2/27/06
The state legislative session begins March 1 and your help is essential to making it a success. This notice is to share with you the Land Stewardship Project’s two key priorities for this session and to tell you how you can help make sure that family farmers, rural communities and local democracy come out ahead.
Protecting local democracy
Last legislative session LSP defeated efforts to weaken township rights, but corporate ag interests are gearing up to try again this session. Now they have launched an intensive public relations campaign to weaken township democracy that even includes a series of advertisements running on WCCO television.
Minnesota has a heritage of strong local democracy. A key part of this is the right that townships have to create local ordinances to protect the community. Townships have used this right to enact ordinances that reflect community values, including support for family farms and a respect for the environment. Many townships have prohibited or put limits on factory farms.
But now big ag interests have created a front group to lead their campaign to weaken local democracy and bring more factory farms into Minnesota. With the feel-good name of “Minnesota Farm and Food Coalition,” this new group has close ties to the Minnesota Agri-Growth Council, the corporate ag group that has worked to weaken township rights and promote factory
farms. They have released a report that, without facts to back up the claim, blames local control for the challenges livestock farmers are facing. The report claims to be the result of broad input, yet ignores the issues of low prices, corporate concentration and rising land costs—some of the real issues that livestock farmers, especially beginning ones, are struggling with.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty is still determined to weaken local control. Gov. Pawlenty gave the state-of-the-state of agriculture address at the annual Agri-Growth Council meeting on Nov. 8. Costing $150 a person, this meeting was attended by a who’s who of the state’s largest corporate ag interests. Gov. Pawlenty spoke directly about wanting to limit the rights of townships
to enact local ordinances that apply to large feedlots. He made it clear that weakening township rights is still a priority for him.
Promoting family farms & sustainable livestock development
In 2004, LSP joined with MN National Farmers Organization, MN Farmers Union and the Sustainable Farming Association of MN to form the Citizen Task Force on Livestock Farmers and Rural Communities. Together we created a comprehensive report (http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/pr/04/newsr_041001.html)
on how Minnesota can promote livestock on family farms while respecting the environment and local democracy.
LSP will work to get these key recommendations from the Citizen Livestock Task Force report passed this session:
• Helping beginning farmers get access to land. LSP will work to pass a bill that will create a tax credit for established farmers who sell or rent land to a beginning farmer. This will help beginning farmers compete with corporate backed operations or real estate investors who are driving up the cost of land. Nebraska has a similar law that is working well.
• Creating the next generation of dairy farmers. Last year LSP worked to get legislation introduced (Senate File 296 and House File 1403) that provides beginning dairy farmers with payment incentives of $1 per hundred pounds of milk they produce. The payments are capped at $10,000 per year and limited to five years. This bill sends the message that we believe in small- and
medium- sized dairy farming in Minnesota and want to support the next generation of dairy farmers.
• Support for dairy farmers doing rotational grazing and on-farm processing. A dairy investment tax credit has been proposed and looks likely to pass this session. The credit would apply to dairy farmers that make improvements in their operation and provide tax credits equal to 10 percent of up to $500,000 of improvement expenses. Pasture development and on-farm processing
are not currently included in the list of expenses eligible for the credit—LSP is working to get them included.
Take action to stand up for local democracy and family farms!
1. Contact Gov. Pawlenty and your legislators today. Tell them that Minnesotans value strong township rights and they should too. Be clear that you want them to actively oppose any legislation that weakens township rights and that the issue should be taken off the table this legislative session.
• Gov. Pawlenty can be reached at 800-657-3717 or 651-296-3391.
• For the name and number or your state senator, call 888-234-1112 or 651-296-0504. For your representative, call 800-657-3550 or 651-296-2146.
2. Become actively involved in LSP’s state policy work to stand up for local democracy and family farms. Let us know that you want to receive regular e-mail updates on our efforts at the Capitol that will include action you can take. Call 612-722-6377 and ask for Bobby King or e-mail him at bking@landstewardshipproject.org
to sign up.
You may also want to volunteer to be in regular contact with your state legislator on these issues for us, write a letter to the editor or be involved in some other ways. Your time and talent will help us win. Call us to talk about how you can plug into this important work.
3. Join other LSP members on Tuesday, March 14, at Minnesota Environmental Partnership’s (MEP) Citizens Day at the Capitol. One of MEP’s priorities this session is protecting community and township rights. At noon there is a rally in the Capitol Rotunda followed by meetings with legislators. Earlier, from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., there will be issue and lobby training.
Busses are traveling to the Capitol from some parts of rural Minnesota. Call Bobby at 612-722-6377 to sign up or get more information.
