A message from WFBF’s Brad Olson
With 2025 behind us and 2026 before us, we find ourselves at a crossroads.
The need for all of agriculture to stand together has never been greater. The size, type or method of farming does not matter. What matters is that we unite for our shared future.
Fewer and fewer people remain directly involved in production agriculture. Public understanding of what we do continues to fade. Rather than being short-sighted, we need to be strategic and think about the long-term viability of our shared occupation.
Too often, we allow simple differences to divide our industry rather than recognizing how deeply we depend on one another. No one way of farming is wrong, and no one way is right. We all farm the way we must, based on our land, our families and our circumstances. Yet we continue to hear farmers taking down other farmers whether its regarding farm style, type or commodity. These divisions serve no one.
For myself, this has come up, especially locally, time and time again. When bigger farms have proposed in our area, I’ve stood up for them. I was asked many time why I would do this as a farmer who milked less than 100 cows.
It’s simple. The people who don’t appreciate or approve of farming do not care if you’ve got 10 animals or thousands of animals. They care about defeating agriculture which disrupts our food supply system and upends rural communities.
Whether we raise cattle or corn, produce milk or vegetables, farm 40 acres or 4,000, we are all facing the same challenges: rising costs, labor shortages, unpredictable weather and an ever-changing marketplace and regulatory environment. These are not battles fought by one segment of agriculture; they are challenges we all bear.
It’s time to move beyond comparisons of who or what is “better” and recognize that unity does not mean uniformity.
Agriculture’s greatest strength lies in its diversity. When all farmers, regardless of operation or approach, speak with one collective voice, our message carries farther, resonates louder and makes a greater impact. In unity, we all can win.
Today, that unity is more important than ever. With fewer people growing and raising our food, a divided agricultural sector makes it easy to overlook, but united agriculture is impossible to ignore. Standing together as one sends a powerful message to lawmakers, regulators and consumers alike.
I truly believe that U.S. agriculture could have whatever it wants, we just have to decide as a group what that is. We are often the ones who get in our own way.
The time is now for us to decide which path we will take what we want the future of farming to look like. We must decide to come together, for our families, our farms and the future of rual America.
Because when agriculture stands together, agriculture stands strong.
Olson was first elected President of Wisconsin Farm Bureau in 2023. He is a crop farmer near Frederic in Polk County. This article originally appeared in the 2025 December | 2026 January Rural Route issue.
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