Democrat gubernatorial candidate Mandela Barnes unveiled his agricultural policy platform Wednesday at Riverview Dairy Farm in Boyd, framing it as a defense of family farms against what he called corporate greed and policies pushed by President Donald Trump and Tom Tiffany.
Barnes, one of seven Democrats seeking the party’s nomination in the Aug. 11 primary, released the agenda one day before Trump’s scheduled visit to Chippewa County to promote rural economic initiatives, lower costs for farmers, and highlight new trade markets.
The plan includes enforcing state antitrust laws against meatpacking monopolies, directing the attorney general to pursue legal action, and supporting smaller local processors. It also calls for suing the Trump administration to secure refunds on tariffs, expanding market access for Wisconsin crops and livestock through a new state matching fund for federal grants, and requiring state agencies to prioritize Wisconsin-grown food purchases.
Additional proposals include tax credits to encourage farmland purchases and succession planning, a “right to repair” measure that allows farmers to service their own equipment, reductions in licensing and regulatory fees, and a ban on foreign countries and out-of-state investment firms from buying Wisconsin farmland. Several planks in Barnes’ agenda mirror proposals long advanced by Republican lawmakers. The “right to repair” legislation for farm equipment has been championed by Republicans to give farmers greater ability to fix their own tractors and machinery without relying exclusively on manufacturers such as John Deere. The ban on foreign adversaries purchasing Wisconsin farmland was the centerpiece of Senate Bill 7, a Republican-backed measure aimed at blocking countries including China, Russia, and Iran from acquiring agricultural land; Gov. Tony Evers vetoed the bill earlier this year. Evers also vetoed a broader right-to-repair measure.
Barnes is also campaigning against what he describes as exorbitant increases in bureaucratic fees for livestock operations. Those fee hikes were proposed in 2025 by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection under the Evers administration. The proposals included raising the licensing fee for livestock markets from $420 to $7,430 — a roughly 1,700 percent increase — along with sharp increases for livestock dealers, truckers, and veterinary inspection certificates. Republicans and agricultural groups criticized the changes as burdensome on family operations at a time of already high input costs.
Barnes has further claimed that farm bankruptcies in Wisconsin are up 700 percent. According to data from the American Farm Bureau Federation, Chapter 12 farm bankruptcy filings in the state rose from 2 in 2024 to 16 in 2025. While the percentage increase matches the figure Barnes cited, the absolute numbers remain microscopic relative to the roughly 58,000 farms operating in Wisconsin, and the jump occurred from an unusually low base the prior year amid broader market pressures, including elevated input costs and commodity price volatility that predated the current administration.
So if you’re thinking that some of Barnes’ agricultural agenda makes sense, you should, since he’s essentially ripping off Republican ideas that were blocked by the Evers administration that he used to serve in.
