A healthy environment. Strong communities. Profitable farms. A new generation of farmers on the land. Local and regional food systems. A good life for farm families.

That was the vision for Wisconsin agriculture held by a group of grassroots farmers, faculty and other citizens in the late 1980s that led to the formation of the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems (CIAS) at the UW-Madison. Twenty-five years later, CIAS is going strong. You can help us carry this vision into the future. In order to ensure that we can respond to the needs of Wisconsin’s farmers and other citizens for years to come, our goal is to raise $50,000 in donations this year. We are nearly there!

Thanks to a generous pledge from Waseda Farms, gifts to CIAS will now go twice as far. Through December 7, Waseda Farms will match, dollar for dollar, up to $10,000 in donations from individuals.

Please join with our other supporters to make the most of this opportunity to build a solid foundation for sustainable agriculture programming at UW-Madison. Donations of all amounts are appreciated. Gifts to CIAS will be used in a variety of ways, including supporting interdisciplinary research and outreach on emerging topics such as managed grazing, organic farming, perennial cropping systems, farm to school, and resilient, sustainable agriculture in Wisconsin. Gifts will also be used to support graduate students who want to pursue research and careers in sustainable agriculture, and for scholarships for aspiring farmers attending our beginning farmer schools, which teach sustainable production, marketing and enterprise management.

Please consider this opportunity to support CIAS and double the impact of your gift. You can make a gift today at supportuw.org/giveto/cias25. Thank you for your support and interest in our work.

“We want to help farmers any way we can. I’ve always admired the farm community, and now that I am farming, I appreciate it even more. CIAS is doing great things to help farmers, and we support that.”
— Tom Lutsey, Waseda Farms