Jessica Mehre
2024 - 2027 FFAR Fellows
Introduction
The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) is pleased to announce the seventh cohort of graduate students to be accepted to the FFAR Fellows Program.
Jessica Mehre is a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and was selected as a FFAR Fellow studying Environment and Resources.
Keep reading to learn more about Jessica's research and why she applied to be a FFAR Fellow.
About Me
Hometown: Glenbeulah, Wisconsin, United States
I grew up near Sheboygan, Wisconsin, on a small dairy farm. My involvement with our family farm allowed me to see the connection between soils, forages, and livestock. Bailing hay, milking cows, and spreading manure were pieces in a much larger farm system. This same interest in production agriculture led to me work in soybean seed production in North Dakota, large scale dairy farming in Southern Idaho, and high-value vegetable production in the Central Sands of Wisconsin. Throughout this work, I recognized a need for transformative change in agriculture. Whether it was the 5-foot-deep erosion gully in a neighbor’s corn field, dust storms over bare ground in the Central Sands, or the loss of so many of my hometown’s dairy herds (including my family’s), the signals of distress were omnipresent.
After finishing my master’s degree at the University of Guelph, I decided the best path forward was to enter the work force as an agronomist. However, I couldn’t stop thinking about those signals - soil erosion, nutrient runoff, farm consolidation - and quickly switched trajectories, starting a PhD at my alma mater, UW-Madison, in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. Today, I get to research the benefits and challenges of implementing greater perennial pastures across the landscape, specifically in southeast Wisconsin where I’m from. By working with local agricultural organizations and listening to farmers, I hope that my research creates the kind of community envisioned by Aldo Leopold in his book A Sand County Almanac: “When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
Why the FFAR Fellows Program?
The FFAR Fellows program provides a unique opportunity for future leaders in food and agriculture. My own professional ambitions are subject to change; however I’m motivated by a deeper desire to create thoughtful transdisciplinary research that can answer some of agriculture’s most wicked problems. Tackling these types of research questions requires a network diverse in thought and perspective. The FFAR Fellows cohort of peers and professional mentors provides students with such a network. Previous FFAR cohorts have included animal scientists, agronomists, plant breeders, economists, and public policy specialists. Engaging in this program provides an experience to create successful collaborations across disciplines, which is no easy task.
As a future leader in a university, lab, or agricultural community, I look forward to the professional development training that is integral to the FFAR Fellows program. Although leadership can be classified as a soft skill, there are technical skills behind it (e.g., managing meetings, facilitating discussions, mediating conflict). I see the FFAR Fellows as a program that will foster my ability to mentor students, judiciously serve rural communities, and create inclusive classrooms, both during my PhD and years into the future.
My Research
I care about land, and I care about the people that live on and work with the land. Consequently, my research integrates both human and soil elements to understand how to transition from a predominantly simplified and mono-cropped agricultural landscape to one with more perennial pastureland in the Upper Midwest.
Simplified and mono-cropped agroecosystems in the Midwest undermine clean water, soil health, and community vitality. Management-intensive rotationally grazed pastures can both elevate farm profitability and mitigate agricultural externalities. However, uptake of perennial pastures in the Midwestern landscape is low. Using southeast Wisconsin as a case study, my research investigates whether perennial pastures can accrue soil carbon, mitigate agricultural externalities, and create vibrant rural communities. I employ sociology and soil science to ask, “How can farmers care for the land?”
My research connects with two of FFAR’s Challenge Areas: Agroecosystems and Production Systems. First, semi-structured interviews with farmers in southeast Wisconsin will explore how farmers perceive their farm and their region, whether grazing ‘fits’ into that picture, and what changes, if any, will be needed to achieve their vision of agriculture. Next, I will use a long-term agroecological field experiment to answer questions related to the fate of soil carbon under agricultural systems typical of the upper Midwest. Finally, I will compare the social costs and benefits of a corn-soybean rotation and a pasture-based beef system in Wisconsin by incorporating both farm-gate profitability and the social costs of agricultural externalities (air pollution, water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, etc.) into a partial budget. This transdisciplinary research lays the groundwork for future conversations in southeast Wisconsin and beyond for envisioning perennial landscapes and provides encouragement and support of public policy that incentivizes pasture-based agriculture.
Sponsor
My opportunity to join the FFAR Fellows Program is made possible by a scholarship through the Rockey FFAR Fellows Fund.
More About Me
When I’m not in the office or out in the field, you can find me training for my next triathlon. While the hobby does give me more time to listen to my favorite West Texas folk band, biking or running through the hinterlands helps me to see the rural landscape through a different lens.
