APPLETON, Wis. — In roughly a month, a crowded field of Democratic candidates vying to face incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson this fall, will be narrowed to just one.
Main Street Action hosted a non-partisan roundtable Wednesday at Long Cheng Marketplace in Appleton for U.S. Senate candidates to share their positions on issues impacting small businesses.
From staffing, to healthcare, to staying competitive, small business owners and farmers have a lot in common.
Given that Wisconsin is dubbed "America's Dairyland," it is odd that neither of Wisconsin's two senators serves on the agriculture committee.
Some of those who attended Wednesday's roundtable wanted to know what that means for dairy policy reform in the 2023 farm bill and how candidates would save small family farms.
Current Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes said he wants to focus on corporate monopolies.
“Your life is being impacted by these anti-competitive practices and is making it harder for everyday people to get ahead, and that's what happens as a result of corporate greed,” Barnes said.
Milwaukee lawyer Peter Peckarsky, who is a member of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, told the crowd although he has never lived on a farm, he is also concerned about big business.
“Something has got to be done to wake up the antitrust division at the United States Department of Justice and get them into addressing the issues of monopolies between the farmer and the consumer,” Peckarsky said.
Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson said he would like to see a growth management program, similar to the one in place before price parity was eliminated in the 1980s.
“It will make a stable source of milk so there [are] not the subsidies, that there isn't the issue when the larger CAFOs [Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations] are putting smaller farms out of business,” Nelson said.
Business owner Kou Lee said the solution could be the cannabis industry.
“Not only that it would help the economy and generate taxes for the state, creating jobs, but also the fact that we have big Fortune 500 companies here that could utilize that plant in different ways,” Lee said.
Entrepreneur Steven Olikara, who has focused his campaign on dignity, said agriculture is no exception, especially when it comes to antitrust enforcement.
“When someone loses [the] dairy farm that they've been working on, not just for their own generation, but multiple generations and their family, there's a huge hit mentally and psychologically,” Olikara said.
State treasurer Sarah Godlewski and Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry are also running in the heated primary race.
Godlewski was unable to attend Wednesday's roundtable due to COVID-19, and Lasry had a family emergency.
Republican incumbent Sen. Johnson had a scheduling conflict.