A food business and farming expert told a group of community members at the University of Wisconsin Thursday that encouraging and protecting small farms is key to building strong communities.

Jennifer Hall, kitchen program manager of Porchlight, a non-profit volunteer agency, said small, interconnected farms producing locally grown and produced food lead to a strong community.

“It’s important to keep community tight,” Hall said.

John Kinsman, president of Family Farm Defenders, a non-profit organization devoted to a farmer-controlled and consumer-oriented food and fiber system, said the current trend toward large, industrial farms has negative consequences for people’s health, the economy and the self-sufficiency of small farms.

“Diversified family farms is what made this country great,” Kinsman said.

Kinsman said big farms lead to dangerous herbicides and pesticides transferring into ground water. He also said industrialized farms use bad farming practices that have negative consequences for the land.

He added the use of fossil-fuel fertilizers ages our land and is generally unnecessary.

Both Hall and Kinsman argued for an increased focus on local food, as opposed to imported food.

Importing food and industrialized farming leads to small farmers not getting a fair price for their work, according to Kinsman, who said farmers are going bankrupt because the prices they get for their food do not correspond to the funds required to produce the food.

Industrialized farms — known as Confined Animal Feeding Operations — were the targets of Kinsman’s criticism.

Kinsman said he wonders who drinks the milk from these operations, as those local to these operations are not the only ones consuming milk produced by industrialized farms.

Hall also objected to growth hormones such as recombinant bovine growth hormone, or rGBH, which he believes to be harmful to human health, being included in milk.

“I wouldn’t drink that stuff if I was starving, knowing what’s in it,” Hall said.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the use of rGBH in cows in 1993 and the hormone is still safe today, according to the FDA website. The FDA also regulates crops grown using genetic techniques and ensures the safety of products that are genetically modified.

Hall said the change to protect farmers will result from people in urban areas demanding local food, not from industrialized farms.

He also said farmers suffer from unfair international trading practices. For example, a surplus of dairy products is shipped to India, which undermines the local dairy prices there.

In turn, India sends a surplus amount of dried dairy goods to the United States, which lowers prices in the U.S.

“Because of the low prices, there is no dignity left in providing food,” Hall said.

Jeffrey Bessmer, Willy Street Co-op receiver and board member, attended the discussion and said responsible food practices reflect how people are all connected and can help each other out.

“I think one of the great benefits for events like today is that people can build connections between each other,” Bessmer said. “I can talk to someone from Porchlight, and we can talk about maybe carrying their products at Willy Street [Co-op].”