Associate Editor
MADISON
A jobs forum, hosted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Rural Development state agency in Eau Claire, drew about 400 people, including farmers, farm supply businesses, educators, cooperative leaders and others who talked about how to make sure rural areas have good jobs.
The forum, held at Chippewa Valley Technical College last week, was a look at how rural businesses can create jobs, link businesses and build self-sustaining jobs in Wisconsin’s countryside.
Brad Pfaff, state executive director for the Farm Service Agency in Wisconsin, said after the conference concluded that he wanted to make sure people recognized the strengths that already exist in rural Wisconsin.
“Our farms produce crops for feed, food, fiber, fuel and we have tremendous strengths,” he said. “Agriculture is the ultimate value-added rural job.”
Pfaff said he believes the state can build upon the strengths we have and build new opportunities. He said while there are tremendous new opportunities with the Department of Energy in biofuels and in other areas, he hoped the opportunities in production were recognized.
Pfaff was a forum panelist along with USDA Rural Development state director Stan Gruszynski; Wisconsin Department of Agriculture secretary Rod Nilsestuen; Chippewa Valley Technical College president Bruce Barker; Wisconsin State AFL-CIO vice-president Sara Rogers; Wisconsin Farmers Union executive director Scott Schultz; Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development district director Steve Blodgett; Family Health Center of Marshfield executive director Greg Nycz; Community Advocacy Program Services executive director Mary Patoka; Iowa County Economic Development Corporation executive director Rick Terrier; UW-River Falls Sustainability Institute director of facilities Mike Stifter; and dairyman producer John Rosenow.
The conference covered larger investment issues like broadband infrastructure, water and wastewater programs, but Pfaff said he hoped the rural strengths already in existence were not overlooked. “We need to recognize we’re not starting from scratch,” he said. “Family farmers are the ultimate small business persons.
“Value-added with dairy is a model for rural development,” Pfaff said. “How do we move beyond that model and replicate that for other crops is one question.”
Pfaff said a growing local food movement provides new opportunities for agriculture.
“We need to make sure that when we have these conversations that producers aren’t forgotten,” he said. “We aren’t starting from scratch.”
