Pictured: Romanski addresses members of the Multi-State Partnership for Security in Agriculture at the start of their 2025 annual meeting, held Sept. 9-11 at UW-River Falls.
UW-River Falls hosted agriculture security officials from around the country Sept. 9-11, as the Multi-State Partnership for Security in Agriculture held its annual meeting on campus.
The partnership, which includes 19 states, works to enhance agriculture emergency preparedness, collaborating on surveillance of, preparation for, and response to threats in agriculture, and coordinating efforts with all levels of government. The group holds its annual meeting in a different state each year.
Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection Secretary Randy Romanski, a UWRF alum, welcomed the group to Wisconsin during the opening session, sharing the importance of agriculture in the state proudly known as America’s Dairyland.
Romanski praised the partnership’s efforts to collaborate across state lines to stop the spread of threats to agriculture.
“When we’re talking about controlling pests and diseases and protecting humans and animals, it’s a pretty important safety net,” he says. “There’s a border between us and Minnesota… but that border doesn’t stop birds from flying.”
Kurt Grajkowski, emergency services coordinator with the Division of Animal Health at DATCP, serves as Wisconsin’s representative to the partnership and arranged this year’s meeting at UWRF. He said that highly pathogenic avian influenza, New World screwworm, and foot-and-mouth disease are some of the top threats on members’ minds. The partnership gives states a way to share resources and ideas for effective animal and plant disease response.
Grajkowski said he chose UWRF for the meeting to introduce members to a part of the state they may not be familiar with and to highlight some of UWRF’s unique offerings, including the Humane Handling Institute, to raise awareness of the shareable resources on campus.
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