coming years, said Michael Compton, who directs the School of Agriculture at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.\nWe're going to have 130,000 vacancies in the agricultural work force,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to be able to recruit and retain students in agriculture.\u201d\nJake Wedeberg, a 28-year-old organic farmer near Gays Mills, said farming offers opportunities to young people like him, and the farm bill should ensure that lifestyle.\n\u201cWe market through Organic Valley, and we want a stable pay price to keep the organic seal strong,\u201d Wedeberg said.\nJerry McGeorge, cooperative affairs vice president for the La Farge-based Organic Valley, said exports are increasingly important to Organic Valley and its 1,834 members.\nBut South Korea is threatening to bar any U.S. organic products, which it also attempted a few years ago but was thwarted.\n\u201cNow, it\u2019s trying it again,\u201d McGeorge said in urging Baldwin to work against the ban.\nKeith Wilson, a Cuba City farmer and an Organic Valley board member, said, \u201cIn the farm bill, we\u2019re very concerned about huge subsidies for large farms. It really distorts the picture for family farms.\u201d\nDuring an interview after the roundtable, Wilson said, \u201cI would really like to see a cap put on subsidies, especially to the large, wealthy farmers who don\u2019t need it.\u201d\nSubsidies often make large farms larger, benefiting investors and groups at the expense of family farms, he said.\n\u201cThey are making millions from subsidies and then morally how do they get rid of food stamps?\u201d Wilson said.\nBaldwin said she hopes the conference committee has something to present on the farm bill to the Senate next week if there is to be any hope of passing it before Jan. 1.\nConference leaders expressed confidence this week that they might reach a deal in time to avert the expiration of dairy subsides Jan. 1.\nBaldwin decried the House version\u2019s slashing of food stamps, now called SNAP for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.\nSNAP is important not only for the estimated 3.8 million people who would lose food stamps but also for farmers, Baldwin said.\n\u201cThere is a reason nutrition and agriculture are linked in the farm bill,\u201d she said. \u201cFarmers realize the connection between hunger and nutrition.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221033356/http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/in-the-news/immigration-vital-to-wisconsin-agriculture-farmers-tell-baldwin"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6336089465767145, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}