American dream alive and well in Wisconsin
It is the dream that if you do your homework, work hard and then work harder still, you can build a future for yourself, your family and your community.
The Wisconsin dream is one that has been renewed in each generation, as the industries and technologies of the previous generation led to the innovations and opportunities of the next generation.
When the oldest among those now living in northern Wisconsin were young, the northern half of the state was a vast forested region. The rich timber resources drew its share of wildcatters, entrepreneurs and even crooks. The land was cleared within a generation.
Looking back, we see the shortsightedness of clearcutting everything from Lake Michigan to the St. Croix River and it has taken long years of forest management and land conservation efforts to bring back portions of what that mighty primeval forest was like. Industry, however, is quick to learn from its mistakes. Entrepreneurs know they cannot afford to make the same mistake twice. Now sustainable forestry practices are commonplace. Industry reacts because it has to in order to survive and to thrive.
The lumber from Wisconsin’s forests goes to build cities and communities across the country. The pulp wood goes to giant paper mills where it is turned into books and magazines, as well as tissues, toilet paper and breakfast cereal boxes. Take a walk through the stacks of a major library and you will see Wisconsin’s forest products working.
While the logging camps of bygone days have faded into history and their stories filtered into the culture of our rural community, no industry ever truly goes away. Logging remains one of Wisconsin’s primary industries providing more than 63,000 full and part-time jobs in the state.
Wisconsin is a national leader in the value of shipments of forest products, totaling $24.4 billion per year with another $6.7 billion in value-added wood products according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. This doesn’t take into account the more than $5 billion per year of economic value from forest-based recreation and tourism in those managed forest areas.
The forest products industry is Wisconsin’s second largest manufacturing employer, providing one in every six manufacturing jobs in the state.
As the hills of Wisconsin were cleared, it was time for a new wave of entrepreneurs. Men and women who were not afraid of work. They came in waves, settling in communities with those who spoke their language and followed their customs. The Germans, the Poles, the Czechs and Russians, each bringing new ideas to face the challenges of clearing the stumps and rocks from the fields and turning barren areas into productive farmland.
The products raised on Wisconsin farms help feed the world. Wisconsin farmers have long been innovators, tinkering to come up with new and better ways of doing things.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP), the state’s farms and agricultural businesses generate more than $104.8 billion in economic activity. Food processing activity contributes $82.7 billion to industrial sales. Agriculture provides for 435,700 jobs or 11.8% of the state’s employment. This includes 154,000 jobs in onfarm production contributes with processing contributing 282,000 jobs to the state’s economy.
For many communities in northcentral Wisconsin, agriculture and agriculture processing remains the primary component in the economy.
While animal agriculture and particularly the state’s dairy industry has well-deserved recognition with 7,000 dairy farms, more than any other state, and 1.28 million cows, Wisconsin is one of the top states in the production of the major processing vegetables. In 2020, Wisconsin grew 5.66 million hundredweight of snap beans, 1.82 million hundredweight of carrots, and 1.14 million hundredweight of green peas. The state ranks third in the nation in potato production, harvesting potatoes on 69,500 acres in 2020.
The state is known for its fruit production, including its state fruit – the cranberry. Wisconsin cranberry production for 2020 totaled 4.64 million barrels. Growers harvested 20,800 acres. Wisconsin produces 59 percent of th e nation’s crop making us the top cranberry producing state in the country. The state also produces a
See WISCONSIN DREAM on pag 26
