With almost 70,000 students, faculty, and staff at UW-Madison, there’s no shortage of stories to tell. Here we’ll feature a rotating cast of some of the many passionate people engaged in organic research, study, outreach, and education. If you’re a member of the UW community and would like your work to be featured, please get in touch: peterman2@wisc.edu
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Monroe Durand
Monroe Durand didn’t plan on ending up in agricultural pest management. He started at UW-Madison in Political Science, switched majors a few times, and eventually landed on Wildlife Ecology–mostly because he wanted to be outside and pursue something hands-on.
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Kelli Ann Molter
Kelli Ann Molter retired from the Air Force in 2021 as a colonel–the top two percent of military ranks–after a career built on leadership, administration and near-constant movement. Fourteen assignments, more relocations than she can easily count, and decades of putting her own interests on hold. Now, she’s an intern at Winter Spring Farm in…
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Kai Stielow
Kai Stielow didn’t come to UW-Madison thinking they’d end up working on a farm–or even studying Agroecology. Agriculture wasn’t really on the radar until a First-Year Interest Group (FIG) introduced them to an agroecology course and from there, a professor’s influence pointed them toward the Organic Certificate Program. Stielow signed up for the introductory course…
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Ben Brockmueller
Ben is a researcher working under Dr. Erin Silva. The focus of the work I am involved in is centered around supporting organic farmers in developing more productive and more sustainable farming operations. In particular, we are looking towards developing cropping systems that minimize tillage by using different ecological strategies and innovative tools to try…
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Gregg Sanford
One of the biggest take-aways is that organic systems can produce as much grain and forage as non-organic systems, so WICST has shown that the ‘feed the world’ critique isn’t an issue. Organics can do it. It’s more than that though – from a profitability standpoint organic tends to be the most profitable system that…
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Elena Hill
Shekoli! I am an agroecology Master’s student working with Team Sweet. My research focuses on working with Indigenous seed keepers on seed sovereignty and seed keeping techniques. I will be conducting interviews with Tribal community members in Wisconsin. This work sits within a larger frame of interest relating to Indigenous agriculture, Tribal producers, and food…
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Catie DeMets
Catie DeMets Graduate Program: Urban and Regional Planning Home town: Verona, Wisconsin Estimated graduation date: May 2024…or 2025 Tell us a little bit about your program (research/teaching): My research supports the creation of sustainable, resilient, equitable food systems and, more broadly, planetary health. Currently, I am exploring a few interrelated avenues. First, I am exploring organizational, state and…
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Julie Dawson
My research interests include the use of genetic resources in plant breeding for organic systems and methods for participatory selection and variety development. My extension program includes the Seed to Kitchen Collaborative, which works with plant breeders to test varieties with local farmers and chefs, focused on flavor for local food systems