Kristin Quist, a fifth-generation farmer specializing in dairy and crop cultivation, recently received the prestigious Wisconsin Farm Bureau’s 35 Under 35 Sustainable Future award. Alongside her husband, Jacob, and parents, Kristin diligently tends to their farm while nurturing the seeds of sustainability for the generations to come.
Reflecting on the significance of sustainability in her family’s enduring agricultural legacy, Kristin attributes goals passed down by her father.
“My dad did it for me, and I’m going to do it for you,” she reminisced, encapsulating the enduring commitment to stewardship that her family has passed down.
For Kristin, sustainability embodies more than just eco-conscious practices; it symbolizes the promise of continuity, ensuring the farm’s resilience and prosperity for posterity. On her farm, she recently has used new processes to improve sustainability such as investing in new technology and minimizing input costs. Her vision lies in the desire to pass on the farm to future generations, preserving not just a business but an invaluable heritage deeply rooted in the land itself.
“What drives me to keep influencing the future of agriculture is opening our doors to show the public what we are doing,” said Kristin. 
Located sixty miles outside urban St. Paul, Minn., Kristin describes the huge portion of the public that is removed from agriculture and where their food comes from.
Kristin and her family strive to provide the public with the renewed sense that agriculture is doing good things while continuing to be sustainable.
With each mindful decision made on their multi-generational farm, Kristin and her family pave the way for a sustainable future, sowing seeds of wisdom and nurturing practices that echo the sentiment encapsulated by her father’s words.
Claire Esselman is a freshman studying agriculture economics at UW-Madison. Esselman served as one of the inaugural WFBF Event Ambassadors in 2023.
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