In this Edition
Capitol Corner- State
- Bills and Policy Proposals Heard in Committee the Week of March 11 to 15
- Bill Would Transfer Vast Tract of Minnesota-owned Woodlands Back to White Earth Tribe
Capitol Corner - Federal
- Biden Signs Key Government Funding Bills into Law Averting Shutdown
- Senate GOP Says Adding Conservation Funds to Farm Bill Strengthens Baseline
Industry Related News
- Strategic Farming: Let's Talk Crops Focused on Getting Your Best Fertilizer ROI
- Mess Around Factory Farms and Water Quality in Minnesota is Only Getting Worse
- Nine Delistings Tied to Conservation Work Backed by Clean Water Funds
- Understand How EPA’s Proposed Herbicide Strategy will Impact use Moving Forward
- Oversized US Corn Crop Responsible for Swell in Global Supplies
- 7 Technology Trends Ag Retailers Need To Know
- Climate and Tech Expected to Affect Ag Most This Year
- US Ag Exports Shrinking: Officials Search for Answers Amid $20 Billion Deficit
Partner News/Announcements
- New Office of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Within EPA Announced
|
|
Bills and Policy Proposals Heard in Committee the Week of March 11 to 15
3/11/2024 MN Water Policy Subcommittee Meeting
3/12/2024 – House Ag Committee
-
HF 4699 (Pursell) Pesticide provisions amended. (This is MDA’s bill.)
- Adds this section: Specifies that for purposes of Minnesota Statutes, chapter 18B (Pesticide Control), application or use of a pesticide includes the dispersal of a pesticide, preapplication activities that involve the mixing or loading of a RUP, and other RUP-related activities including but not limited to transporting and storing opened containers, cleaning equipment, and disposing of excess pesticide and materials that contain pesticide
- The remainder of the bill appears to be mostly clean-up language to better align state policy with federal requirements.
-
Click Here for the House Research Bill Summary
3/14/2024 – Senate Ag Committee
-
SF 4391 Kupec Fertilizer definitions modifications.
-
SF 4223 Seeberger Pesticide products discontinuation and cancellation provisions modifications.
-
SF 424 Putnam Pesticides provisions modifications. (Companion to HF 4699)
-
SF 4011 Putnam Sustainable aviation fuel definition amendment provision
3/14 – Senate State and Local Government and Veterans
-
S.F. 3719 (Putnam) Minnesota Agricultural Fertilizer Research and Education Council extension and agricultural fertilizer research and education account fee creation. (The bill passed committee and was referred to the Senate Finance Committee.)
3/14/2024 – House Ag Committee
-
HF 4110 (Hemmingsen-Jaeger) Commercial applicator license core examination materials are required to be provided in Spanish.
-
HF 4625 (Hansen, R) Report on state agency nitrogen fertilizer purchases required and reduction goal established. This applies to state agencies and adds a goal to reduce state agency use of nitrogen fertilizer by 25% by 2030. (Currently, the proposal is limited to state agencies, but it is worth keeping an eye on this may become an incremental step towards setting statewide nitrogen fertilizer reduction goals.)
Proposed Fertilizer Fee Increases
-
HF 4135 (Hansen) was scheduled to be heard in the House Environment Committee on 3/12/2024. That bill was removed from the agenda. The ag community has expressed strong opposition to the bill. This bill has been scheduled for 3/19, but the discussion will be limited to section 14, which addresses analyzing PFAS in municipal wastewater biosolids.
|
|
Bill Would Transfer Vast Tract of Minnesota-owned Woodlands Back to White Earth Tribe
The proposal would change ownership of portions of the White Earth State Forest within the band's reservation boundaries.
A Minnesota state forest that spans three northwestern counties would be transferred to the White Earth Band of Ojibwe under a bill introduced by two Twin Cities lawmakers.
State Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, and Rep. Aisha Gomez, DFL-Minneapolis, put forward a bill that would give state-owned portions of the 160,000-acre White Earth State Forest to the tribe by 2029. The proposal would also give the White Earth Band the right of first refusal to buy any tax-forfeited land in the forest.
"This is an acknowledgment of White Earth Nation's sovereignty and their inherent right to manage their lands as best they see fit," said Kunesh, a Standing Rock Lakota descendant.
Related Bills
-
SF3480 / HF4304 Requiring transfer of White Earth State Forest land to White Earth Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. The bill was heard on 3/7 in the MN Senate Committee on Environment, Climate, and Legacy.
-
SF3557 / HF3434: Tax-forfeited land that includes land within the boundary of and Indian reservation to be offered to affected bands before being offered to other parties requirement. This bill was heard on 3/14 in the MN Senate Committee on Environment, Climate, and Legacy
|
|
Biden Signs Key Government Funding Bills into Law Averting Shutdown
President Joe Biden signed a package of six government funding bills into law Saturday, a day after lawmakers raced to fund critical government departments and agencies through the remainder of the fiscal year.
The spending bills – backed by the top Democrats and Republicans in both chambers – represent a major breakthrough for lawmakers after months of using stopgap bills to avert shutdowns at the eleventh hour and a race to get the latest measure across the finish line ahead of the Friday night deadline.
The White House thanked top congressional lawmakers from both parties “for their leadership” in getting the bills to the president’s desk.
|
|
Senate GOP Says Adding Conservation Funds to Farm Bill Strengthens Baseline
An analysis from Senate Agriculture Committee’s GOP staff says including the Inflation Reduction Act’s conservation funding in the next farm bill could provide a boost to its baseline over time.
There’s $13 billion available in conservation funding and Senate Ag Committee Ranking Member John Boozman tells Brownfield “I think we could capture most of it.”
Boozman says lawmakers are willing to put guardrails around the money to keep it in the conservation title of the farm bill.
|
|
Strategic Farming: Let's Talk Crops Focused on Getting Your Best Fertilizer ROI
Phyllis Bongard, Extension content development and communications specialist, Dan Kaiser, Extension nutrient management specialist, and Jeff Vetsch, Researcher, Southern Research and Outreach Center
Dry conditions and the winter that wasn’t is accelerating nutrient management decisions. Should fertilizer be applied now? How can you get the best return on your fertilizer investment given current prices and costs? Ryan Miller, Extension educator – crops, steered this wide-ranging discussion with Dan Kaiser, Extension nutrient management specialist, and Jeff Vetsch, Researcher at the Southern Research and Outreach Center, to address these and other nutrient management questions in the March 6 Strategic Farming: Let’s talk crops session.
|
|
Mess Around Factory Farms and Water Quality in Minnesota is Only Getting Worse (Star Tribune - Opinion Exchange)
Factory farm water pollution has made headlines in Minnesota for months. Unfortunately, things are moving in the wrong direction. The latest U.S. Department of Agriculture's twice-a-decade census of agriculture, released in February, finds that Minnesota's factory farms are raising more animals than ever before. Much of that manure ends up in the water, exacerbating the state's clean water woes.
|
|
Nine Delistings Tied to Conservation Work Backed by Clean Water Funds
Thirty-three percent of sales tax revenue from the Legacy Amendment, which Minnesota voters passed in 2008, is allocated to the Clean Water Fund. Clean Water Funds may only be spent to protect, enhance or restore water quality in lakes, rivers and streams, and to protect groundwater.
Clean Water Funds from the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources supported conservation work that contributed to seven lakes, one river reach and one stream segment’s proposed removal from the state’s impaired waters list. Those nine water bodies are among 27 slated for delisting this year.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approval finalizes that status.
|
|
Understand How EPA’s Proposed Herbicide Strategy will Impact use Moving Forward
Whether you are a private applicator and apply your own herbicides or utilize custom applicators, complex changes to labels and recordkeeping will alter how, when, and where herbicides can be applied.
Last July, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its draft herbicide strategy, which proposed mitigations for more than 900 species and critical habitats. The mitigations are designed to reduce the potential impact of herbicides to comply with the Endangered Species Act (ESA). EPA received over 20,000 comments on the proposed herbicide strategy.
|
|
Oversized US Corn Crop Responsible for Swell in Global Supplies
NAPERVILLE, Illinois, March 1 (Reuters) - Global corn stockpiles are set to reach five-year highs later in 2024, undergoing their largest annual expansion in seven years. But the United States’ contribution to that growth is much larger than normal after a record harvest last summer.
That would usually spur a bit more U.S. demand than is currently projected for 2023-24, though ample supplies in rival exporters have cut into U.S. market dominance, suggesting last year’s huge U.S. corn acreage was excessive.
|
|
7 Technology Trends Ag Retailers Need To Know
These smart farming trends and example products highlight greater efficiency, maximum yields and environmental stewardship.
- Selective Spraying
- Data Analytics
- More Connectivity
- Prescription Inputs
- Streamlined Ways To Do Business
- Gene-Edited Crops
- Fields and Plants That Talk
|
|
Climate and Tech Expected to Affect Ag Most This Year
Every year before the ball drops in Times Square, it seems everyone wants to pull out a crystal ball and prophesize what the new year will bring. And the ag industry loves a good prophet.
Before 2023 became history, Forbes Magazine took its shot at predicting agriculture’s highlights for 2024. So before Father Time turns the predictions stale, I thought it might be insightful, or at least entertaining, to provide some color commentary on the article, which focused on the following five areas where change in agriculture could be the greatest.
- Farmland Holds the Key to Carbon Management
- Alternative Proteins Will Recover From Their Sophomore Slump
- Forget Counting Calories. Count Carbon
- Technology Will Make Ag More Hip and Exciting
- Capital Investment in Ag Will Be Even More Deliberate and Disciplined
|
|
US Ag Exports Shrinking: Officials Search for Answers Amid $20 Billion Deficit
For the first time in a decade, the United States is experiencing an ag trade deficit after exporting $20 billion less than it imported in 2023. The USDA anticipates a $30 billion deficit in 2024.
|
|
|
|
Partner News/
Announcements
|
|
New Office of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Within EPA Announced
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched the Office of Agriculture and Rural Affairs to enhance engagement with agricultural and rural communities. The initiative aims to involve farmers and ranchers in environmental efforts while supporting small towns. “With the launch of this new office, we are ensuring agricultural and rural stakeholders will continue to have a seat at the table for many years to come,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said in a press release.
|
|
Follow MCPR on Social Media! |
|
Are you following MCPR on social media? Make sure you like and follow us so you don't miss out on events, what's happening with our members and the latest news impacting Minnesota’s agricultural retail sector!
Does your organization or company have news or a press release that you would like to share with the MCPR’s membership? If so, please contact MCPR - lee@mcpr-cca.org.
|
|
Minnesota Crop Production Retailers | P: 763.235.6466
www.mcpr-cca.org
601 Carlson Parkway, Ste 450, Minnetonka, MN 55305
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
