In the midst of supply disruptions, Wisconsin Farmers Union President Darin Von Ruden said growers are considering planting different crops that require less fertilizer to off-set costs. The Wisconsin State Public Defenders office continues to advocate for more positions, and Deputy State Public Defender Bridget Krause said a staff and attorney shortage is an unfunded mandate.

Darin Von Ruden
President, Wisconsin Farmers Union

• The cost of growing crops has spiked due to how war in Iran and around the Middle East has disrupted oil and natural gas fields and transport causing prices to rise for fuel and nitrogen fertilizer. When it comes to rising energy costs, Von Ruden said it will cost farmers in Wisconsin more to get crops in the ground and then ship products to consumers. Rising prices for fertilizers, which are a major Middle East export, will likely prompt farmers to switch up crops as they consider spring planting just weeks away.
• Von Ruden: They’re right now probably examining — do we stay with corn and need to put more nitrogen on the ground, or should we look at a small grains crop or do we plant more soybeans? Just because of that price of fertilizers has increased so much in the last two weeks here.”

Bridget Krause
Deputy State Public Defender, Wisconsin State Public Defenders

• The Wisconsin State Public Defenders office describes its attorneys as “drowning.” The agency says it will continue to advocate for more positions after the state Senate adjourned without taking up a bill to fund 52 new positions, including 18 additional attorneys. Krause said the shortage results in long delays for indigent defendants to have their cases heard, with waits often spent in jail. She said more than 60 years ago, the landmark Gideon v. Wainwright decision by the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a person’s low income should never determine their access to a fair trial. Krause called Wisconsin’s shortage of public defenders an unfunded constitutional mandate.
• Krause: “The U.S. Supreme Court said that clients have a constitutional right to have a lawyer represent them. That’s the mandate. When you don’t have lawyers checking the prosecution, checking the police department, it causes a tremendous — it causes an effect across the state, across our counties, across our cities, because people are unchecked and they’re able to prosecute people or charge people with very serious cases. And if you don’t have a lawyer sitting next to that client, it affects the entire community. sSo we have an obligation. An obligation in our state to provide lawyers for people that are charged with crimes. There is a constitutional protection those clients have to proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. But you need a lawyer sitting next to that client, providing that defense, reviewing that discovery, providing advice to clients and fighting in court if necessary. And when you don’t have that, the entire system fails.”

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