This spring, Wisconsin held a massively consequential election for state Supreme Court. As control of the court teetered between a liberal and conservative majority, important issues like reproductive rights and gerrymandering were at stake. State Supreme Court elections are typically low-drama affairs, but pundits declared this “arguably the most important election in America in 2023”.

For me, something has always been missing from politics, like what I was searching for was just out of reach. Last year, I quit my job to join others who started their own organization, bound by a similar yearning to see how we might do things differently, called Grassroots Organizing Western Wisconsin or, GROWW, for short. It felt like a risky leap, but an important one, to see if we could prove it is possible for ordinary people to carve their own path through this messy and fraught terrain. Since getting started, more than fifty other grassroots leaders have joined us, suggesting this vision resonates with others.

This spring, Wisconsin held a massively consequential election for state Supreme Court. As control of the court teetered between a liberal and conservative majority, important issues like reproductive rights and gerrymandering were at stake. State Supreme Court elections are typically low-drama affairs, but pundits declared this “arguably the most important election in America in 2023”.

For me, something has always been missing from politics, like what I was searching for was just out of reach. Last year, I quit my job to join others who started their own organization, bound by a similar yearning to see how we might do things differently, called Grassroots Organizing Western Wisconsin or, GROWW, for short. It felt like a risky leap, but an important one, to see if we could prove it is possible for ordinary people to carve their own path through this messy and fraught terrain. Since getting started, more than fifty other grassroots leaders have joined us, suggesting this vision resonates with others.

TOWN OF SALEM – Imagine being inexplicably ill for years with vomiting, stomachaches, headaches. You go to doctor after doctor, but they can’t figure out what’s wrong. Your children are fixtures in the nurse’s office at school. You eat healthy foods, you’re active, you drink plenty of water, but nothing you do is helping and you get sicker every day.

This isn’t a hypothetical situation. This happened to town of Salem resident and sixth-generation farmer Samantha Bowen and her children. And when they finally learned the cause of their illness, they were shocked. It was nitrate poisoning from their well water.

Bowen, along with a group of concerned neighbors/farmers who own family farms in the area, is working in conjunction with GROWW (GrassRoots Organizing Western WI). They have started a petition asking Pierce County to enact a 12-month moratorium on CAFO expansions until effective operative ordinances and bonding policies are put in place to manage current and future CAFOs in the county.