MONROE - Ben Brancel, Wisconsin Secretary of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, appealed to local farmers to continue their sense of ethics and responsibility to feed the world at the Green County Farm Bureau annual meeting Thursday at the Monroe Theater Guild in Monroe.
"Sixty-five percent of American's could care less if someone around the world goes to bed hungry," Brancel said. "That's a challenge for us."
Brancel emphasized the international connections Wisconsin holds and noted the importance of maintaining those businesses relationships in other counties. Part of the efforts in maintaining "key" foreign relations involves understanding each other's definitions, he pointed out. To McDonald's in Mexico, sustainability means being able to trace a problem within two hours, he said. Brancel said it would be beneficial to get the counties together to compare their visions of sustainability.
Wisconsin is the first state in the nation to mandate livestock premises registration, which provides a unique number to the location, its address, a contact person and list of species in a central database, to be able to trace livestock movements, where an infection originated and what animals have been exposed within 48 hours in case of an animal disease outbreak.
Brancel explained that those individuals opposing individual animal ID for the same purposes will risk losing customers, like McDonald's in Mexico, who want animal ID.
"They're not about to buy the (ID) system for you," Brancel said he tells opponents of the system. "They'll go elsewhere (such as Canada), where they do have it."
Brancel also reminded farmers that "life goes in cycles." His grandfather talked about the 1930s; his father talked about the 1950s; he talks about 1988; and his son will recall 2012, he said.
When Governor Scott Walker asked him what could be done to help the farming situation this summer, Brancel said he told him, "You can't do anything."
"I told him, 'this dry weather impacts every farm differently,'" Brancel said.
What DATCP could do, and did, was offer advice, he added. But because of the vast farm differences, such as what crops were planted and when, whether a farmer had insurance or not, Brancel said DATCP "had to put out a portfolio" that addressed varying situations.
The drought is devastating for local farmers in southern Wisconsin, Brancel acknowledged, but the northern sections of the state were doing well this year. The problem of connecting farmers in need with farms with resources led to the Farmer to Farmer website for buying and selling hay, forage and corn, hosted by the UW Extension.
The simple act of placing farmers in contact with other farmers, Brancel said, "led to way more activity than you see on the system," as farmers shared information with neighbors.
Brancel also said he is pushing for legislators to keep programs, such as the Ag Chem Cleanup Fund, to be "not touchable for any other purposes." That fund had been used during several administrations to balance the budget.
Brancel's address was not all serious. He took time to tell Monroe Mayor Bill Ross that the cycle of weather will bring a cold winter with lots of snow.
"Put on long johns this winter, and the rain we didn't get this summer, I expect we will see in the form of white flakes," he said.
Brancel spoke after Farm Bureau members voted on a number of resolutions to take to the state meeting, and quipped that he wished the vote counting committee would come back with the results.
"I might have to make some changes to my speech," he said. "I'd like to know which side I should be on."
Brancel, a farmer himself, was appointed Secretary of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection by Gov. Scott Walker in January 2011. He raises registered Angus and Hereford beef cattle on his family's 290-acre farm, which is now owned by his son and daughter-in-law, Tod and Sondra, the sixth consecutive generation to farm the land.
"Sixty-five percent of American's could care less if someone around the world goes to bed hungry," Brancel said. "That's a challenge for us."
Brancel emphasized the international connections Wisconsin holds and noted the importance of maintaining those businesses relationships in other counties. Part of the efforts in maintaining "key" foreign relations involves understanding each other's definitions, he pointed out. To McDonald's in Mexico, sustainability means being able to trace a problem within two hours, he said. Brancel said it would be beneficial to get the counties together to compare their visions of sustainability.
Wisconsin is the first state in the nation to mandate livestock premises registration, which provides a unique number to the location, its address, a contact person and list of species in a central database, to be able to trace livestock movements, where an infection originated and what animals have been exposed within 48 hours in case of an animal disease outbreak.
Brancel explained that those individuals opposing individual animal ID for the same purposes will risk losing customers, like McDonald's in Mexico, who want animal ID.
"They're not about to buy the (ID) system for you," Brancel said he tells opponents of the system. "They'll go elsewhere (such as Canada), where they do have it."
Brancel also reminded farmers that "life goes in cycles." His grandfather talked about the 1930s; his father talked about the 1950s; he talks about 1988; and his son will recall 2012, he said.
When Governor Scott Walker asked him what could be done to help the farming situation this summer, Brancel said he told him, "You can't do anything."
"I told him, 'this dry weather impacts every farm differently,'" Brancel said.
What DATCP could do, and did, was offer advice, he added. But because of the vast farm differences, such as what crops were planted and when, whether a farmer had insurance or not, Brancel said DATCP "had to put out a portfolio" that addressed varying situations.
The drought is devastating for local farmers in southern Wisconsin, Brancel acknowledged, but the northern sections of the state were doing well this year. The problem of connecting farmers in need with farms with resources led to the Farmer to Farmer website for buying and selling hay, forage and corn, hosted by the UW Extension.
The simple act of placing farmers in contact with other farmers, Brancel said, "led to way more activity than you see on the system," as farmers shared information with neighbors.
Brancel also said he is pushing for legislators to keep programs, such as the Ag Chem Cleanup Fund, to be "not touchable for any other purposes." That fund had been used during several administrations to balance the budget.
Brancel's address was not all serious. He took time to tell Monroe Mayor Bill Ross that the cycle of weather will bring a cold winter with lots of snow.
"Put on long johns this winter, and the rain we didn't get this summer, I expect we will see in the form of white flakes," he said.
Brancel spoke after Farm Bureau members voted on a number of resolutions to take to the state meeting, and quipped that he wished the vote counting committee would come back with the results.
"I might have to make some changes to my speech," he said. "I'd like to know which side I should be on."
Brancel, a farmer himself, was appointed Secretary of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection by Gov. Scott Walker in January 2011. He raises registered Angus and Hereford beef cattle on his family's 290-acre farm, which is now owned by his son and daughter-in-law, Tod and Sondra, the sixth consecutive generation to farm the land.