The statement strung together by the four words, “I’m quitting my job,” changed a man’s life trajectory from an east coast cardiologist to a rural Wisconsin farmer. A rainy November morning gives David Zimrin a break from his cows and time for a phone chat. I am excited to hear about his transition from medicine […]

Gray wolf populations have rebounded considerably throughout the United States after being protected from trapping, hunting, and poisoning by being listed on the federal Endangered Species list for more than 45 years. Wolves were hunted nearly to extinction in Wisconsin and the rest of the U.S. throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but populations are […]

Michael Fields is excited to announce a new project to help women farmers and landowners engage robustly in conservation management of their land.  The Natural Resources Conservation Service recently awarded the Institute and our partners a 3-year contract to work with cohorts of women farmers and landowners in four regions of Wisconsin.  Led by MFAI’s […]

  EAST TROY, Wis. — Analytics are a key measuring tool in professional sports today, but data-driven assessments aren’t limited to that industry. In Wisconsin, agricultural researchers are asking farmers for feedback about a popular conservation practice. Cover crops, commonly used in the early days of agriculture, have made a comeback as a way to […]

The website for southwest Wisconsin’s Uplands Watershed Group, for which MFAI serves as the fiscal agent and coordinator, recently featured a new video about small grains such as barley, oats, wheat, and rye.  No surprise that MFAI would make it a priority for our talented staffer, Donale Richards, to film and produce it.  For over […]

MFAI is the recipient of a $250,000 grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Sustainable Agricultural Systems (SAS) program for perennial crop development efforts (see USDA’s announcement here: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDANIFA/bulletins/291fdfc). MFAI was a member of a diverse coalition of more than 15 institutions, including universities, NGOs, farmers, bakers, and governmental agencies throughout the […]

Two weeks ago, the Uplands Watershed Group met – by video conference, of course. Among other topics, we learned a lot about composting, from basics to refinements.  Thanks to Iowa County Agricultural Extension agent Gene Schriefer and several farmers with extensive experience in composting for educating us.   Here is Gene’s presentation.

This Summer, our GULFS Program partnered with the Mellowhood Foundation through a joint grant through the city of Madison to pilot three new lessons with their youth to help them start their own hot pickle business. We invited a local teacher and chef in the South Madison community to teach the youth how to pickle […]

Judith M’Hone, a Garden Apprentice in the 2016 growing season at Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, originally from Botswana, is now the Lead Farm Educator at City Growers, a nonprofit in New York, NY. A large part of Judith’s job is educating New York City youth about food systems and environmental awareness. She teaches youth about where […]

OVERVIEW GULFS is a dynamic, interactive, and engaging youth-centered curriculum developing youth leaders in food systems change. Focused in Milwaukee and Madison, we aim for youth to learn constructive ways to create tangible change and support their families’ and communities’ well-being through a food systems lens. The curriculum is written for teachers to use both […]

A Hands-on Discourse Friday March 3, 2017,  Potluck Social 5:30 pm, Lecture 7–9 pm What can the human being (anthropos) of today do to recognize our inherent wisdom (sophia) to access the source of spiritual knowledge, for our own inner development, and for the evolution of the earth and all of humanity? What would it be like […]