Brad Olson, president of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation and a farmer in northern Polk County, is raising the alarm over a growing trend of local ordinances that stand to hurt the state's agriculture industry.

These regulations, often appearing in a patchwork across communities in the western and northwestern portions of the state, are framed as environmental protection but end up blocking farmers from expanding their businesses.

"If the cost of expansion is so great that you can't afford to do it or justifiably do it, you're being kept from expanding," Olson explains.