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  • Decoding your life, growing family trees with DNA tests

    You’re not who you think you are, and now science can prove it.

    Individuals might have genes from ancestors who practiced discrimination as well as genes from the people against whom they discriminated.

    As gay poet Walt Whitman wrote in 1855, “I am large. I contain multitudes.”

    Today, with a little spit and about $200, millions of people are learning about the multitude of ancestors embodied in their DNA. Through personal genomic testing, they’re gaining unprecedented insights into themselves and their family histories.

    People are also reaching a better understanding of how they connect to one another. Simply looking at our ancestral composition map elicits a feeling of connectedness as a species.

    “You can find out if you’re part Irish, Scandinavian, Cameroonian or one of the other 23 ethnicities. And you might even discover cousins you never knew you had,” AncestryDNA says in its promotion inviting people to test the test sold by Ancestry, the parent of Ancestry.com.

    While the world seems to be divided along racial, ethnic and geographic lines, our genes tell a story of just how connected humans are on planet Earth. Diversity resides in harmony within all of us.

    “What do the 23 pairs of chromosomes in your DNA say about you?” teases 23andMe, Ancestry.com’s chief rival in the consumer market and the maker of probably the best-known home DNA test kit.

    With these the tests, people around the world are gaining new perspectives on their personalities and their health. And, many are getting surprises — large and small — with their results.

    One member of WiG’s extended family took the test and learned that the family trees buried in a memory box at the back of her closet contain errors and are vastly incomplete, while the family crests her dad’s been buying over the years apparently belong to someone else’s family.

    Using 23andMe, she learned that she’s 0.8 percent Middle Eastern/North African, less than 0.1 percent East Asian/Native American and 99.1 percent European.

    The analysis of her European ancestry shows her to be: 94.1 percent northwestern European, including 49.1 percent British/Irish; 15.4 percent French/German; 2.3 percent Scandinavian; 0.1 percent Finnish; and 28 percent “broadly Northwestern European.”

    She has 289 Neanderthal variants, which is more than 69 percent of other 23andMe customers, but her Neanderthal ancestry accounts for less than 4 percent of her overall DNA.

    Laura Weber of Green Bay took the test last year and found that Neanderthal ancestry accounts for less than 3 percent of her overall DNA.

    “I learned that I’m not 100 percent German, which my mom led me to believe for 56 years,” Weber said.

    On Mother’s Day, Weber said she might ask her mom to take the test, just to be certain she’s her mom.

    She was joking, but people who use 23andMe and AncestryDNA can make life-changing discoveries.

    How it works

    Here’s how 23andMe testing and analysis works:

    A kit is purchased online for about $200 and, soon after, a small box containing instructions and a vial is delivered. This is the “home-based saliva collection kit.”

    An account is created on 23andMe.com and the unique identifier code that arrived with the kit is registered with the account.

    Then, taking care to rinse out the mouth first, the customer spits into the vial, places the sample in a plastic bag that’s tucked into the box and ships the package — postage pre-paid — to the lab.

    After that, there’s a wait until one day an email arrives with a notice that the analysis is complete and the results are ready.

    The customer signs on to 23andMe.com to dive in and learn about his or her genetic code. An individual’s 23 pairs of chromosomes provide a lot of information about ancestry, health and traits. There are reports for:

    • Ancestry composition and maternal and paternal lineage, probably the first batch of information viewed by a new customer.

    • Wellness research for lifestyle choices, including research about lactose intolerance, muscle composition, sleep movement, and caffeine consumption.

    • Traits, from physical attributes to food preferences. Traits include: asparagus odor detection, bitter taste perception, cheek dimples, cleft chin, earlobe type, earwax type, eye color, finger length ratio, freckles, hair curliness, hair loss, reflex, toe-length ratio, and widow’s peaks.

    • Carrier status and inherited conditions, including for cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, hereditary hearing loss.

    For a couple of years, 23andMe couldn’t provide health-related information in the United States by order of the Food and Drug Administration. The government’s concern was that the information might lead people to take steps to mitigate serious diseases that they don’t have — or to ignore symptoms assuming they can’t have an illness.

    Last year, 23andMe launched a new user experience, which provides carrier status, wellness, traits and ancestry reports

    “My family did it for Christmas,” said Kevin Laws of Madison. “It really was pretty cool.”

    Growing knowledge base

    Laws, who has a background in chemistry, said he’s most interested in the health information and taking the 23andMe surveys to further research. People take the test and then take online surveys linked to scientific studies, which grows the knowledge base.

    There’s a broad range of surveys.

    Earlier this year, a study based on a 23andMe survey was published in Nature Communications and identified 15 locations in DNA associated with “morningness.”

    “In this study, we set out to discover more about an individual’s preference toward rising and were able to identify the genetic associations with ‘morningness,’ as well as ties to lifestyle patterns and other traits,” said Youna Hu, the lead author on the paper. “This type of study speaks to the power of the 23andMe database, which can yield genetic insights into a variety of conditions and traits and potentially (show) how those genetic factors are affected by behavior and environment.”

    The study of more than 89,000 customers found that seven of the loci associated with “morningness” are near genes previously known to be involved in the circadian rhythm.

    Additionally, the study found 56 percent of those surveyed considered themselves night owls. Women and adults over age 60 are more likely to be morning people, and morning people are less likely to suffer from insomnia or need eight hours of sleep each day.

    Weber said she’s a morning person. Laws is an owl.

    “The beauty of 23andMe is the ability to conduct research on common traits like being a lark or a night owl, which affect everyone, yet typically wouldn’t receive funding for a study,” said 23andMe senior scientist David Hinds, a co-author of the paper. “With the information we have, we can uncover the genetics behind a variety of conditions and diseases, and hopefully reach a better understanding of how we differ from one another.”

    In addition to accessing reports and taking surveys, customers on 23andMe, which partners with MyHeritage.com, can opt to share their genetic fingerprints, which allows for relatives — close and distant — to connect with them.

    Customers also can learn ancestral compositions and build family trees using Ancestry.com and its AncestryDNA autosomal DNA test, which costs about $100.

    Branching out

    Using MyHeritage and Ancestry.com, a person can grow a family tree from a sapling to a redwood overnight.

    Both websites offer tools to search billions of historical records, find archival photos, collect newspaper articles and bookmark histories.

    When MyHeritage and 23andMe announced their collaboration, MyHeritage CEO Gilad Japhet said, “Combining genealogy with DNA-based ancestry is the next evolution in uncovering family history. DNA testing can connect you to relatives you never knew existed, who descend from shared ancestors centuries ago. … Family trees and historical records are critical to map and fully understand these connections.”

    Laws said he was surprised to find a marriage record showing he had great-great-grandparents, who married in their teens. Weber said she was thrilled to come across a census account showing 12 people in her family lived together during World War II in an apartment on Chicago’s West Side.

    The services also can do the work of building a tree, which makes adding ancestors as easy as making friends on Facebook.

    “The next thing for me is to find out who all these people were,” said Laws, whose tree currently goes back to 1587. “Right now, they are names and dates and some bits of information.”

    Polling conducted by Ancestry.com for its Global Family History Report found that Americans would prefer to find they are descendants of explorers, royalty, Mayflower travelers and Revolutionary and Civil War veterans. That could explain why one WiG staffer knew two people who claimed to have learned from psychics that they were the reincarnation of Cleopatra. The ensuing feud over who was the real Egyptian queen ended their friendship.

    Genetic science, unlike psychics, tells the truth, which often is less glamorous. Most people learn they descend from World War II vets, immigrants and entrepreneurs.

    And Americans, the polling found, would prefer not to find thieves, drunkards or murderers in their family tree.

    Though Laws said he wouldn’t mind a thief if he left a fortune.

    DNA USA

    An early 23andMe study examined what DNA reveals about the U.S. population, migration and the rate of “ancestry mixing” among populations.

    The research, led by Katarzyna Bryc, showed the signature of historical migrations in the United States can be found in the DNA of today’s population.

    • About 3.5 percent of European Americans have 1 percent or more African ancestry.

    • European Americans with African ancestry are found at much higher rates in the southern states.

    • The highest levels of African ancestry among self-reported African Americans are found in the southern states, especially South Carolina and Georgia.

    • One in every 20 African Americans has Native American ancestry.

    • Among self-reported Latinos in the United States, those from the South and Southwest have the highest percentage of Native American ancestry.

    — Lisa Neff

    Did you know?

    National DNA Day is observed annually on April 25 to celebrate the discovery of DNA’s double helix in 1953 and the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003. This year, the National Human Genome Research Institute celebrated with a series of events.

  • Squirms and laughs: In ‘Mortified’ project, adults share their private middle school angst

    Squirms and laughs: In ‘Mortified’ project, adults share their private middle school angst

    “Wisconsin is to blame for Mortified,” says David Nadelberg, who 15 years ago founded a storytelling project that’s become a cultural mirror.

    Mortified is grass-roots storytelling where adults read their childhood writings to strangers. It brings the era of private diaries and journals to today’s life-sharing era of social media. Words that were meant to be private are now recited before live audiences — and made available by Netflix.

    There are multiple Mortified platforms: live readings staged in 20 cities around the world, a podcast from PRX and Radiotopia, a book series, concert films, and documentary series — including The Mortified Guide, now available on Netflix.

    Critics cheer. “Funny, touching, and intensely relatable,” wrote Wired. “Funny and horrifying,” stated USA Today.

    Mortified is the largest and longest-running project of its kind, according to Nadelberg.

    In the beginning, it was intended only to be a one-night stage performance in Los Angeles.

    The official origin story for Mortified is that Nadelberg discovered an unsent love letter he’d written as a teen and, in 2002, conceived of a stage performance in which people shared their childhood writings.

    But the seed for Mortified was planted even earlier, when Nadelberg was a kid nosing around his sister’s room after she left home to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

    “So, a fun fact is that the show was originally, potentially going to be called Debbie’s Diaries,” Nadelberg says during an interview on May 24. He was at home in Los Angeles, talking on speakerphone and making eggs for breakfast. “Debbie is my sister, and I read her diary. She went to college in Madison, and that suddenly left her bedroom fair game for a snoopy little brother” back in Detroit.

    He read the diaries, expecting — hoping — to find “blackmail material” and discover all the bad things his sister had to say about him.

    “She didn’t say anything mean about me,” Nadelberg says. “It was quite the opposite. … In terms of empathy, it was probably my first dose ever.”

    He felt like a jerk.

    “It made me understand the importance and the sacred quality of the diary,” he remembers. “I shut her journal and never went back.”

    But the instinct to know and share the private thoughts of others took hold.

    Nadelberg may have closed his sister’s diary, but in the years since, he’s opened many others — among them a red journal decorated with schnauzers and kept by a Milwaukee-area middle-school student named Liz Grossman.

    “Mortified,” he says, “was supposed to be a one-night experience, but it’s become much more than that. … It’s shaped my entire adulthood. Other people’s childhoods have shaped my entire adulthood — that is never lost on me.”

    ‘Rants like a drunken sailor on shore leave’

    “Hi, I’m Liz. And growing up I was always the smallest and shortest kid in my grade,” Liz Grossman says in the opening segment of “The Mortified Guide to Fitting In,” the third episode of The Mortified Guide. “And … by like seventh-grade, everyone started going through puberty except for me.”

    The Chicago editor had traveled to Austin, Texas, to read diary entries about “the jealousy effect” before a live audience.

    She tells the audience about how, as a kid, she thought she was pale and her hair a frizzy mess. She was just a “little girl” in middle school, but her best friend was maturing a whole lot quicker — “she had it all,” Grossman says, including her period and a bra that boys could snap.

    At night, Grossman recalls unleashing pent-up fury in her diary — “I would go on angry rants like a drunken sailor on shore leave or worse.”

    She reads the audience an entry dated Nov. 9, 1990: “Dear diary, hi. This is the first day I’m writing in you. I thought I’d see if the classic good old diary would help me with what’s on my mind. There’s a lot. I’m so goddamn jealous of Deb. Everyone likes her because of her body. My body? It’s flat, plain, curveless, shapeless, ugly and un-pubicized.”

    A co-worker had introduced Grossman to the Mortified project and, fortunately, her sister had held on to her diary, which contained “some pretty funny stuff” from her days at Maple Dale School in Fox Point.

    The Mortified team also found the material funny. So Grossman did a couple of readings and then the Austin performance for the Netflix series.

    Onstage, she says, “When you get huge laughs, you’re like, ‘This is good.’”

    The biggest laughs for Grossman in the “Fitting in” episode come when she explains, with more amusement than mortification, the “self-esteem ladder” she created in her diary after her best friend started going steady with Maple Dale’s most popular boy.

    On a zero to 10 scale, a girl saying “Hi” to Grossman rated a three, an “incensere” compliment was a five, a boy talking to her was an eight and a boy liking her — “the ultimate proof of self-worth” — was a 10.

    Looking back, Grossman says, “then you kind of wanted to look like everyone else. You wanted to have the same experiences as everybody. You are just like, ‘How does everybody see me?’ And I do think it was like that until you sort of realize that you don’t have to necessarily fit in to find validation.”

    Since the series debuted on Netflix, Grossman has heard from old friends surprised to learn about her insecurities as a middle schooler. They thought she was cute and “pretty cool.”

    ‘Intensely relatable’

    Grossman is not alone in her observation.

    Nadelberg says, “We’ve been overwhelmed with positive responses. We’re seeing people all over the world react to these stories. It’s incredible to see that this diary of a little girl who grew up in Wisconsin is somehow resonating with a viewer in Korea or Brazil or Italy. And that’s what is happening.”

    The opening of each episode of The Mortified Guide begins with recollections about puberty, parents, grades, heartache, religion, sexual orientation and this introduction: “Remember the angst? The awkwardness? You are not alone. … Put your hands together for the very, very brave souls who are all about to get mortified.”

    Grossman, one of the brave, says, “Oh, I do remember being angsty and jealous.”

    Why do people relate to adults sharing their journals, letters, poetry, song lyrics, art, home movies and plays about first kisses and worst prom dates, worst hand jobs and best mall jobs, celebrity crushes and coming out?

    “Nostalgia,” says Nadelberg,“is always hypnotic to people. … No matter who you are, your experience at 13 put a big dent in you — probably a bigger dent than what happens to you when you are 23 or 33 or 43.”

    When you’re growing up, he adds, “everything is big — whether it’s happy or sad.”

    ‘Curated’ shows, not open-mic

    In the TV series, the storytellers charm and captivate. They move their audiences to laughter and tears.

    Some of them have training in performance art — Grossman, for example, did some improv at Second City. But the participants are editors, ad execs, architects, receptionists, attorneys — people from a range of backgrounds and generations.

    The readings are not open-mic performances but curated by the Mortified team.

    Nadelberg says, “Curating the show is the most important part of it. If you get onstage with us, we want you to get laughs — and not the bad kind of laughs.”

    One way the team connects with prospective storytellers is online at getmortified.com, where people can watch videos, listen to podcasts and submit requests to meet with curators either in a city with a chapter — there isn’t one in Milwaukee — or via Skype.

    “Everybody can participate,” Nadelberg says. “We have a process where people show up and read us their material. And we help them figure out what of their childhood writings are fun for strangers to hear. … When we find enough, we put them in a show.”

    With all its success — the books, TV, film, radio, podcasts, stage shows and workshops — Mortified remains a “scrappy” project and the series an independent program.

    “We’re really proud of our show,” Nadelberg says. “There really is no other show like it on television and we want more people to know about it.”

    How?

    By “word-of-mouth,” he says, and sharing the stories, of course.

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • Major food truck festival comes to Milwaukee area

    Leave the tight jeans at home, Anne Marie Aigner advises.

    She’s the founder and executive producer of Food Truck Festivals of America, which has organized more than 60 festivals in the United States and will bring a caravan of food trucks to Waukesha May 20.

    “We’ll have everything from crepes to tacos to barbecue and pizza,” she says. “People come to graze — and there are not too many places left these days where you can do that.”

    FTFA, based in Allston, Massachusetts, bills itself as the largest traveling food truck and craft beer company in the United States.

    The tours kicked off in 2011, and this year the company is driving an expansion to 16 markets.

    “When we started our business in 2011, our list of trucks was eight,” Aigner says. “Now that list is 3,000-plus. The growth has been explosive. We weren’t sure when we started whether it was a fad or a trend.”

    FFTA opened its 2017 schedule in late February in Palm Beach, Florida. The first April stop on the tour was in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where an imaginative dish topped the list.

    “At our recent festival in Albuquerque, the lines were longest for the truck selling doughnut burgers,” Aigner says. “Yep, a burger between two doughnuts. Smothered in green chilies no less.”

    At another festival, a truck sold chicken wings stuffed with mac and cheese.

    “Have we mentioned that our festivals are not days for dieting?” Aigner asks.

    In May, the festival stops include the Milwaukee Food and Craft Beer Festival May 20 at the Waukesha Expo Center.

    Each festival brings its own unique mix of trucks.

    “Food trucks are large — usually 27 feet long,” Aigner points out. “They cannot drive easily beyond a couple of hours. So our festivals feature trucks within a two-hour radius.”

    For the Waukesha event, for instance, Aigner says festivalgoers will find trucks from the Milwaukee, Waukesha and Madison areas.

    The arc of mobile food

    Plenty of food magazines and critics credit Los Angeles chef Raul Martinez with opening the first modern “food truck.” In 1974, Martinez converted an ice cream truck into a food wagon dubbed King Taco that served street-style tacos.

    Martinez’s success — within six months of launching King Taco, he had a restaurant chain — inspired many chefs and entrepreneurs.

    Of course, there was food on wheels before King Taco. Veterans of the Army during the 1950s might remember the mobile canteens stationed at U.S. bases. College students probably had a favorite 2 a.m. bus near campus that served hot dogs and cheese fries. Workers from office districts to construction sites have cheered when the coffee, packaged Danish and ham sandwiches guy arrived.

    But times have changed.

    “In the old days, you got a grilled cheese sandwich from a truck and it was American cheese between two slices of white bread — and you didn’t know how long it had been sitting there,” Aigner says. “Now you can get a grilled cheese from a food truck and it will be fontina with short rib and caramelized onions on brioche — and you can watch the chef make it right in front of you.”

    Today’s trucks are upscale mobile kitchens.

    “The food trucks have come a long way,” says Aigner.

    Accelerating industry

    Surveys show accelerated growth in food truckin’ in 2008, as the Great Recession hit. Chefs and entrepreneurs were looking to start lean businesses, while consumers were looking for gourmet cuisine — but without the fat check that can come at the end of a sit-down dinner.

    The industry continued to grow after the recession, and this year food trucks are expected to generate $2.7 billion in revenue — a quadrupling in only five years, according to the National Restaurant Association.

    With growth in the industry came new legislation — health and safety rules and measures setting hours and locations of business for vendors. Some localities moved to enact measures to promote food truckin’ and others moved to limit the businesses.

    “Things got trickier for us,” says Pete Raynard, owner of the New Dog and Tricks truck in the Tampa Bay region. “You can’t necessarily just go to a neighborhood and start selling. We now partner to sell food at brew pubs and we do the festivals.”

    The Milwaukee Common Council recently voted to restrict food trucks in the popular Brady Street area on the city’s east side. The mayor has not yet signed the ordinance.

    Foodies and beer lovers aplenty

    For vendors and customers, the festivals are a win-win.

    “When a food truck vends for lunch on a city corner, they may see 50 to 150 people between noon and 3 p.m. At our festivals, there are thousands of people. It is a fantastic way for trucks to make good revenue and to market themselves before a larger crowd of foodies and beer lovers,” Aigner said.

    To vend at the Waukesha festival, FTFA requires a $100 participation fee and a $100 refundable deposit, plus a certificate of insurance, a health permit and temporary food license, and a menu.

    “We have had a tremendous response from food trucks and craft brewers,” Aigner says of the callout to vendors for the Wisconsin festival. “In fact, we plan on having 25 trucks at the festival, but we have heard from over 80 interested in attending.”

    Menus will include small, medium and larger items, but Aigner says many festivalgoers prefer the smaller items that can be held in one hand, freeing the other hand to hold a beer.

    “We like to offer local and regional craft beers that you know or are curious about and enjoy, such as beers from Raised Grain Brewing Co. and a new seasonal beer from Sprecher Brewing Co., as well as national brands you may have heard of, but haven’t had a chance to try, such as some beers from North American Breweries” in New York City.

    Organizers booked musical performances and offer lawn games, but the craft beer and food headline this festival.

    As of WiG press time, more than 29,000 people had showed their interest in attending with check-ins on FTFA’s Facebook page and ticket sales for the Milwaukee Food Truck and Craft Beer Festival are outpacing the 14 other events on the tour schedule.

    Why?

    For the street-style tacos, sliders, gourmet hot dogs, wicked-good wraps and smothered fries.

    “Every year the food truck industry evolves,” Aigner says. “But the constant is the fact that the food is fun and really good. Our food truck chefs are really chefs — and creative at that. They compete with each other to offer the most creative and tastiest items that you can’t find elsewhere.”

    On the calendar

    At least 25 food trucks will be serving menu items at the Waukesha Expo Center, 1000 Northview Road, Waukesha. Also, about 50 craft beers will be available. The event is noon–6 p.m. May 20. This is a rain or shine event. Tickets are $5 in advance. Children 12 and under enter free. A VIP pass is $20. For more information, go online to foodtruckfestivalsofamerica.com.

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • Milwaukee surfers making waves with sport, advocacy

    Eric Gietzen grew up in Shorewood, close to Lake Michigan, seeing the crashing waves and listening to the lore about famous shipwrecks.

    “When I woke up in the morning, if there would be big waves, I could hear them,” he recalls.

    Ryan Bigelow also grew up in the Milwaukee area.

    Neither of them imagined that as adults they’d surf on Lake Michigan.

    Gietzen and Bigelow are board members of Surfrider Milwaukee. The chapter is part of a global Surfrider Foundation network, dedicated to promoting and protecting water resources and beaches with coastal cleanups, community outreach and sometimes legal battles.

    Membership begins at just $25 a year.

    “In Milwaukee, our mission has been to get people down to the beach and to show the lake is not just a resource for industry,” Gietzen says. “Our mission has been to get people in the water doing something they probably wouldn’t normally do. We hope they fall in love with the lake. Anything you fall in love with, you are going to protect. And now, more than ever, we need people to love our Great Lakes.”

    On Aug. 4, Surfrider Milwaukee holds its annual Surf@Water at — where else? — Atwater Beach in Shorewood.

    The event begins with a paddle onto the lake at about 5:45 a.m. to celebrate the sunrise. Then there’s a beach blessing, morning coffee with Colectivo, yoga with instructor Annie Melchior, a cleanup along the shore, surf and standup paddle board lessons in collaboration with Lake Effect Surf Shop, an evening picnic, Hawaiian-style music by Ocean Rush and a board swap.

    “People are getting stoked about it,” says Bigelow, who works as a radiologic technologist and UWM instructor.

    “It’s a fun day,” adds Gietzen, a high school English teacher who also operates a lifeguard service at Atwater Beach.

    INTO THE SURF

    Gietzen got into surfing in the mid-1980s at Atwater Beach after a buddy came home from Madison with a surfboard found in a garbage pile.

    “We decided to give it a go,” he says. “Unbeknownst to me, there was already a somewhat thriving surf culture in Sheboygan,” dating back to the 1960s.

    Sheboygan surfing has been documented in magazines and films. Travel writers have referred to the blue-collar community north of Milwaukee as the “Malibu of the Midwest.”

    “They had a pretty big crew doing their thing,” Gietzen says, adding that surf clubs also existed in Racine and other prime surf spots around the lake in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.

    “But when I started, maybe five or six other guys in the Milwaukee area were surfing. The scene back then was not very big.”

    The Milwaukee scene has grown over the past two decades, boosted by shops such as Lake Effect in Shorewood, organizations such as Surfrider, advances in wetsuits and other equipment, and enthusiasts such as Gietzen and Bigelow.

    “Right now, this is the golden age of surfing on the Great Lakes,” boasts Gietzen.

    “We want to build a community that loves the lake,” Bigelow says. “We want to pass that along.”

    Bigelow became involved with Surfrider about six years ago.

    “We’re like-minded individuals,” he says. “We just love surfing. And this is a way to share our passion.”

    Bigelow remembers as a child watching surfing movies and putting up surf posters on bedroom walls, but he was a skateboarder and didn’t get into the water version until the early 1990s. At the time, he was serving in the U.S. Army and stationed on a base in Hawaii.

    “Every weekend, I was at the beach,” Bigelow says of those days.

    Observers from the shore might notice Milwaukee surfers use longer and thicker boards instead of shortboards. The reason is that freshwater is less buoyant than saltwater.

    “A longboard is definitely more soulful. There’s the ease of the glide,” Bigelow says.

    “You’ll catch more waves,” adds Gietzen, whose household — with two surfing sons — has 10 boards.

    CATCHING A BREAK

    Surfing on Lake Michigan is a year-round sport, but some seasons provide better conditions than others.

    Surf quality depends not only on geography but also on weather, which is why avid surfers track forecasts and learn about wind patterns.

    “On the Great Lakes, we usually have a quick wind swell. Waves appear and then it shuts down pretty fast,” says Gietzen. “You want to be in the right place at the right time.”

    Surf@water takes place in August, so beginners can learn the basics of the sport in milder conditions.

    For experienced surfers, more intense action comes in the fall and winter, maybe early spring.

    “It’s a winter lake,” says Bigelow. “More quality surf. More power. Winter waves hold up longer.”

    Improvements in wetsuits mean surfers stay warm — or warmer — in the winter, but they still emerge from the water with icicle beards.

    In the movies, ocean surfers live on the water. They’re out daily, dawn to dusk. Milwaukee surfers might get out three times a month if they’re lucky.

    “And sometimes we’re rewarded with really epic surf and sometimes we’re skunked,” Gietzen says. “But getting into the water with your friends, it’s such a joy.

    “Three or four times a year, you get a really epic swell that has a lasting impression.”

    The memory of a thrill ride, an awesome trick, an epic swell, or a perfect paddle can carry a surfer through months without action.

    Bigelow says such sessions keep the stoke tank full: “If you can get that session, just one session, it can carry you for months.”

    On the water: Save these dates

    Aug. 4, 5:30 a.m.–8 p.m. Surf@Water, Atwater Beach, 4000 N. Lake Dr., Shorewood. The “sun up to sun down celebration of surf, sun and fun” is presented by and benefits Surfrider Milwaukee. The event features a sunrise “paddle out” on Lake Michigan, along with a beach blessing, beach yoga, beach cleanup, surf and paddleboard lessons, a picnic, live music by Ocean Rush and a board swap. For more, visit milwaukee.surfrider.org.

    Aug. 5, 6:30–9 p.m. Fifth annual We Are Water Celebration, South Shore Park Beach, 2900 S. Shore Dr., Bay View. An all-ages event celebrating “Shared water/Shared humanity.” Presented by Milwaukee Water Commons, the “illuminating” event features music, poetry and light. For more, to visit milwaukeewatercommons.org.

    Aug. 11, 8 a.m. Cream City Classic, Public Pier at North Jackson and East Erie streets in the Third Ward. Milwaukee’s first open river swim offers prizes to finalists in the race on the Milwaukee River and raises money for swimming programs. Spectators can watch from the RiverWalk, and there will be festivities during and after the race in the MIAD parking lot. The event involves the University of Wisconsin/Sea Grant, Milwaukee Riverkeeper, Milwaukee Water Commons and the Harbor District Milwaukee. For more, visit creamcityclassic.org.

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • Superhosts roll out welcome mats as Airbnb builds presence in Wisconsin

    Feel summer waning without even a weekend getaway?

    Airbnb superhosts await guest arrivals at artists’ studios in the Driftless Area, lake cabins in Door County, city apartments across Milwaukee, farmhouses in Dane County — even two yurts on Bayfield County forest land and a Frank Lloyd Wright home in Two Rivers.

    Renting vacation rental homes is big business in Wisconsin. Airbnb, the online hospitality service and marketplace that launched just a decade ago, has a sizable and growing presence in a state where hosts seem eager to make lodgers feel like family — if that’s what they want.

    “Ideally, I like to meet and greet people, that’s the fun of this,” Airbnb host Nina Cheney said of arriving guests. “But I play it by ear. You definitely want to give them their privacy.”

    Cheney offers two Wisconsin lodgings on Airbnb. One rental is a private room in a stone house, and the other is a “cool, scenic country art studio” that’s 20 steps from the main house. The studio is a converted rehearsal space from when Cheney worked as a juggler.

    Many of her guests are from Wisconsin or the Chicago area, but Cheney has welcomed people from around the world.

    So has Neda Stevic, an Airbnb host offering a private room in an apartment in Milwaukee.

    “I have had guests from China, Germany, Malaysia, Canada, France, India and Australia so far,” said Stevic, who began hosting in February. “This is a wonderful way to meet people from all over the world and learn about their cultures.”

    Hosts with the most

    Stevic and Cheney are superhosts, meaning they have five-star, 100 percent ratings on Airbnb from guests.

    It’s important for hosts to be honest in their listings and also to exceed guests’ expectations, the Wisconsin superhosts said.

    Another superhost, Michael Ditmer, easily exceeds guests’ expectations with a rare opportunity to stay in unique lodging — his Frank Lloyd Wright home in Two Rivers.

    Tours of the architect’s buildings can be found across the country, but “a typical historic house tour does not allow you to sit on the furniture, linger and enjoy at your own pace or give one the experience of living in the house,” said Ditmer, who described a stay at Wright’s Still Bend house as “almost a time-traveling experience.”

    Still, he said, superhosts need to offer special comforts. “Do not skimp on anything, keep the house very clean, think about the details and treat all your guests as if they are visiting royalty,” he advised prospective hosts.

    “Probably the one thing I do as a host that stands out is that the cottage kitchen is really well equipped, and I leave the guests breakfast goodies, so they don’t have to forage for food first thing the next day,” explained Elaine Carmichael, who five years ago began offering a waterfront cottage in Door County’s Sturgeon Bay.

    Cheney said she supplies fresh flowers and chocolates in the bedroom or bagels and coffee in her kitchen.

    In her listings on Airbnb.com, she shares details of her properties — “lovingly restored” and “bucolic views” — and also her passions — bird-watching, skiing, kayaking and traveling “whenever I can.”

    When Cheney travels, she’s partial to staying in Airbnb properties. In fact, she was a guest before she became a host three years ago.

    “I stayed in an Airbnb myself and realized, I can do this,” she said. “And I just decided to try it.”

    Carmichael travels a lot and likes the “living like a local” experience of Airbnbs. “One pleasure of travel is imagining what life would be like if you lived in the destination,” she said. “Living locally, instead of in a hotel, helps.”

    Stevic stays in Airbnb places “for a more authentic and affordable experience.”

    Living like a local in Wisconsin

    About 210,000 guests stayed in Wisconsin Airbnbs in 2017 — 97 percent more than the year before. The guests found lodging with more than 4,000 hosts.

    “I’ve just met some amazing people,” said Cheney. “It makes the whole world a lot smaller.”

    She mentioned four men from France who stayed with her while competing in the Ironman Wisconsin triathlon. “They were gorgeous. I just absolutely love being a host,” she said.

    Other perks? Two big ones are the income from rentals and the tax deductions for home improvements.

    For Stevic, hosting means her income exceeds her rent and utilities, and she can save to buy a home.

    “A lot of this has to do with where I am located, which is the middle of historic Brady Street,” she said. “People love coming here.”

    Ditmer, who has been hosting since Airbnb’s early days, also says the income more than pays the mortgage.

    Banking on bookings

    For 2017, Airbnb estimated Wisconsin hosts earned a combined $25.2 million in supplemental income.

    Milwaukee’s hosts in 2017 earned $4.2 million and welcomed 40,600 guests. Madison hosts earned $3.6 million and welcomed 27,330 guests.

    A typical annual income for a host in Wisconsin is $6,300, but some far exceed that amount.

    Carmichael began living full-time in Door County in 2004 and built a home on the lot next to a summer cottage. Then the decision was made to rent the cottage on Airbnb to cover property taxes, improvements and maintenance.

    “It turned out to be fun,” she said.

    And, it turned out to generate a good income.

    “We gross about $25,000 to $30,000 a year. … It’s 100 percent booked from April to November, roughly 60 percent the rest of the time.”

    State and local governments also gain from Airbnb rentals, especially around university campuses and during big events — from Packer games in Green Bay to festivals in Milwaukee to commencement ceremonies in college communities.

    Last summer, the state executed a model tax agreement with Airbnb. Effective July 1, 2017, Airbnb began collecting and remitting taxes to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue on all bookings, making the process seamless for hosts and the state. The agreement pertains to state sales tax, county sales and use taxes, stadium district taxes and some resort taxes.

    Airbnb also has tax agreements with some municipalities. An early arrangement was reached with the city of Madison, which received about $324,000 in room taxes from May 2017 through May 2018. That amount exceeded expectations by $124,000.

    More recently, Racine announced it would begin receiving an 8 percent tourist tax on Airbnb rentals this summer.

    “Working with Airbnb to collect and remit taxes is a great win-win for the city and the Airbnb hosts,” Mayor Cory Mason has stated.

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • Wisconsin walkabout: Take a hike for health, friendship, charity

    “Gotta beat Jim. Gotta beat Jim.”

    Anne Danner mutters this as she logs at least 12,000 steps a day trying to get healthy and happy — and beat her boyfriend in their ongoing fitness challenge.

    Some days she wins and some days he takes the title. But — after more than a year of challenges and many nights of running in place to gain the required steps — Danner doesn’t feel healthier or happier.

    “It’s like I’m running in a rut,” said the Milwaukee woman, one of two dozen WiG readers who responded to our online survey about walking in Wisconsin.

    New research may provide a clue to Danner’s misstep. It suggests she should eschew the treadmill in favor of long walks outdoors.

    The research found that taking three-hour hikes is more enjoyable than shorter, more intense exercise and leads to increased participation and improved mental health.

    In the jargon of the researchers, “Results provide support both for psychophysiological stress recovery theory and the affective benefits of green exercise. Thereby, similar previous findings of outdoor physical activity on anxiety and mood were confirmed.”

    The study involved volunteers who took mood tests, followed by brisk, long trail walks — and then more mood tests. On a second day, the volunteers repeated the routine but on a treadmill instead of an outdoor trail. On a third day, they spent three hours in a room, where they chatted, read and surfed the internet.

    Generally, the walkers were happier and had better heart rates than the loungers. And heart rates and mood scores were higher when walking an outdoor trail than on a treadmill.

    The study was conducted at the University of Innsbruck in Austria and published online in June by the journal PLOS One.

    Finding your path

    The results of the Innsbruck study wouldn’t surprise Eau Claire resident Tess Allen, who regularly goes hiking on the Chippewa Falls State Trail or the Old Abe Trail.

    The Old Abe is on an abandoned railroad grade over agricultural and forest land along the shoreline of the Chippewa River.

    “You’ll find dense woods and wildflowers out there,” Allen said. “I like to walk at mid-day, after the bicyclists have had their go. And I like to remind people that when you walk, you always make progress. It’s about my favorite thing to do.”

    WiG readers also recommend hiking:

    • the Ben Dibble Nature Trail in Delavan, where the winding route runs along the Lake Comus shoreline.
    • the Oak Leaf Trail in Milwaukee, because it’s easy to get to and great for observing people and nature.
    • the Geneva Lake Shore Path, a 21-mile path through lakeside neighborhoods in Lake Geneva.
    • at Harrington Beach State Park in Belgium, for the candlelight hikes and walks around a quarry.
    • the Ice Age Trail, to see glacial formations — kettles, erratics, eskers, drained lake plains, drumlins and kames.

    One of readers’ most recommended destinations on the Ice Age Trail is the Parnell Tower, a 60-foot observation platform near Plymouth offering a view of the forest and farmland.

    “On a clear day, you can see for miles and miles,” said West Bend resident Bobby Harden. “It’s breathtaking.”

    Walking clubs

    Harden first visited Parnell Tower with a walking club.

    “There’s dozens of them in Wisconsin,” he said of the clubs. “I don’t even know how many. They’re for adults of all ages. Really cool people getting together to explore, to see Wisconsin, to walk.”

    A search on meetup.com — a useful site for finding all manner of local group activities — reveals numerous walking and hiking groups in Wisconsin. Some groups are more informal, gathering for a specific event — like the Milwaukee campers, backpackers and hikers’ garden tour July 23. Others are formal clubs that meet regularly, such as the Waukesha Weekend Warriors. The Warriors club has planned a Lapham Peak hike in early August and “Hiking, Wining and Other Shenanigans” in September. Still other clubs are affiliated with environmental groups, like the Sierra Club and Audubon Society chapters in the state.

    Similar connections to fellow walkers also can be made on Facebook, where Wisconsinites can find myriad outdoor opportunities that offer adventure and even benefit a cause.

    Great Water Race

    Coming up, for example, is a scavenger hunt in Milwaukee set for July 22 that launches the new Water Story MKE smartphone app and benefits Milwaukee water sustainability nonprofit Reflo.

    Players in teams of two will use the app — created by Reflo — to discover how the city is connected by water.

    The Great Water Race, with six destinations, begins about 10 a.m. at Cream City Farms — the micro-farm located in the 30th Street industrial corridor on Milwaukee’s north side. The race finishes by 2 p.m. at Bradford Beach.

    Players might bike from one destination to the next, but once at each location, they’ll walk, completing challenges to earn points — and possibly win baskets filled with swag from Milwaukee Kayak Company, Bublr Bikes, Lakefront Brewery, River Revitalization and Milwaukee Riverkeeper.

    The race, says project organizer Michael Timm, is “about sharing an experience of discovery that connects us to water history and green infrastructure stories citywide.

    If you go

    The Great Water Race is set for July 22. It kicks off at 10 a.m. from Cream City Farms, 2055 N. 30th St. Tickets are $30 per team (two people is the suggested team size), with proceeds benefiting Reflo. For more information or to buy tickets, visit refloh2o.com/water-story.

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • Wise words: Commencement season to begin

    Students may be shaking spring-break sand from their flip-flops, but commencement celebrations are just weeks away for colleges and universities.

    Many Wisconsin colleges and universities — public and private — plan commencement ceremonies in May and are lining up speakers.

    NFL quarterback Russell Wilson will deliver the spring commencement address on May 14 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

    “It’s an honor to be asked to speak at any commencement ceremony, but I’m particularly excited to return to a place where I have so many great memories,” said the Super Bowl-winning Seahawk, who attended UW-Madison.

    Also in Madison, former Attorney General Eric Holder will give the keynote at the University of Wisconsin Law School hooding ceremony on May 13. “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to talk to these graduates about the road ahead,” Holder said in a news release. “And I hope by sharing some of my own experiences, they see that it’s a big world just waiting for them to make a positive impact.”

    On May 22, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., will address the graduating class at Carthage College in Kenosha, while alumna Judith Mayotte, a TV producer and humanitarian, will deliver the keynote the same day at Marquette University.

    At Ripon College on May 15, the class of 2016 will hear from soccer coach Pia Sundhage, who led the U.S. women’s team to two Olympic gold medals.

    Elsewhere, graduates of 2016 will hear from Vice President Joe Biden, who will deliver commencement addresses at the U.S. Military Academy, Delaware State University and Syracuse University’s College of Law.

    First lady Michele Obama will address graduating seniors at Jackson State University in Mississippi, as well as City College of New York and the Santa Fe Indian School in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

    Other speakers scheduled for commencements this spring include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at Drew University, Oliver Stone at the University of Connecticut, Ryan Seacrest at the University of Georgia, Hoda Kotb at Tulane, Spike Lee at John Hopkins, Hank Azaria at Tufts, Steven Spielberg at Harvard, Matt Damon at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, James Franco at Cornell, Bill Moyers at Rutgers, Ken Burns at Stanford and Seth Meyers at Northwestern.

    WiG ushers in the commencement season with a look at wise words delivered to previous graduating classes.

    Some favorites:

    • Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s address at Harrow School in 1941: “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense.”

    • President John F. Kennedy’s address at American University in 1963: “No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man’s reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable.”

    • Tennis legend Billie Jean King’s address at the University of Massachusetts in 2000: “The most important words that have helped me in life when things have gone right or when things have gone wrong are ‘accept responsibility.’”

    • Apple founder Steve Jobs’ address at Stanford in 2005: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

    • Actor and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger’s address at the University of Southern California in 2009: “You can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.”

    • Country singer Dolly Parton’s commencement address at the University of Tennessee in 2009: “Now I usually try not to give advice. Information, yes, advice no. But what has worked for me may not work for you. Well, take for instance what has worked for me. Wigs. Tight clothes. Pushup bras.”

    • President Barack Obama’s address at Arizona State University in 2009: “A relentless focus on the outward markers of success can lead to complacency. It can make you lazy.”

    Commence career search

    College graduates from the class of 2016 face sunnier prospects in the job market than those who graduated a year ago, according to a new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

    The report shows employers expect to hire 5.2 percent more new graduates than they hired in 2015.

    Another report, released by an institute at Michigan State University, estimated national employers would hire 15 percent more graduates with bachelor’s degrees in 2016 than in 2015.

    Additionally, about 80 percent of the employers that answered the MSU survey described the U.S. labor market for college graduates as “good” to “excellent.”

    — L.N.

  • To veg out is in: Activists organize Milwaukee Veg Expo

    The moment for Pete Woodward of Milwaukee came when he read the bumper sticker, “Eat plants for the planet.” Something clicked, said the 29-year-old mechanic, and he began the cycle to following a vegetarian diet.

    For Molly Risser of Madison, the commitment came after an afternoon in a dog park.

    The 34-year-old office assistant recalled, “A friend was trying to get me to go vegetarian and she said, ‘Just imagine those people are chickens instead of dogs.’ I did. I know it sounds absurd, but your mind bends when you picture people playing in the park with a bunch of chickens.”

    Both relatively new converts to the vegetarian lifestyle, Woodward and Risser are looking forward to a new event on Milwaukee’s calendar — the Veg Expo, which takes place at Hart Park in Wauwatosa 10 a.m.-6 p.m. May 7.

    An announcement for the event invited people to “come veg with us!” and by that the organizers mean come learn from experts about the varied benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle for animals, people and the planet.

    Behind the expo

    A primary organization behind the expo is Citizens United for Animals or CUFA, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting, defending and respecting “the inherent rights of all nonhuman animals to live lives free from suffering, abuse and exploitation.”

    Members of the organizing committee also represent other groups, including the Madison-based Alliance for Animals and the Environment.

    Those who attend the expo can expect to learn about animal cruelty, including abuses in the factory farming of animals. Attendees also will learn about animal rescue campaigns and efforts to re-home dogs and cats and other animals in southeastern Wisconsin.

    Tim Swartz, a volunteer with the Alliance for Animals and the Environment and member of the expo organizing committee, became involved in promoting veg culture about a year ago after reading The Bond: Our Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them, a book by Wayne Pacelle, the president of The Humane Society of the United States.

    “It was my first exposure to just the problem of factory farming, to how animals are treated on factory farms,” Swartz said. “I was appalled.”

    Swartz knew he wanted to make personal changes in his life: “That caused me to decide that I didn’t want to support what was going on anymore and to pursue a vegan diet. … It took me a little time to fully get there.”

    He also knew he wanted to get involved in a greater cause. “I wanted to make an effort to educate other people,” he said. “And when I learned about the environmental impacts of animal agriculture, well, that compelled me even more.”

    Consider these environmental benefits of a plant-based diet versus the impact of animal agriculture:

    • A plant-based diet free of meat, dairy and eggs can save more carbon emissions than driving a Toyota Prius — about 50 percent more, according to ChooseVeg.com and Mercy for Animals.
    • Raising animals for food uses about 30 percent of the Earth’s land mass.
    • About 70 percent of the grain grown in the United States is used to feed farmed animals.
    • About 80 percent of the land deforested in the Amazon is used to pasture cattle.
    • To produce a pound of animal protein compared with a pound of soy protein, it takes 12 times as much land, 13 times as much fossil fuel and 15 times as much water.

    The expo, first and foremost, is an educational forum.

    The lineup of speakers includes:

    • Robert Grillo of Free From Harm. He’s at work on a book about how pop culture uses a variety of fictions to influence our food choices.
    • Carol D’Anca of Food Not Meds. She’s a nutritionist and author of “Food not Meds.”
    • Dr. Kevin Fullin, chief of staff of the United Hospital System in Kenosha. He’s given more than 100 talks on plant-based nutrition and is chef who specializes in plant-based cooking.
    • Anne Temple of Moms Across America. She’s led the March Against Monsanto in Milwaukee and also lobbied Congress for food-labeling legislation.
    • Dr. Terry Mason of the Cook County Department of Public Health in Illinois. He was featured in the film Forks over Knives and has delivered many presentations on health and nutrition.

    At the expo

    Swartz hopes those who attend will listen to the experts, browse a marketplace, meet advocates and activists and sample vegan dishes served by restaurant vendors.

    “Lots of education is going to be going on,” he said. “That’s our main goal. For one thing, people should know there are delicious vegan foods that are out there and you don’t have to sacrifice enjoyment and taste. We’re really focusing on the food.”

    “It’s just going to be great to network with the people who are there,” said Rachel Golusinski of Milwaukee, an expo organizer and CUFA member who switched to a vegan diet about six years ago — just before Thanksgiving. “There are great opportunities.”

    Woodward said he plans to attend the expo with a consumer’s eye. “I am a vegetarian. I don’t need convincing. I’m cool with that and a lot healthier. What I want to know about is the best vegetarian restaurants and food.”

    Risser said she wants to connect with activists. Notice of participation by PETA and Mercy for Animals caught her attention.

    “I really, really respect what they do,” said Risser. “But I’ve never meant anyone with the groups. So I’m like really looking forward to talking with people and finding out how I can help.”

    Risser said she’s eager to get more involved in a veg community.

    “This is a true story. My mom had an easier time when I came out as gay than when I told her I was a vegetarian. And then vegan,” Risser said. “So I hope to meet some people, making make some friends. Maybe I’ll even bring my mom — or not.”

    Organizers hope to see 1,000 people attend the expo.

    “It’s not meant to be a fundraiser,” said Swartz. “It’s a free event. We’re really just investing and educating the city about environmental, ethical and health issues.”

    Golusinski said organizers also are looking to the 2017 expo.

    “We already have so many things planned for next year,” she said of the event, observing that most weekends there’s a veg fest taking place somewhere in the United States.

    Golusinski attended five such events since becoming a vegan, a conversion that came after viewing a video about the factory farming of animals.

    “I just said, ‘I’m not going to pay people to do this anymore,” Golusinski remembered.

    She recalled a slight learning curve, especially when selecting a restaurant to dine out. Events such as Veg Expo take out the curve.

    SAVE THE DATES

    Milwaukee’s first Veg Expo takes place 10 a.m.–6 p.m. on May 7 in Hart Park, 7300 W. Chestnut St., Wauwatosa. There is no cost to attend the event, though some vendors will be selling food and beverages. For more, go to mkevegexpo.com.

    Also of interest:

    • World Day for Laboratory Animals, April 23. In Dane County, activists will gather at

    1 p.m. at Hawthorne Library and carpool to a protest site.

    • Mad City Vegan Fest, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. on June 18,

    Alliant Energy Center Exhibition Hall. The festival features vendors offering vegan food, as well as information about the vegetarian lifestyle, animal welfare, animal rescue and more.

    PRODUCE PATCH

    The Dane County Farmers’ Market, a Madison tradition since 1972 and the largest producer-only farmers market in the United States, opened its outdoor season April 16 and continues on Saturdays at the Capitol Square into early November.

    The county’s Wednesday Market, located in the 200 block of MLK Jr. Boulevard between the Capitol and Monona Terrace, opened April 20.

    Both markets take place rain or shine.

    For more, go to dcfm.org.

    — Lisa Neff

  • Growing hemp, seeding a market for farmers and consumers

    “Hemp for victory” once was a rallying cry in the United States, back when Wisconsin dominated the hemp industry.

    The market for the 12-foot-tall plants was strong a century ago and reached its height during World War II, when Wisconsin led the nation in producing hemp for rope and twine. Growers in Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Dodge and Racine counties supplied the crop, and a mill owner in Waupon held the title of “America’s Hemp King.”

    What’s left of the glory?

    The cultivation of hemp in Wisconsin slowed dramatically with the development of synthetic fiber, but its death knell came in 1970. That’s when the federal government classified any amount of THC — a chemical compound found in both hemp and pot — as an illegal substance, thus killing the hemp industry. But hemp may soon make a comeback.

    FEDERAL FARM BILL

    The Agricultural Act of 2014, which President Barack Obama signed Feb. 7, 2014, contained a so-called “Hemp Amendment,” which allows states to work with higher-education research institutions to create programs for the growth, cultivation and marketing of industrial hemp. With the amendment, the federal government created a definition of industrial hemp so that it would not be confused with its cousin, marijuana.

    To capitalize on the Hemp Amendment, a state’s statutes must allow for hemp farming.

    Kentucky has become a leader on that front. Also, some farmers in Colorado started harvesting hemp in 2013, followed a year later by farmers in Vermont and then farmers in Oregon last winter.

    North Carolina is one of the most recent states to join the movement, enacting a law in October that says, “It is in the best interest of the citizens … to promote and encourage the development of an industrial hemp industry in the state in order to expand employment, promote economic activity and provide opportunities to small farmers for an environmentally sustainable and profitable use of crop lands that might otherwise be lost to agricultural production.”

    However, Wisconsin is not a hemp player.

    Not yet, anyway.

    MOVEMENT IN WISCONSIN

    It’s unlikely the state will produce another hemp king or queen, but Wisconsin could become a significant grower of the potentially big-money crop.

    “The 2014 Farm Bill gave states the authority to begin the process of legalizing industrial hemp,” said Wisconsin Rep. Dave Considine, a Democrat from Baraboo. “Now we’re looking to get something passed and get something going. … We’re vastly behind other states in the Midwest.”

    In the 2015–16 session, Considine introduced a bill to create a research-based hemp farming program in Wisconsin. The bill died in committee, but he plans to reintroduce the legislation in the next session.

    “A lot of people know of industrial hemp as a source of fiber, but that is not all by any means,” Considine said. “For one, it is an extremely popular source of Omega-3. It’s an amazing source of really good fatty acids that we need in our diet.”

    Considine’s bill would create a licensing program under the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and in partnership with research institutions. The license holders would plant, cultivate, grow, harvest, process, possess and deliver industrial hemp — Cannabis sativa with no more than 0.3 percent THC.

    “What the bill does is allow a university to come up with research. The first step is to make sure we have the right team to grow industrial hemp,” said the Democrat, who represents the 81st Assembly District in western Sauk County.

    “I have a very strong agricultural district,” Considine said. “Really productive land and people doing a lot of good things.”

    He noted the district has many farmers interested in “alternative cropping” and emphasized Wisconsin once was the “No. 1 producer of hemp.”

    The bill didn’t get a hearing in the session that ended in March, yet the proposal would seem to have wide appeal. National polls show support for such measures among Republicans and Democrats, farmers and hippies, conservationists and corporations, Libertarians and Greens, city dwellers and country folk.

    Considine said when he reworks the bill for re-introduction, he plans to build grassroots support, as well as line up organizational backing.

    “I’m committed to bringing it back,” he said. “I’m really hoping for the good of our state and the good of our economy that we can get moving.”

    Key to the drive is securing support from the state Farm Bureau Federation.

    Already, Considine has the backing of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, which has a policy stating the organization “joins all major agricultural associations in Wisconsin in supporting legislation to permit research and test plots in Wisconsin.”

    FEDERAL MOVES

    Meanwhile, pending in Congress is comprehensive legislation to legalize industrial hemp farming in the United States by amending the definition of marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act so that it will not include industrial hemp.

    Democrats Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Republicans Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky introduced the bill in the Senate, while Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democrat Jared Polis of Colorado introduced the House measure.

    Polis has said he’s hopeful Congress will build on the Hemp Amendment and pass the Industrial Hemp Farming Act “to allow this historical American crop to once again thrive on our farmlands.”

    Without passage, farmers still risk being targeted by federal authorities.

    Last October, the Drug Enforcement Administration entered the sovereign lands of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin and destroyed a crop of about 30,000 plants. The tribe had legalized the growing of low-THC non-psychotropic hemp in May 2015, as provided for under the 2014 Farm Bill, and maintains that the DEA improperly destroyed the crop in the raid.

    The U.S. Attorney’s office said the DEA executed federal search warrants on “a large marijuana growing operation on tribal land,” according to a report published by the Associated Press last October.

    Since then, the Menominee Nation has filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge in Milwaukee to uphold the tribe’s right to grow industrial hemp. In February, the tribe filed a motion for summary judgment.

    “This is a straightforward legal question regarding the interpretation of federal law and we believe the court will decide this matter expediently,” Joan Delabreau, the tribe’s chairwoman, stated in a news release. “We are confident that the Farm Bill provisions require the federal government to recognize the Menominee Nation’s rights to cultivate industrial hemp.”

    In another case, a federal judge in late March lifted an injunction prohibiting a South Dakota tribal member from producing industrial hemp. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Viken observed a “shifting legal landscape” on industrial hemp since the injunction was filed more than a decade ago.

    However, Viken’s order was a narrow ruling and did not resolve the question of whether the Farm Bill allows for growing hemp on Pine Ridge Indian land.

    As legislative and law enforcement actions multiply, here are some key facts about hemp:

    • Hemp and marijuana are of the same plant species — Cannabis sativa — but the two plants are not bred and cultivated in the same way. The level of THC is much, much lower in hemp than in pot. Hemp can’t produce a high, but it can be used to make a handsome shirt or provide nutrition.

    • Hemp stalks produce two types of fiber, according to Vote Hemp, a nonprofit advocacy organization. The outer bast fiber can be processed into long strands and the inner woody core can be processed into chips.

    • The fiber is durable and makes for comfortable and colorfast textiles. It is used in composites or can replace plastics or fiberglass in molded products. The fiber also can be used to make building insulation or paper, while the inner core can be used to make animal bedding or nitrogen-absorbent fertilizer. The stalk even holds promise as an alternative fuel.

    • The hemp seed — a tiny nut that consists of a meaty inner core and a hull — has uses as birdseed and, toasted, as a human snack. But broader uses involve dehulling the seed or crushing the seed for oil, because the inner core contains two essential fatty acids — Omega-3 and Omega-6 — as well as proteins.

    Advocates tout the benefits of hemp seed oil supplements, the culinary value of hemp oil and the cosmetic applications. Even the protein-rich leftover hemp meal has value and is used for animal feed as well as high-protein powders and flours for human consumption.

    The U.S. market for hemp is about $450 million to $600 million a year. But with few exceptions, U.S. growers are not profiting. There is no large-scale industrial hemp production in the U.S. and the U.S. market is dependent on imports for finished hemp products and hemp ingredients. About two dozen other countries export hemp to the United States, including Britain, France, Germany, Spain — and especially Canada. But the U.S. production lag may be about to change.

    Marching in Milwaukee, 420ing in Madison

    Plant the date: The sixth annual Milwaukee Marijuana March assembles at 2 p.m. May 7 at Kilbourn Park, 2300 N. Bremen St.

    A Facebook event page indicated nearly 700 marchers plan to attend the event hosted by Legalize Wisconsin and the Wisconsin chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

    Participants plan to gather in the park at 2 p.m. and march at 4 p.m. Before the march, state Rep. Melissa Sargent, a legislative leader in the effort to decriminalize and legalize marijuana, will address the crowd. Medical marijuana patient Trevor James Sand and his daughter Erica also are set to make comments.

    The event commemorates Global Marijuana March Day.

    Action comes earlier in Madison, where the fourth annual Madison 420 Festival takes place at 4:20 p.m. on April 22 at the Brinklounge, 701 E. Washington Ave.

    Madison NORML and Madison Hempfest present the celebration, featuring The Grasshoppers jamrock band, The Northern Pines Band, Nuggernaut, The Material Boys, Mudroom, Bathtub Spring, The Lower 5th, Gin Mill Hollow, The Woods, Gary David and the Enthusiasts, Deteourious, Flowpoetry and Mission, a Jerry Garcia tribute band.

    The event is a benefit for the Madison chapter of NORML.

    Both events have at least a bit to celebrate. For instance, Democratic lawmakers in Wisconsin pitched multiple reform bills in the 2015–16 session, including a legalization measure authored by Sargent and decriminalization legislation introduced by state Rep. Mandela Barnes and Sen. Chris Larson — all Democrats.

    To date, marijuana reform in Wisconsin has taken place mostly at the local level, with cities such as Madison and Milwaukee relaxing penalties for people found in possession of small amounts of pot.

    Twenty states have enacted laws to stop jailing people for possession of small amounts of marijuana.

    Also, voters in the District of Columbia and four states — Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington — have approved taking marijuana production and sales off the criminal market and instead regulating and taxing the production and retailing of pot. However, marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

    A national Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released March 25 found about 61 percent of those surveyed support legalizing marijuana. Most said they wanted to limit legalization to medical use or place restrictions on the amounts that can be purchased for recreational use.

    — Lisa Neff

  • Selfie satisfaction: Today’s selfie is yesterday’s portrait

    Selfie satisfaction: Today’s selfie is yesterday’s portrait

    The morning after Spain lost to Chile in World Cup play, soccer fan Tony Andres snapped a sour selfie and grumbled on Twitter. “The World Cup will produce more selfies than goals,” he tweeted to #WorldCupSelfies.

    He most certainly is correct. The 2014 FIFA World Cup is taking place in Brazil, where soccer fanatics, players and coaches are seemingly producing selfies by the second. The event kicked off with a celebration that featured hundreds of thousands of selfies draped across the field in the “Happiness Flag.” The massive photomosaic, sponsored by Coca-Cola, contained 223,206 soccer selfies and spanned 11,800 square feet.

    Beyond Brazil, social media has been flooded with selfies by soccer enthusiasts showing agony and ecstasy and also a lot of boredom and boozing. Most of the images come from smartphones or digital cameras. They are making their way to friends and fans, as well as strangers on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

    The self-portraits express loyalty to a team and allegiance to a nation. They also help to transform the events in Brazil into global happenings.

    The same day that those selfies of sour and grumbling fans of Spain showed up, there were selfies coming out of blood-soaked cities in Iraq and retweets of selfies by Jennifer Lopez and Demi Lovato minus makeup. There also was strange news of a warning from Madison police against posting #naked selfies.

    The selfie as portrait. As documentary journalism.  As celebrity pop shot.  As porn.

    The image-makers may be using new tools and reaching vast audiences, and the “selfie” may be a relatively new term, but self-portraiture is a very old form of art and method of expression.

    Old style

    Jan van Eyck’s Portrait of a Man in a Turban, painted in 1433, is described in art history books as one of the earliest panel self-portraits. In medieval and Renaissance works, artists may appear as faces in their crowds. Rembrandt painted a range of self-portraits in the 17th century. The world treasures self-portraits from artists as diverse as Frida Kahlo, Andy Warhol, Marie-Denise Villers, Raphael, Anthony Van Dyck, Gerard Sekoto, Gustave Courbet and, of course, Vincent Van Gogh, who painted himself dozens of times as a means of self-expression but also because he could not afford models. Writing to his brother about a painting he dedicated to Paul Gauguin, Van Gogh said, “The third picture this week is a portrait of myself, almost colourless, in ashen tones against a background of pale veronese green.”

    American photographer Robert Cornelius created a daguerreotype of himself in 1839 that is one of the earliest photographs of a person and possibly the first “selfie,” though he recorded it as “the first light picture ever taken.” An early self-photograph by a teenager was taken by 13-year-old Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna and sent to a friend in 1914, four years before she was executed by the Bolshevik secret police.

    There’s also a long history of self-portraits by average Janes and Joes. The Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers in New Brunswick, New Jersey, recently exhibited “445 Portraits of a Man,” a collection of photobooth self-images taken by Franklyn Swantek from the 1930s to the 1960s.

    The individual in the photos had been a mystery until a news story about the collection caught the attention of a man living in Minden, Nevada, who recognized his Uncle Franklyn, who had run Swantek Photo Service in Michigan for years.

    Susan Sidlauskas, who co-curated the exhibit, said Swantek was able to elevate photomatics into museum-quality conceptual art.

    “There’s a twinkle in his eye that suggests he had a reason for holding on to all those photos,” she said.

    This summer, the museum is exhibiting “Striking Resemblance: The Changing Art of Portraiture,” an examination of the portrait as a social medium, as a way of linking people together, which is what NASA accomplished with its Global Selfie from Earth Day.

    Worldwide Hug

    On April 22, NASA invited people to step outside to take a selfie and share it with the world on social media. NASA created a new view of the planet made entirely of those photos, a mosaic consisting of 36,000 individual images from 113 countries and regions — Antarctica to Yemen.

    “We were overwhelmed to see people participate from so many countries,” said Peg Luce, deputy director of the Earth science division at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

    “It’s like being part of a worldwide hug,” said Kimberly Rawlings of Chicago, who said her image is included in the Global Selfie. “The cranks who say we’re narcissistic for posting selfies, who complain about me-obsessed millennials, they miss the point of them.”

    And there are critics of the selfie phenomenon. Bloggers have complained that girls posting selfies are being exploited. Plastic surgeons say the selfie trend is increasing demand for rhinoplasty, hair transplants and eyelid surgery. Mental health professionals have suggested a link between body dysmorphic disorder and a compulsion to take selfies.

    But there’s little science behind the medical and mental health assertions and easy rebuttals to the exploitation assertion.

    “Taking selfies, that’s empowering, that’s being proud of yourself,” said Wisconsin pediatric counselor Helen Cox, noting that one recent survey of young women found that 65 percent said taking selfies boosted their confidence. “When you share selfies, that’s bringing you into a community of people.”

    Sometimes the community is small, a circle of friends.

    Sometimes the community is massive, a world of Earth Day celebrants or World Cup soccer fans.

    ***

    Did you know?

    Generally, under copyright law, unless there is an agreement to the contrary or a photo is shot as part of a job, it belongs to the creator, the person who pressed the button on the camera. And the owner holds exclusive rights to display, copy, use, produce, or distribute the creation. The subject in a photograph has some rights but not ownership, as do social media services where photographs are shared.

    Add an app

    Popular portraiture apps for smartphones and tablets:

    • CamMe: Take photos using hand gestures. Can take several photos sequentially, like the old photo booths. Enhance photos with cutouts. Easy sharing options.

    • Aviary: Touch up with red-eye removal. Add or remove color with splash. Add drama with sharpen. Stylize with filters and stickers.

    • Mextures: Apply film grain, textures, light leaks and gradients to images — from landscapes to portraits.

    • Facetune: Touch up portraits Hollywood-style. Remove blemishes. Even out skin tone. Brighten teeth. Color gray hair. Change eye color.

    • Instagram: Apply filters. Easy share options. Front and back camera support. Add depth of field.

    • Frontback: Shoot from the front and the back of the camera at the same time for the full story.

    • Slingshot: From Facebook. Allows users to send photos, to friends, who must reciprocate before

    viewing the photo.