Group XII (2006-2008) News
Technology Innovation - How is it Impacting Society?
by Jill Kessenich with contributions by Sally Feeney and Amy Nemitz, Group XII participants
When I was first accepted into WRLP, I was a little confused (and OK, I’ll admit it, embarrassed) about the word “rural”. After all, I was born and raised in a small city, and have spent most of my adult life living in cites of over 100,000 people. In addition, several of my WRLP classmates are from cities like Milwaukee and Madison. What gives, I thought? The closest I’d come to spending any time on a farm was designing a new Hall of Fame museum space for the National Dairy Shrine, located in my current city of Fort Atkinson. OK, Fort Atkinson is a small city, and is in a very rural county (Jefferson), but I still considered myself more urban than rural.
But, I did learn more about the farming and dairy industry from living and working here. It is the home of Hoard’s Dairyman magazine, Jones Dairy Farm, Nasco and J-Star, all ag-related industries. Working on the Dairy Shrine displays, I learned about the work of UW Ag school scientists like Stephen Babcock & E.B. Hart. They and others improved livestock nutrition by mixed-grain feeding, and discovered Vitamin A, which, when introduced to the human diet would spur the end of rickets and other diseases of deficiency.
While at our June seminar in Madison, which was focused on Technology, I thought I would learn about the latest in computer science and technology. What I didn’t realize was that we would also hear from Molly Jahn, Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), the same school that fostered the careers of Babcock, Hart and Harry Steenbock. (Hey, this is starting to make sense to me!) CALS now has an enrollment of 3000+ undergrads, with a $160 million research budget. They are making advances in bio fuels to lessen our dependence on foreign oil, and developing strategies to manage infectious diseases. The old Dairy Barn is now a National Historic Landmark, the only barn in the country with this distinction. The College is also in the process of building a new Microbial Sciences Center. At 330,000 square feet, it will be the largest building on campus. They are building bridges between biochemistry, agronomy, dairy and soil science, to name just a few. The school is also creating connections between agriculture and applied economics, and rural sociology.
Through this seminar, I gained knowledge and appreciation for the important connections between Wisconsin’s rural economy and the many advances the state has made in the world of science and technology. These advances have and will continue to reach areas beyond our farms, our cities, and o ur state and national borders. I am proud to be a part of the Wisconsin Rural Leadership Program.
This seminar was led by seminar co-chairs, Andy Lewis, Professor, Center for Community Economic Development, UW Cooperative Extension and Tom Zinnen, Biotechnology Policy & Outreach Specialist, Biotechnology Center, UW-Madison and UW-Extension.
Jill Kessenich is Owner & Designer of Kessenich-Tesmer Design in Fort Atkinson; Sally Feeney is a teacher at the Evansville School District; Amy Nemitz is owner of A to Z Advertising in Warrens.
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