Cynthia “Cindy” and Lee Theorin began farming in the 1970s in Boyceville, Wisconsin, and became actively involved in a local food cooperative as well as issues surrounding the farm crisis of the early 1980s. They were involved in the Groundswell Coalition, a grassroots coalition of farmers and others who advocated for support of the Farm Policy Reform Act of 1985. Cindy Theorin served as a board member (1983) and office manager of Wisconsin Farm Unity Alliance; Lee Theorin also served on the WFUA board (1986). Both Cindy and Lee Theorin participated in the founding of the Wisconsin Farmland Conservancy, a farmland preservation organization, and served on its Board of Directors at different times in the 1980s and 1990s. Lee Theorin also served as President (1989) of Farmer to Farmer, a program that offered technical assistance to Nicaraguan dairy farmers.
