After three years of organizing, residents won stronger oversight of Ridge Breeze Dairy, but say Wisconsin communities should not have to fight for basic protections one permit at a time 

Pierce County Residents and GROWW members cheering at celebration and press action Monday, August 31st. (GROWW Photo by Hunter Riley)
 

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — Pierce County farmers, residents, and GROWW members gathered outside the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Service Center in Eau Claire Monday evening to celebrate a major clean-water victory and call for statewide action to protect Wisconsin’s water, family farms, and rural communities.

The celebration followed an August 24 decision by Administrative Law Judge Angela Chaput Foy, who ruled that the DNR failed to adequately protect groundwater when it approved an expansion permit for Ridge Breeze Dairy.

The permit allowed Ridge Breeze to grow from approximately 1,700 cows to 6,500 and spread nearly 80 million gallons of manure and process wastewater on surrounding fields each year. Judge Foy found that the permit gave the DNR no meaningful way to determine whether Ridge Breeze was complying with Wisconsin’s groundwater standards. She declared the permit unreasonable and sent it back to the agency to be strengthened.

For Pierce County residents and members of GROWW (GrassRoots Organizing Western Wisconsin), the decision is the result of more than three years of organizing: sharing their stories, bringing hundreds of neighbors together, passing local operations ordinances, and joining with Midwest Environmental Advocates to challenge the permit.

“Today, I’m elated because GROWW won,” said Juliet Tomkins, a retired Pierce County farmer, GROWW co-founder, and president of its board. “After more than three years of organizing with hundreds of neighbors—including some courageous leaders who are here today—we won our legal challenge against Ridge Breeze.”

Tomkins helped found GROWW seven years ago, when seven neighbors gathered around her kitchen table to discuss how people in western Wisconsin could build enough power to shape the decisions affecting their families and communities. GROWW has since grown to approximately 500 members.

“This happened through people power—folks standing up and organizing,” Tomkins said. “I believe that once people realize what they can do when they organize, the sky is the limit.”

For families living near Ridge Breeze and other massive livestock operations, the stakes are deeply personal.

Ty Fisher is a fifth-generation farmer who has lived on his family farm, now right across the road from Ridge Breeze, since he was 19 years old. His daughter and two of his grandkids also live on the farm. After his granddaughter became severely ill several years ago, the family learned that their water was making them sick.

“My daughter and I knew we had to do something—anything—to try to protect our home,” Fisher said. “We started reaching out to the neighbors and community, and we started holding meetings in our own garage. We knew our battle was big and we didn’t have a chance without organizing and standing together. That’s how we found GROWW.”

Although the ruling does not stop Ridge Breeze’s completed expansion, it requires the DNR to revisit the permit and establish a meaningful way to monitor whether the operation is meeting Wisconsin’s groundwater standards.

“This win shows us that we can change course. It doesn’t have to be this way,” Fisher said. “The organizing we’ve been doing for three years has worked to change the future of Pierce County. Our groundwater is now a little bit more protected.”

Residents celebrated the ruling as an important victory, but emphasized that families should not have to spend years fighting one massive operation and one inadequate permit at a time. They called on Wisconsin lawmakers to strengthen protections statewide while adopting policies that help family farms remain profitable and independent.

“We won this fight for Pierce County, but the truth is, we shouldn’t have to fight for basic protections like this at all,” said Danny Akenson, an organizer with GROWW. “It’s time for Wisconsin to reverse course. It’s time for us to support our small farms and hold the largest corporations in the state accountable. Wisconsin law should work for regular people, our families, our land, and our water—not corporate profits.”

GROWW members are calling for state policies that would:

  • Establish stronger requirements for factory farms with more than 5,000 animal units;
  • Ensure neighbors are promptly notified of manure spills and other incidents that could threaten their land or water;
  • Give the DNR adequate resources and tools to enforce environmental protections;
  • Expand market access and affordable financing for small and family-owned farms; and
  • Protect Wisconsin’s agricultural economy from further corporate consolidation.

Phil Verges, a lifelong farmer from Spring Valley and GROWW member, said he has watched once-vibrant farmsteads become vacant during his 45 years in agriculture. He rejected the claim that the disappearance of family farms is inevitable.

“Some say this is inevitable: get big or get out. Mega-farms are the future,” Verges said. “They’re our future only if we allow it. We don’t need 6,000-cow factories to feed our people.”

Verges called for a “rural revival” in which family farms can make ends meet, pass their way of life on to the next generation, and continue caring for their land and neighbors.

“These kinds of changes are possible, as we’ve just seen, when people organize and tell their stories,” Verges said. “Because our stories are real and they’re impactful. We just need more voices.”

GROWW members say they will continue organizing to ensure the DNR follows through on the judge’s decision—and to carry the momentum from Pierce County into the state Capitol.

“We know Big Ag’s playbook, and today we’ve beaten Big Ag’s playbook,” Akenson said. “With this win against Ridge Breeze, today is a little bit better than yesterday was. But we can win a future where tomorrow is fundamentally different than today. That’s possible, but only if we make the choice to organize.”