LSP members gather in St. Paul
By Janet Kubat Willette
jkubat@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 03/03/2011 10:10 AM
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ST. PAUL — The banter of conversation filled the basement at Christ Lutheran Church in St. Paul when Land Stewardship Project members gathered for the annual Family Farm Breakfast.
The breakfast, held Feb. 15, drew more than 300 people, including 50 legislators. About 50 people stayed in St. Paul to lobby legislators after breakfast.
Several people addressed the crowd, including Matthew Wohlman, Minnesota Department of Agriculture assistant commissioner, Dean Allen Levine of the University of Minnesota College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, Jim Falk, a member of the LSP public policy committee, and beginning farmers enrolled in the Farm Beginnings program.
Falk, a fourth generation farmer from Murdock, praised the direct-from-the-farm breakfast that included eggs, bacon, oatmeal and baked goods.
LSP supports the local foods movement, Falk said.
He talked about the permitting process, saying LSP is looking for a fair process that protects the environment. LSP has always stood for local control and democracy, he said.
Falk said the LSP focuses on the rights of the communities to have input on proposed developments. Developers shouldn't be the only ones allowed to have input on a project, he said.
Bills HF1 and SF42 are part of the majority party's objective to make the state more business friendly, Falk said. They want to put business first and people second, he added.
Falk said local input makes proposed projects better. Interim ordinances and temporary moratoriums allow communities time to do research and study if a proposed project is a good one.
The state has a permit process for a reason, he said. Speeding up the process for the sake of speed isn't necessarily a good fit for public participation.
"It's important that the process take its course because the process is important," Falk said.
Developers are focused on the bottom line, he said, and unless they understand that they are expected to be the best neighbor they can be, they won't be and the project won't be as good as it can be.
LSP also opposes HF389 and SF270, bills that deal with zoning planning ordinances and municipal development.
Besides talking to lawmakers about permitting, LSP members discussed beginning farmers. The organization supports tax credits for landowners who rent or sell their land to farmers who are trying to get established.
Falk said the state is losing farmers at an alarming rate and the size of farm operations continues to grow. From a societal standpoint, bigger isn't always better, he said. As farms grow larger, rural communities are depopulated. It makes better sense to have more farmers on the land with more smaller livestock operations.
In a later meeting with Rep. Rod Hamilton, R-Mountain Lake, LSP lobbyist and Wabasso farmer Paul Sobocinski thanked Hamilton for agreeing to sponsor the beginning farmer bill. The bill has not yet been introduced.
Le Sueur farmer Tom Nuessmeier, who raises hogs and crops, talked about the importance of having access to capital.
Hamilton said it's important to have opportunities for young people in rural communities. It's important to expose non-farm youth to agriculture and possible career options. It's also important to have opportunities that encourage graduates to come back to rural communities after college.
The rural population is aging and a community needs people of all ages to be successful, Sobocinski said.
"Never has there been more opportunity in agriculture than there is today," Hamilton said.
Back at the breakfast, Levine talked about the importance of public funding for university research.
The U.S. House has proposed cutting USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture spending in its House File 1. NIFA works primarily with land grant institutions. It funds research and education. The proposed cuts would impact Extension and 4-H.
At the state level, Gov. Mark Dayton's budget funds the ag special at $85.7 million over the biennium, a decrease of $12.2 million from the current biennium, and a decrease of more than $27 million from 2002-03.
If university funding is cut deeply, the university won't be able to continue the research it's doing, Levine said. Similarly, he doesn't have the money to replace people who leave the university.
Commodity groups have stepped up to provide some funding for research and people, but the public component is critical, he said.
He cited research by Philip Pardey, a professor in the University of Minnesota Department of Applied Economics and director of the U of M International Science and Technology Practice and Policy Center. Pardey's research says that agricultural research and development is critical to growth in agricultural productivity, Levine said.
He encouraged people to tell their congresspeople to oppose cuts to NIFA funding.