Tag: Minnesota farmers

Minnesota Farmers Sound Off on Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Jason Lewis’ Past Comments That We Should Let Farms Fail

Agriculture Community Upset by Former Congressman’s Claim that America has “Glamorized” Farming

SAINT PAUL, MN — After the Star Tribune shared previously unreported comments made by Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Jason Lewis on farming — including that America has “glamorized” farming and saying that it was “naive” for members of Congress to run on “not one more farm going under” — Minnesota farmers and members of the agriculture community are rightfully outraged. Lewis suggested that we should let farms fail and that the government should not try to help them stay afloat during rough times.

Jason Lewis was part of a public access television show called Face-to-Face. On the show, Lewis also said that “it’s amazing how we hold these commodities up as though they’re gold or God,” and that “the government shouldn’t have anything to do with farming.”

Minnesota farmers are speaking out:

Continue reading “Minnesota Farmers Sound Off on Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Jason Lewis’ Past Comments That We Should Let Farms Fail”

Walz signs bill aiding Minnesota farmers facing foreclosure

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA (AP) — Gov. Tim Walz has signed a bill that stops farm foreclosures until Dec. 1 for farmers struggling with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic who elect to take part in creditor mediation.

Minnesota’s Farmer-Lender Mediation Act requires any creditor foreclosing on agricultural debt of $15,000 or more to provide the debtor a legal notice of their right to a neutral state mediator. The law normally provides for 90 days to reach agreement. But the legislation that unanimously passed the House and Senate last week and was signed Monday temporarily extends the deadline to 150 days or Dec. 1, whichever is later.

Rep. Todd Lippert, of Northfield, says his bill is meant to help farmers stay on the farm as they face packing plant and ethanol plant shutdowns, low milk prices and the need to euthanize hogs and poultry.

Minnesota farm bankruptcies increased 15% in 2019

Says Adam Belz in the Strib, “Farm bankruptcies in Minnesota and across the U.S. rose again in 2019, as a prolonged slump in commodity prices, poor weather and the ongoing trade war with China squeezed farmers. Last year, 30 farmers in Minnesota — a 15% increase — filed for Chapter 12 bankruptcy, which allows family farms to restructure their finances and avoid liquidation or foreclosure. Farm bankruptcies rose 20% nationally in 2019 and 16% in the Upper Midwest, according to data released by the federal court system.”

For MPR, Kirsti Marohn reports, “Cities, industries and some livestock farmers could pay more for water quality permit fees under a proposal by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The MPCA says revenue from the fees has not kept pace with its costs to administer the permits, which cover city and industrial stormwater and wastewater, septic systems and livestock feedlots. Most of the fees haven’t been raised in almost 25 years, said Katrina Kessler, assistant MPCA commissioner.”

For MPR, Robin McDowell writes, “Civil rights activists and legal experts challenged Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s claims that she was unaware of questionable evidence and police tactics used to send a young black teen to prison for life when she was a top Minneapolis prosecutor. … In an interview with ‘Fox News Sunday,’ Klobuchar denied that she had knowledge of any evidence that would call the conviction into question. But much of what The Associated Press found while investigating the case of Myon Burrell, now 33, would have been available to her office at the time.” Continue reading.

A Test on the Farm

Minnesota farmers struggling with low prices amid tariffs weigh their support for Trump.

OKABENA, MINNESOTA– The rain came first, drenching the fields and delaying planting. Then 70 mph wind knocked down half their corn. Chinese tariffs sank the price of soybeans. And if that weren’t enough, demand for corn dropped after Washington gave oil refineries a pass on using ethanol.

For Rachel and Lance Daberkow, poor weather compounded by President Donald Trump’s trade and fuel policies has meant cutting costs as income from their 640-acre farm dwindled over the past two years. Like some other growers around Minnesota struggling with an uncertain farm economy, their faith in a president who carried rural America four years ago is being tested.

As the father of two young boys, Lance Daberkow, 37, sees Trump at least trying to resolve long-standing trade problems with China. He believes farmers will benefit long term if Trump is re-elected. Continue reading.

Farmers Seize Innovation Opportunities

Prices for most ag products are linked to world markets, but Minnesota farmers say it’s possible to take advantage of market niches.

Long before businessman Dean Phillips became a congressman, he was sitting in Carolyn Olson’s farm home near Cottonwood, Minnesota, in 2008.

Olson, co-owner of Olson Organics and a self-described outgoing person, was talking with Phillips about her farming operation that’s located 140 miles southwest of Minneapolis.

“Like a good Lutheran, I made a Bundt cake,” Olson recalled Monday during a panel discussion at a Food Ag Ideas Week event in St. Paul. Over cake and conversation, she and Phillips made a connection. It led to Olson selling some of her grain that’s used in vodka production for Phillips Distilling Co.

View the complete October 14 article by Liz Fedor on The Twin Cities Business website here.

Trade war taking a toll in Minnesota

The major stock indices soared Thursday on word that the U.S. and China would hold high-level trade talks next month. Despite investors’ optimism, the Trump administration’s trade war with China has already hit Minnesota retailers and consumers.

A new round of tariffs took effect this week, and the prospect of further hikes has some Minnesota retailers on edge.

As of Sunday, a 15 percent charge began applying to $110 billion of mostly consumer goods imported from China. Trump has also announced that existing tariffs on another group of $250 billion of goods will go up to 30 percent next month.

View the complete September 5 article by Riham Fishir on the MPR News website here.

Del Monte Foods plans to close southern Minn. plant, affecting more than 360 workers

Del Monte Foods has told state officials it plans to close its peas and corn packing plant in Sleepy Eye, Minn.

The California-based company says layoffs of more than 360 employees will begin around Oct. 21 after the current packing season and last through the first half of 2020.

Del Monte says the action will affect 69 full-time and 294 seasonal employees. The Sleepy Eye facility was established in 1930.

View the complete August 20 article by the MPR News Staff and Nina Moini on the MPR News website here.

Minnesota farmer tears up while telling CNN how Trump’s ‘very scary’ trade war has harmed her family

AlterNet logoA farmer from Minnesota got emotional during a CNN interview on Thursday when she discussed how President Donald Trump’s trade war has done major harm to both her livelihood and her family.

Speaking with CNN’s Vandessa Yrukevich, farmer Cindy VanDerPol said that she doesn’t know how to tell her children that they should follow in her footsteps to run her family’s farm when the current market for crops is so bleak.

“It’s very scary,” she said. “And I sometimes stay up at night worrying about what the future does hold. You know, what do you tell your children that want to farm? Do you tell them go find something else to do? One of our sons already has.”

View the complete August 15 article by Brad Reed from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Left Behind

Washington Post logoFarmers fight to save their land in rural Minnesota as trade war intensifies

MONTGOMERY, Minn. — The feed chopper was the only machine Bob Krocak ever bought new, back when he was starting out as an ambitious young dairy farmer.

He used it to chop acres of alfalfa and corn to feed his herd of Holstein dairy cattle, which repaid him with some of the creamiest milk in Le Sueur County. The chopper and its fearsome blades lasted through four decades of cold winters, muddy springs and grueling harvests.

Now, on a chilly Saturday morning, Krocak, 64, was standing next to the chopper in the parking lot of Fahey Sales Auctioneers and Appraisers, trying to sell what he had always prized. The 128 Holsteins were already gone, sold last year when his family quit the dairy business after three unprofitable years.

View the complete August 3 article by Annie Gowen on The Washington Post website here.