Vision Statement

To achieve its mission, the Discovery Farms Program needs to:

Work and communicate with a wide range of agricultural enterprises to determine the environmental impacts of production agriculture and create a reliable database of what different farms contribute in terms of environmental enhancement or degradation;

Gather baseline information that includes not only environmental information, but management practices and financial conditions that allow for the calculation of the cost of implementing environmentally sound best management practices;

Determine the affects of environmental rules and regulations on the environment, farm profitability and farm management; and provide accurate information to producers, consumers, policy makers and agency personnel so positive steps can be made to protect both the environment and production agriculture;

Work and communicate with the agricultural producer groups, environmental groups, consumers, the University of Wisconsin System, the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, the Department of Natural Resources, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Environmental Protection Agency, County Land Conservation Departments, agricultural businesses and cooperatives; on the importance of maintaining a viable agricultural economy, and identify the impacts, including positive impacts, that agriculture has on Wisconsin.