MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Minnesota ag commissioner upbeat over legislative support for agriculture

Tom Cherveny — Sat, 21 Jun 2025 12:25:00 GMT

WILLMAR — Agriculture continued to receive bipartisan support in the state legislature, leading Minnesota Department of Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen to offer an upbeat assessment of the recent legislative session.

With a split Legislature —101 DFL’ers and 100 Republicans — the session went about as well as Petersen believed it could, he told an audience that filled the Life Sciences auditorium of the MinnWest Technology Campus in Willmar, where the annual Partners in Ag Innovation conference was conducted Tuesday.

The agriculture bill was the first approved, Petersen said, and it addressed priority issues for agriculture.

The Legislature approved replenishing the emergency account for responding to the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak affecting the state’s poultry and dairy industries, according to the commissioner.

The agriculture bill included funding for the development of 100 weather station sites across the state, an initiative supported by the state’s corn growers, according to the commissioner.

The new legislation continues to offer incentives for the development of the sustainable aviation fuel industry in Minnesota, but some of what Petersen termed the “bigger pieces,” or tax credits, were dropped out of the final bill.

The commissioner is optimistic about the state’s prospects for becoming a leading producer of plant-based fuel for the aviation industry. “We’re right on the cusp of getting this,” he said.

Petersen said he expects that corn will initially be the primary feedstock for the fuel production, as development continues on other possible crops. Minnesota raises corn on roughly 8 million acres, making it the state’s largest crop.

“Corn is going to be in the mix,” Petersen said.

The University of Minnesota’s Forever Green Initiative has been researching the use of winter camelina and pennycress as potential feedstocks for sustainable aviation fuel.

The Legislature approved continuing to provide grant funds to help retail service stations install the infrastructure for E15 and higher ethanol blends.

Petersen also pointed to continued state support for developing more small meat processing operations across the state. Minnesota livestock producers were among the hardest hit when the COVID pandemic led to closures and cutbacks in production at large meat processors.

At one point, pork producers in the state had 30,000 hogs a day backing up with no place to deliver the animals for processing, he pointed out.

In response, the state has helped support meat processing programs at post-secondary educational facilities, including Ridgewater College. The Minnesota Farmers Union recently opened a meat processing plant in Staples where students will be able to train, added the commissioner.

Petersen also cited the importance of work to help young people get into farming.

“Fifty percent of the farmland in Minnesota is going to change hands in the next 20 years,” he said.

The commissioner would like to see more funding for the beginning farmer tax credit. Funding for it was decreased while eligibility for the tax credit it provides on land and equipment purchases was expanded to allow more participants. As a result, the department is now only able to fund 62% of the requests for the credit, according to the commissioner.

Petersen said the state is one of the few actually adding farms. The new farmers are people raising livestock and produce for local markets.

They are typically operating in areas such as his home county of Pine, where there is access to smaller parcels of land that are more affordable. In locations such as Kandiyohi County, it’s virtually impossible to start a 1,000-acre operation unless taking over as part of a family operation, he said.

Asked about the situation for undocumented workers, Petersen said he is regularly taking calls from large entities — everything from landscapers and horse racing tracks to dairy and pork producers — concerned about it. He said the Agriculture Department is working with the Attorney General’s Office on the issues.

Most of the foreign workers in Minnesota are here under the H-2A visa program, which allows for temporary employment.

“Many of these workers come every year, same families, farms, businesses. Very important for our whole sector,” said the commissioner.

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Mothballed: Without federal funds, state cancels spongy moth treatments

Jimmy Lovrien — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 23:30:10 GMT

DULUTH — Plans to spray for spongy moths in five Minnesota counties, including three in the Northland, have been scrapped after the federal funding for the aerial treatments didn't come through.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture said it planned to spray more than 2,700 acres throughout St. Louis, Carlton, Itasca, Anoka and Winona counties this spring, striking in the short period in the invasive insect's lifespan when the bacterial insecticide is effective against it.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service's Slow the Spread program funded such work for decades, reducing the moth's spread by 60% and treating more than 1 million acres. But the state agency said it has not received the money it needs in time to carry out this spring's aerial assault.

The agency planned to spray Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki, or Btk, a naturally occurring soil bacteria that kills gypsy moth caterpillars feeding on canopy foliage. Btk is nontoxic to people, bees, pets and other animals.

“Having to cancel Btk aerial management operations in these areas jeopardizes the future success of this program," Minnesota Department of Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen said in a news release. "Spongy moth populations in these areas will likely increase and advance quicker into neighboring areas, making future years of management more complicated and costly."

The USDA and Forest Service did not immediately respond to the News Tribune's request for comment Tuesday evening.

The state agency said it still plans to aerially apply a mating disruption pheromone to stop the moths from reproducing on 112,000 acres across Minnesota and conduct its annual spongy moth population survey, but both those rely on federal funding, too.

"Overall, federal funding for these strategies is still uncertain; however, the MDA has been assured to receive initial funding for the spongy moth survey," the agency said in a news release. "It is still unknown if federal funds to perform aerial mating disruption operations will be distributed in 2025."

The agency said it may need to put temporary quarantines in place to prevent spongy moths hitchhiking on woody tree material from leaving the area.

Formerly called gypsy moths, the spongy moths are native to Europe and are considered a major problem for North American trees because they have few natural enemies here and can overwhelm patches of forest, defoliating trees quickly. They will munch on more than 300 species of trees and bushes, including aspen, birch and oak.

Spongy moths first came to the eastern U.S. from Europe in the 1860s, arriving by ship, and have been expanding ever since. They travel slowly on their own but have ridden west as egg clusters on cars, trucks, trains, trailers and campers. They have been in eastern Wisconsin since the 1970s and have now spread across the entire state and into eastern Minnesota.

The moth does its damage when it's in its caterpillar stage. Forest health experts say the moths can't be stopped. But their westward movement can be slowed, and outbreaks can be kept smaller, with annual aerial spraying efforts where the largest concentrations of moths are located.

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About $185 million in federal grant funding disrupted, Minnesota budget office reports

Mary Murphy — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 11:09:00 GMT

ST. PAUL — Federal funding was disrupted for 28 state grants in Minnesota, according to a March 10 report from Minnesota Management and Budget.

Minnesota government agencies identified 28 federally funded grants that were delayed, frozen or inaccessible as of March 10, the Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) agency reported Friday, March 14. MMB shared a list of the disrupted grants, which total roughly $185 million, in an unofficial report to Forum News Service.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety reported 20 federal grant disruptions, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) cited four and the Department of Agriculture and Department of Commerce reported two affected grants each.

Natural resources

The Minnesota DNR reported a total of roughly $6 million in grants that are identified as "on hold” in the Automated System for Award Payments, or ASAP.

This includes grants directed toward peatland restoration in Red Lake, a Roseau River juneberry project, nature-based solutions in the prairie wetlands and for the National Fish Passage program in the Otter Tail River.

Agriculture

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture reported about $20 million in grant disruptions. One grant — $12 million for the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Cooperative Agreement, which invests in locally and regionally produced food — is identified as not “appearing” in the ASAP system.

Payments have reportedly been halted for a $8 million Department of Agriculture grant for the Local Food Purchase Assistance program, according to the MMB report.

Public safety

The Department of Public Safety reported 20 grants, totaling around $81 million, being unavailable due to the grant payment system, PARS, experiencing “system challenges.” The affected grants include funding for homeland security, disaster assistance, flood mitigation and cyber security.

Commerce

The largest item on the list is a $76 million Weather Assistance Program grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to the Minnesota Department of Commerce. Funds for the grant, which aims to reduce energy costs for low-income households, are accessible but payments are delayed, the commerce department reported.

Commerce also reported to MMB that a $1 million Government to Government grant was not appearing in ASAP.

Ahna Minge, assistant commissioner for budget services and state budget director for MMB, said some of the grant disruptions are traceable to specific executive orders from President Donald Trump, while other disruptions are currently unexplained.

The funding disruption list from MMB reflects reported disruptions as of March 10.

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Public input sought on draft Minnesota aquaculture plan

Echo Press staff report — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 22:01:30 GMT

ALEXANDRIA — The Minnesota Department of Agriculture is seeking input on a draft state aquaculture plan. Comments are being accepted now through Dec. 18.

Minnesota recognizes aquaculture, which is the practice of privately raising fish or other aquatic life, as agriculture. At its peak in 2005, the direct revenue associated with aquaculture in the state exceeded $8 million.

The state’s draft plan assesses the current state of the aquaculture industry in Minnesota and provides sector analysis. Sectors include fish for food, bait fish, stocker fish, and ornamentals. It also provides top priorities and recommendations in the areas of marketing, leadership, permitting and regulations, research, policy, production methods, government programming, and future planning.

The draft plan can be found at www.mnaquaplan.com, and comments can be made on the website or emailed to Luke Jodoin at luke@steamboatroad.com.

Once public comments are evaluated, the finalized plan will be presented to the Minnesota Legislature in February 2025.

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Grants available to assist with sustainable agricultural research

Pioneer Staff Report — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 22:01:57 GMT

ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Department of Agriculture is now accepting applications for grants to support innovative sustainability-focused research or demonstration projects on Minnesota farms.

The Agricultural Growth, Research and Innovation Sustainable Agriculture Demonstration Grant funds projects that explore the energy efficiency, environmental benefit and profitability of sustainable agricultural techniques, from the production through marketing processes, a release said.

Minnesota farmers or individuals from organizations including agricultural cooperatives, educational institutions, nonprofits, tribal government and local units of government (such as Soil and Water Conservation Districts) are eligible to apply.

Eligible projects must test and demonstrate on-farm practices that will benefit a broad range of farmers. Past grants have explored topics such as cover crops and crop rotation; conservation tillage; pest management techniques; input reduction strategies; and alternative energies such as wind, methane and biomass, explained the release.

Projects must last two to three years, and grantees are asked to share what they learn through outreach efforts. Project updates are published annually in the MDA’s Greenbook, which provides a summary of each project along with results, management tips, locations of previous projects and other resources.

The MDA will award approximately $350,000 in this round of grant funding, and applicants may request up to $50,000 per project. No cash match is required for requests below $25,000. However, for requests between $25,000 and $50,000, applicants must provide a dollar-for-dollar match.

Funding for this grant is made available through the MDA’s AGRI Program, which administers grants to farmers, agribusinesses, schools and more throughout Minnesota to advance the state’s agricultural and renewable energy sectors.

The MDA is accepting applications through 4 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 12.

For more information and to apply, visit the MDA's AGRI grant webpage.

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University of Minnesota Extension to host agritourism business workshops

Pioneer Staff Report — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 16:56:51 GMT

BEMIDJI — The University of Minnesota Extension will present a series of business planning workshops on agritourism, both online and in-person across the state, through February 2025.

The first workshop will be held online at 2 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 18.

"Want to add value to your current farming operation, but not sure where to begin?" a release asked. "Or perhaps you’re new to farming, but have an awesome idea of how to connect the public with food production?"

In these workshops, attendees will learn about agritourism, the intersection of farming and tourism. Participants will learn the steps to writing a useful and effective business plan and discover how AgPlan, an online business planning software, can give tips and examples to make the writing process easier.

"To run a successful and profitable business, it is critical that a person understand, implement and value the process of effective business planning and this workshop will get you started or jump start your existing plan," Susanne Hinrichs, educator with the Agricultural Business Management team at University of Minnesota Extension, said in the release.

The next webinar is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 28. An in-person workshop will be held at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 5, at the Crow Wing County Land Services Building in Brainerd.

This is a free program. To register or find out more about upcoming workshops, go to z.umn.edu/agritourism.

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Kenny's Tire and Auto Repair receives $199,000 Biofuels Infrastructure grant

Pioneer Staff Report — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 14:30:00 GMT

BEMIDJI — Kenny's Tire and Auto Repair recently received a $199,000 Biofuels Infrastructure grant from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to increase access to and sales of motor fuel blends containing at least 15% ethanol.

A total of 16 retail service stations across Minnesota were awarded over $3 million in one-time funds through a competitive review process.

"With the EPA’s recent decision to allow year-round E15 sales for 2024 and beyond, the MDA is pleased to partner with these service stations to expand access to this lower-cost, cleaner fuel alternative at the pump for Minnesotans while supporting our state’s agricultural community," Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen said in a release.

Grant funds can be used to cover costs associated with the replacement or upgrading of current station equipment so it can be certified as compatible with E25 or higher motor fuel blends. To be eligible, grantees must be retail petroleum dispensers in Minnesota with no more than 10 sites.

To view the complete list of awardees, past projects and more information on the Biofuels Infrastructure Grant, visit the MDA website.

Funding for this program is made available through Minnesota Corn and the Agricultural Growth, Research, and Innovation program, which administers grants to farmers, agribusinesses, schools and more throughout the state of Minnesota to advance the state’s agricultural and renewable energy sectors.

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Speed dating for Farm to �� connections

Noah Fish — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 13:00:00 GMT

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Across the state, Minnesota farmers looking to expand market opportunities, and school and early care providers who want to incorporate more locally grown foods in their meal programs are meeting face-to-face to see if there's a connection to be made.

Those relationships are being built at Minnesota Farm to �� Roadshows, which are free and organized by Renewing the Countryside, Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Minnesota Department of Education and University of Minnesota Extension.

The second of six Minnesota Farm to �� Roadshows was held at the University of Minnesota Extension office in Rochester on Feb. 7. Attendees left the roadshow with a supply and demand spreadsheet along with a list of other resources.

Brett Olson, co-founder of Renewing the Countryside, described the roadshows as a form of "speed-dating" for local producers and institutions.

"The method that we use here is kind of like a speed-dating model, where you get to talk to someone face-to-face for a very short amount of time, and give them a little bit of your history, what you produce, and maybe something special that you do," Olson said.

Things that could be overheard during the Feb. 7 event were school district employees asking farmers questions like "What products do you grow?" and "Can you deliver?"

Farmers asked buyers things like "Who does the ordering?" and "What are your kitchen capabilities?"

Kate Seybold is the Farm to Institution Coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. She said the roadshows offer a chance for producers to form relationships with school districts and early care providers.

"We've heard from both producers and schools that there's a lot of value in just being able to make those initial connections in-person, in the same room, and so we wanted to create a space for people to come together and make those connections," Seybold said. "While we're at it, let's give them some training on how to build effective relationships and help kind of talk the same language."

Several of the buyers' representatives in the room on Feb. 7 were recipients of the state's AGRI Farm to �� Grant program. Seybold said the department is hearing success stories from those grants, including one district which started by working with two local producers and is now working with 14 producers.

"Another district shared that they were working with five local producers last year, and are now purchasing from 27 this year," she said. "The purpose of that grant program is to help increase the amount of Minnesota grown and raised foods that are making their way into federal meal programs in schools and early cares, and to be providing support to our Minnesota producers."

Sara George is the farmer-focused program manager for Renewing the Countryside along with the operator of a small farm in Pepin, Wisconsin. She said sometimes it's hard for producers to know the right contact for getting their products into institutions like schools.

"The schools don't have capacity to have contact with all the farmers, and the farmers don't have capacity to leave the farm, and they're really not sure who to reach out to at the school — sometimes it's the food service director, sometimes it's the principal or the superintendent that's pushing these initiatives," George said.

She said farmers can be intimidated to work with a school that has hundreds or thousands of kids to feed daily, but they shouldn't be.

"You don't have to feed all thousand students, and maybe it's one meal a month," she said. "Or maybe it's in the salad bar, where they're utilizing the food."

After surveying 36 different institutions, George shared the top five obstacles that buyers of local foods face: connecting with farmers, consistency, reliability, delivery and pricing. She was surprised to find out that many of the institutions didn't know it was allowed for them to purchase directly from a farm.

"Twenty-six of the 36 institutions I spoke to stated that they didn't know you can buy from local farms," George said. "If you take nothing else from today, product of the farm is legal. Farmers grow local foods. That's where food comes from."

For farmers, the top obstacles were: relationship development, quantities, time away from the farm, pricing uncertainties and marketing limitations.

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White farmer sues Minnesota, alleging racial discrimination over grant program

Noah Fish — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 21:07:35 GMT

BELTRAMI COUNTY, Minn. — A northern Minnesota farmer is suing the governor of Minnesota and the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture for racial discrimination.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court, Lance Nistler, of Beltrami County — who is white — argues that his denied application for the Minnesota Down Payment Assistance Grant program was a violation of his civil rights.

According to the lawsuit, Nistler applied for the grant program, which awards qualified farmers with up to $15,000 in grant funding to help them purchase their first farm, in July of last year.

"When Nistler heard of the program, he saw his chance to make his dream a reality and applied for the latest round of grants," the lawsuit reads. "Despite Nistler being the model individual the state ought to be assisting with farm ownership, and despite being one of the first applications picked in the lottery, he lacked the state’s preferred skin color and sex. His application was pushed to the back of the line, solely because of his race and sex."

Instructions on the grant program application state that preference would be given to emerging farmers, which are classified as "farmers, or aspiring farmers, who are women, veterans, persons with disabilities, American Indian or Alaskan Natives, members of a community of color, young, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, or asexual (LGBTQIA+), or urban, and any other emerging farmers as determined by the commissioner.”

A spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture said they can't comment on active legal cases, but the Down Payment Assistance Grant program is continuing as usual at this time.

Emerging Farmers background

According to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, fewer than 2% of Minnesota’s 111,000 farmers are people of color.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture's Emerging Farmers Office was created by the Legislature in 2021, as a way to help diversify the agriculture industry in the state. Emerging farmers are defined as a group that has been historically excluded from traditional government assistance programs, and those without connections to existing commodity farms.

Participants in listening sessions with the Emerging Farmers Working Group cited access to capital, discrimination, land availability and land prices as barriers to starting their own operations.

Lance Nistler

Nistler said the farm he's looking to purchase one day is now owned by his father, where small grains are raised on 800-1,000 acres. He said he worked on the farm while growing up, when it was a dairy operation.

Nistler, who works as a field service technician for Westinghouse Electric Company, said he recently decreased his hours at that job to make more room in his life for farming.

"To become more available to the farm, so I'm here during all the planting and in the summer months," he said. "And then try to be here through all of the harvest as much as possible."

He said in the last couple years, he's gotten "a lot more involved" with the farming operation.

"It's something I really enjoy doing," Nistler said. "I'm trying to ultimately just be a full-time farmer."

He is the only sibling in his family who has interest in taking over the farm, he said.

"I'm really the only, out of all the other siblings, that have been related directly to the operations of the farm," he said.

But his parents aren't able to pass the farm on to him without charging a steep price.

"This is their retirement, so it's not going to be given away," he said.

When applying for the grant assistance program, Nistler said he considered himself to fall into the category of emerging farmer.

"I felt like I was, or should have been considered as one," he said. "My chances were limited just because of my color of my skin and the gender that I am."

Asked if he's ever felt that way before, Nistler said no.

"Life isn't fair, but like specifically because of the color of my skin? No," he said.

Andrew Quinio is an attorney listed on the lawsuit, who said the grant assistance program that Nistler applied for is "fundamentally discriminatory" because it disadvantages farmers based on race.

"If you're a white, male farmer like Lance, you do not get the eligibility preference for these down payment assistance grants," Quinio said.

Quinio said the program application should have included at least one question regarding if an applicant had ever felt mistreated or discriminated against because of their skin or gender in the past.

"If this is a program intended to address specific instances of discrimination, which is supposed to be the intent if you're going to use race, then the application should at the very least ask to name an instance where you have been discriminated against," he said.

"I think this lawsuit addresses this really improper use of race as a stereotype. The idea that because of your skin color, the state is going to make certain assumptions about you, and it's going to assume that you are disadvantaged or advantaged, such that it will provide you with a down payment assistance grant or withhold one from you."

Quinio said this isn't the first time the Pacific Legal Foundation has taken on a lawsuit like Nistler's. He said there were several lawsuits during the COVID-19 pandemic regarding loan forgiveness programs.

"Pacific Legal represented several farmers in reversing those through legal challenges," he said. "There have been a variety of COVID relief grants that were also race-based in different parts of the country."

"This is something that we've definitely taken on, and that we've had a history of taking on," Quinio said.

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Despite drought, U.S. corn farmers marked record harvest in 2023

Christopher Vondracek / Star Tribune — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 19:00:00 GMT

Another wacky weather year failed to break corn growers' collective stride in Minnesota, where farmers put 1.51 billion bushels in bins for a 4% increase from 2022.

Nationwide, 2023's harvest turned out to be a corn coronation, as the farmers saw a record harvest of 177.3 bushels per acre, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report released this month.

In Minnesota, a wet spring that delayed planting gave way to scorching sun in June and little water through the State Fair. According to a separate report from the USDA, by Jan. 1 of this year, roughly 30% of the state's topsoil remained "short" or "very short" of moisture.

Still, Minnesota farmers planted some 690,000 more acres of corn than 2022, while silage volumes dropped by 33%. Overall, that equals about 8.6 million acres of planted corn across the state.

"We did have about 10 bushels an acre less than last year," said Dana Allen-Tully, president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association and an Eyota dairy farmer. "I think there was maybe more areas impacted by drought, but it was so spotty."

Sugar beets also saw a record-breaking haul, piling up 12.6 million tons, an increase of 13% from the prior year. The state's wheat farmers also planted more acres in 2023, harvesting 78 million tons in total.

But the state's soybean harvest — Minnesota's second biggest crop — came in lower than previous years, down 5% from 2022 to 349 million bushels.

Commodity prices were softer in 2023 than those years in and immediately following the pandemic. While corn farmers across the country took in an average of $6 a bushel on corn in 2022, they'll now earn an average price of $4.80, according to the USDA's 2023-2024 January projections.

Heading into the new year, farmers might be more frugal about big-ticket equipment purchases, given the moderate prices.

"We're OK as an industry," Allen-Tully said. "But I think we're going to tighten our belt this year."

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