Robyn Calvey and Noah Ryan both came to farming with a love for the land, a family connection, and a desire to grow local food. With a combined total of more than 25 years of farming experience, Robyn and Noah know what it takes to succeed as small-scale farmers. They’re also all too familiar with the financial and health tradeoffs that many farmers face in doing what they love. At Park Ridge Organics, and on farms around the state, farmers and farmworkers must balance fair wages with healthcare access, profitability with size, and the desire to follow one’s passions with the realities of meeting basic needs.

Park Ridge Organics is a diversified vegetable farm located in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. The farm primarily grows for wholesale customers and supplies a farm store on the property that’s seasonally open to the public and available online.

Each year, Robyn has a number of employees that assist with production, farm store management, deliveries, and more. This spring, Robyn welcomed her brother-in-law Noah back to the farm as a full-time employee. In August 2025, Noah was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, an event Noah felt was a catalyst that pushed him back to the farm for the sake of his quality of life, even if it meant compromising the health insurance benefits that came with his public sector job.

14% of Wisconsin farm families have no health insurance at all, and another 17% have catastrophic coverage solely for severe, work related accidents. The uninsured rate soars in dairy farmers. Nationally, 41% of dairy farmers lack health insurance coverage. Keeping a small farm afloat amidst rising insurance prices and agricultural concentration becomes a balancing act of costs.

As a 2026 Special Order of Business, quality health insurance is a topline issue this year for Wisconsin Farmers Union. Robyn and Noah’s story is all too common in rural Wisconsin. Farmers and their families deserve access to quality, comprehensive, and affordable healthcare. As the August primaries approach, it is important to consider these issues stepping into the ballot box.

Read the full story on the Wisconsin Farmers Union website.

Wisconsin Farmers Union, a member-driven organization, is committed to enhancing the quality of life for family farmers, rural communities, and all people through educational opportunities, cooperative endeavors, and civic engagement. For more information visit www.wisconsinfarmersunion.com.

This story was produced in partnership with Kids Forward.

This story was produced in partnership with Kids Forward.

1USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. “Surveys: Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS).” Guide to NASS
Surveys. https://www.nass.usda.gov/Surveys/Guide_to_NASS_Surveys/Ag_Resource_Management/.