Ed Janus spent two years as a dairy farmer in Crawford County, Wisconsin, where he fell in love with cows, fields, barns, and farmers. Since then he has interviewed hundreds of people as an audio journalist, writer, and oral historian and has created radio programs for public radio, the Voice of America, and publishers in the United States and Germany. His first-person audio book on surviving breast cancer won top honors from the Audio Publishers Association in 1999. In 2007 Ed created a series of audio profiles of today’s dairy farmers and cheesemakers for the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, and he recently founded the Wisconsin Dairy HistoryProject.
In Creating Dairyland, Janus opens the pages of the fascinating story of Wisconsin dairy farming. He explores the profound idea that led to the remarkable “big bang” of dairying here a century and a half ago. He helps us understand why there are cows in Wisconsin, how farmers became responsible stewards of our resources, and how cows have paid them back for their efforts. And he introduces us to dairy farmers and cheesemakers of today: men and women who want to tell us why they love what they do.
Ed Janus lives in Madison, Wisconsin.