In Wisconsin, the farm crisis has hit families especially hard. So Family Farm Defenders (FFD) is turning to the state's best-known export - cheese - among other foods as a way to keep these family-owned businesses in operation. The group is organizing farmers and establishing a cooperative system to bring high-quality food to market at fair prices. In one instance, FFD developed the Family Farmer Cheese label, which pays farmers a more equitable price for their milk and in turn offers consumers a product made without growth hormones. The cheese, called fair trade cheese and made by Cedar Grove Cheese near Madison, Wis., is distributed through restaurants and supermarkets as well as at conferences and events. Mike Moon, an organic vegetable farmer and manager of the cheese project, says the goal is to get all of the cheese produced by Cedar Grove to be fair trade cheese and to cover the entire cost of production through distribution. FFD members are also working to bring other FFD-developed healthy foods into classrooms and school cafeterias.

Mike Moon shows off samples of Family Farmer Cheese, a fair trade cheese label developed by FFD.
Photo by Sam Lucero

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