Survey Finds Wisconsin Farmers Value Sustainable Practices

By Joe Tarr

A recent survey of Wisconsin’s farmers found that 56 percent of them believe climate change is happening. Another 26 percent think it isn’t happening, and 18 percent are unsure. 

Those statistics might seem startling for a group of people who work outdoors every day and are attuned to the cadences of nature.

But Michael Bell, the University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who helped conduct the study, said attitudes and behaviors don’t always match up. Bell found encouragement in how the farmers are acting, not their beliefs. The same survey asked farmers if they are practicing any of 15 different sustainable agricultural practices.

“Almost everyone is doing something,” Bell told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” “Only 5 percent of the respondents to our survey … said they weren’t doing any of them. So, people are really working hard on this. They care, and that’s so wonderful to hear and appreciate.”

Bell and his colleagues conducted the survey because they wanted to see how farmers’ beliefs matched up with their actions. The survey was sent out in 2024 to 3,200 farmers around the state, and 942 of them responded. Bell hopes to regularly survey farmers to see how perceptions and agricultural practices might be evolving.

“We’re hoping to do this on a regular basis to get a feel of the pulse of our farm community here in Wisconsin,” said Bell, who leads the Soil Health & Agroecological Living Lab, or SHALL.