Wisconsin U.S. Senate Candidate Eric Hove Tours Miltrim Farm in Athens - Photo by MWC's Tom Schumacher
ATHENS, WI (WSAU) – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde made a campaign stop in central Wisconsin on Monday afternoon to tour Athens Miltrim Farm.
Hovde spent time with the business owners discussing the farms’ history and the impacts of regulations, foreign trade, and how the cutback of 2% on whole milk products has affected the industry in recent years, which has been highlighted by recent data that shows that over 141,000 U.S. farms have closed over the last five years, mainly due to worker shortages that have also impacted businesses across the country.
Following the tour of the facility that allowed him to see the farm’s advancements in milking technology, Hovde spoke about the need to bring 2% and whole milk back into school programs, saying, “We know from science that whole milk and 2% are actually better for children’s brain development, so unfortunately, the big government and the regulatory state are not being responsive to our farm community, and it’s very important that we do everything we can to help our farm community.” Nearly 30 million U.S. children eat school lunches daily, and 2% of whole milk has been banned from school lunch programs since 2012.
The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, a law that would bring higher-fat milk back to U.S. public schools, was approved by the House of Representatives earlier this year by a vote of 330 to 99, with some Democrats voting in favor. But ever since, the bill has been unmoving in the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate.
When asked about the impact of foreign nationals and governments purchasing large amounts of U.S. farmland, Hovde said our government needs to do more to curb it, saying, “I have a big problem with China and what they’ve been doing, buying up large stretches of our agricultural land, and we gotta ask what their intent and purpose are, because we’ve seen what they’ve done in other countries such as Africa and South America, and it has not been good for their communities. If I were in the Senate, I’d be very focused on what China is doing and why we are allowing them to come to our communities and buy up our land, especially around military bases.”
According to the most recent estimate from the US Department of Agriculture, 43.4 million acres of farmland in the United States are currently held by people and corporations from other countries. From 2012 to 2017, foreign investors boosted their agricultural land holdings in the United States by 0.6 million acres each year, according to the USDA. Since 2017, the data also shows foreign investors have expanded their annual land purchases by roughly five times, to an average of 2.9 million acres per year.
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