Attn Julie

Adult education: events included women landowners sharing conservation practices, running for local office, grazing and pasture walks, water quality workshop, rural revitalization events, and regenerative agriculture. Scholarships were provided to attend climate change conference, financial planning boot camp, and women in agriculture conference. Wfu also provided support for Farmers to receive produce safety training and certification with help from a national Farmers Union grant.

Policy education: staff spend a great deal of time educating people around the state on the effects of changes to our states cooperative organizing laws. Wfu successfully raised awareness of supply chain issues and was able to influence state allocation of resources to help begin to close gaps in meat processing and labor issues for meat processors. We connected with federal congressional staff at national Farmers Union fly-in 2022. Testimony was provided at multiple Wi hearings including water quality and dairy policy reform. Meetings were held in spring with several county farm bureau chapters promoting the dairy revitalization plan. We sponsored a dairy together fly-in to federal congressional offices.

Youth programs: typically, over 700 youth per year participate in programming offered by wfu. 2022 numbers were under 400, due to the ongoing constraints of the covid-19 pandemic and staffing. Continuous programming includes positive youth development, cooperative education, and team building delivered through overnight and day camps, school presentations, and other events. A major focus of 2022 camp programming was education in the area of personal, interpersonal, community, and environmental mindfulness.