In a landmark federal lawsuit filed this week, three independent Wisconsin dairy farmers — including prominent family farmer and vocal advocate Abby Swan of Kemridge Farm in Westfield — are taking on the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in her official capacity. The suit, brought by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), challenges the decades-old federal Dairy Checkoff program as an unconstitutional compelled subsidy that diverts farmer dollars into radical ESG and climate agendas instead of its original purpose: promoting and selling American milk.
The case, Swan et al. v. Rollins et al., filed in U.S. District Court, argues that the mandatory 15-cent-per-hundredweight assessment on every hundred pounds of milk sold — generating hundreds of millions annually — has been hijacked. Funds meant for “Got Milk?”-style promotion and demand-building research are now flowing to the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy and related entities pushing net-zero mandates, greenhouse gas tracking, sustainability data collection, and farm-level ESG compliance that increase costs and accelerate the demise of small and mid-sized family operations.
Abby Swan’s Story: From Viral TikTok to Federal Courtroom
Abby Swan knows the pressure firsthand. In a candid interview with Heartland Post, the former registered nurse who returned to the family dairy operation full-time described receiving an unexpected call from a sustainability data collector (EverEgg). She was told her farm’s detailed operational data — herd information, feed, energy use, and more — was required.
When she pushed back, her milk processor delivered the hard truth: participate or risk losing the ability to ship and sell milk. “They hold you hostage,” Swan recounted. “You can’t even ship your milk or you can’t sell it at all if you don’t do it.”
Despite claims that programs like the FARM ES or net-zero initiatives are “voluntary,” the reality for farmers is stark. Processors, many foreign-owned (15 of the top 20 dairy food processors selling in the U.S. are based in Canada, France, Switzerland, China, India, Australia, and elsewhere), face demands from massive buyers like Nestlé and Starbucks. Those demands roll downhill to smaller family farms.
Swan’s frustration boiled over into a viral TikTok video that exploded nationally, catching the attention of then-candidate and now-Secretary Brooke Rollins, who met with her. But the underlying system remained. “I’ve been complaining about this since 2024,” Swan said. “A bunch of milk processors… said, ‘We’ve been holding people off, but we can only hold them off for so long.’”
Women in Dairy: Abby Swan from Kemridge Farm in Westfield, Wisconsin. | Mackinson Dairy Farm
Below Cost, Above the Breaking Point
Wisconsin dairy farmers are already operating at a severe disadvantage. Swan detailed current prices hovering around $16.50 per hundredweight or lower — well below production costs after years of elevated feed, fuel, equipment, parts, and labor expenses. A couple of years ago, prices reached $23–$25/cwt. The 15-cent checkoff assessment continues unabated regardless, with portions flowing to local promotion and the national DMI apparatus.
“It’s about three hundred and some million dollars a year,” Swan noted of the national pot. “When the dairy farmer takes a hit… that fifteen cents is still continuing to come out.”
The result? Small and mid-sized family dairies — the backbone of rural Wisconsin communities — are being squeezed out. Consolidation favors mega-operations. Young people are leaving agriculture. Support industries (nutritionists, equipment dealers, veterinarians) face shrinking customer bases. “It’s decimating the ag industry,” Swan warned, describing a domino effect that will hollow out rural economies.
The “Arsonist Coming to Put Out the Fire”
The Innovation Center, created under DMI roughly 2017–2018 and heavily focused on climate and sustainability, exemplifies the problem according to plaintiffs. Farmers are forced to fund organizations that then develop and promote the very mandates, data protocols, and “solutions” increasing their regulatory and compliance burden.
As WILL Deputy Counsel Rebecca Furdek put it: “It is fundamentally Orwellian that American dairy farmers are still being forced to subsidize the very organizations effectively regulating them out of business in the name of ‘sustainability.’”
Swan echoed the sentiment in her own words: Dairy farmers are “funding a threat to our own existence.”
Layered Assault: Federal Checkoff + State Activist Pressure
The federal program isn’t the only front. Swan highlighted groups like Clean Wisconsin, which recently issued statements pushing aggressive “regenerative” mandates: rotational grazing requirements, planting trees in fields and pastures, and shifting away from high-protein alfalfa to grasses with deeper roots but far lower nutritional value for cattle.
Independent analysis Swan referenced estimated these policies, if fully imposed, could slash Wisconsin milk production by upwards of 57% — effectively ending most family-scale dairies while favoring only the smallest or most industrialized operations. Clean Wisconsin has endorsed candidates like Francesca Hong when she ran for State Assembly, raising alarms about what a shift in state leadership could mean for enforcement.
Ag media outlets have largely stayed silent or promoted the sustainability narrative; many having received Inflation Reduction Act funding earmarked for climate and sustainability coverage in agriculture. “There isn’t one ag publication” truly independent on this, Swan observed.
A Lawsuit for Accountability, Not Abolition
The WILL complaint does not seek to eliminate the check-off entirely. It asks the court for declaratory and injunctive relief to stop the misuse of funds for activities beyond the statutory scope of promotion, research, and nutrition education under the 1983 Dairy Production Stabilization Act. It also raises First Amendment concerns about compelling farmers to subsidize private ideological speech and advocacy they fundamentally oppose.
Plaintiffs include Swan, Adam Faust, and Christopher Baird — independent Wisconsin dairy farmers standing up for the principle that farmer dollars should promote milk, not police farms or advance contested climate policy.
Why This Matters for Wisconsin and Beyond
America’s Dairyland produces more milk than any other state. Family farms like Abby Swan’s represent not just economic output but a way of life, generational stewardship, and food security. When regulations — whether dressed as “voluntary industry-led initiatives” or explicit mandates — drive costs above revenue and favor consolidation, everyone loses: rural communities, consumers facing higher prices long-term, and the diversity of our food system.
Swan’s message is clear and non-partisan in spirit: “This shit has been going on under multiple administrations, and nobody… wanted to” fix it until public pressure mounted. The lawsuit represents farmers finally saying “enough.”
Heartland Post will continue following this case closely, amplifying the voices of Wisconsin’s dairy families, and demanding transparency and accountability from every level of government and industry. We spoke directly with Abby Swan this week; her passion for her cows, her land, and honest policy is unmistakable. She grew up sleeping on her grandparents’ porch to be closer to the barn at 4 a.m. She left a nursing career because she loves this life. She deserves a system that supports — not subsidizes her own displacement.
Follow Abby Swan on X at @DevaCowlover. Stay tuned to Heartland Post for updates on the lawsuit, farmer perspectives, and the fight to protect Wisconsin agriculture.
The checkoff was created to help farmers sell more milk. It should never have become a tool to make producing that milk nearly impossible for the very families who built this industry. This lawsuit is a necessary correction—and a warning that Wisconsin’s dairy farmers are done being silent.
