Bluestem Prairie

More than Dayton induced fantods: is soybean grower's mid-life crisis worse than she thinks?

On Sunday, Minnesota Public Radio's Elisabeth Dunbar reported in Minnesota begins to explore climate solutions in corn, soybean farming:

Growing corn, soybeans and other crops contributes significantly to Minnesota’s overall emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases associated with climate change, but a new analysis shows a range of practices can reduce those emissions — and help improve water quality at the same time.

“Many farmers are already engaging in these practices for other reasons,” said Peter Ciborowski, an environmental research scientist at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the author of a new report exploring the impact of various agricultural practices on greenhouse gas emissions.

“The first step is to understand what are the present-day consequences of these voluntary, good-citizen measures and to take the next step,” he said.

In his report, Ciborowski report made a preliminary estimate of what’s possible. 

First, he took recommendations under the state’s existing nutrient reduction strategy — a plan for reducing runoff into the Mississippi River, Lake Winnipeg and Lake Superior. The strategy calls for a variety of farming practices that also happen to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with growing crops: planting grass buffers along waterways; planting cover crops that grow alongside cash crops; reducing tillage; taking land out of production for conservation; and several others.

Then, using research that shows the emissions reductions associated with each practice, Ciborowski calculated that overall agriculture emissions in the state could be reduced by 5 to 10 percent if the state follows through with its nutrient reduction strategy.

The three largest emissions sources from growing crops are applying fertilizer, tilling the soil and using tractors and other farm machinery, according to the report.  . . .

However, the current president of the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association, Traverse County farmer Jamie Beyer, employs additional strategies for which she believes the tillers of the soil deserve credit, at least if their tractors are big enough. In December 2018, Beyer (then the veep of the growers' association) told Janelle Atyeo, Tri-State Neighbor (Sioux Falls) Editor, for the Ag Update story, Farmers feel confident in face of changing climate:

In Beyer’s experience, farmers are already responding to climate change, and they deserve some credit.

“So many of the improvements we’ve made over the last 30 years are really mitigating those effects,” she said.

On her farm, she puts the latest in precision technology to work creating soil maps and applying fertilizer at a variable rate to hit the areas that need it most and save on fertilizer costs elsewhere. She’s also invested in drain tile to help deal with excess water. She’s seen it save crops that would have been drowned out, she said. It also reduces erosion and keeps soil in place.

Upgrading to wider equipment is another way the Beyers save money on fuel and reduce their carbon footprint. Bigger planters and wider sprayer booms mean fewer trips up and down the field. Planting genetically modified sugar beets and Bt-corn designed to ward off the corn borer reduces trips to apply herbicides and pesticides. . . .

Beyer and her husband do things differently than his family generations before him. They’ve reduced tillage and started growing cover crops like rye that over winters to the benefit of soil health after cash crops have been harvested.

While those last two practices might help sequester carbon, the other get-big practices seem more out of the industrial ag playbook. We're especially baffled by the mention of field tiling as a weapon against climate change; should this be so, our late grandfather, a Danish immigrant who led a field-tiling crew, is a hero of the revolution, rather than a man who assisted farmers in turning wetlands into farm fields. He died in the early 1960s.

What about Jamie Beyer's mid-life crisis?

In a recent article in Minnesota Soybean Business (also sent as an email to state lawmakers), Letter from the president: Join the club, Beyer told readers she became involved in her husband's family farm because of a Dayton-buffer-policy-induced mid-life crisis. However, that story of self doesn't quite jibe with other less dramatic published tales of her increasing engagement with farming.

In Letter from the president: Join the club, Beyers writes:

Time for true confessions: I cannot claim to have been a lifelong member of MSGA; I’m not even a five-year member. Raised by a plumber and a substitute teacher, I married into farming 16 years ago and brought with me scant understanding of ag – despite living all my life in rural west central Minnesota. I spent the first decade of my marriage trying to figure out how our farm made money (2019 will be full of lessons for me). My role was as a supporting spouse; I raised the babies, carried our family’s health insurance with an off-the-farm job and kept our household running through all the seasons.

Then came a mid-life crisis – and not a fun one with sports cars or expensive plastic surgery. The root pressure was brought-on because of former Gov. Dayton’s outrageous Buffer Law. My husband, Rodd, and I were fired-up and desperate to preserve the ‘right to farm’ for our daughters. We participated in ASA’s Young Leader Program, where I learned how our commodity checkoff programs are organized, and discovered with enthusiasm the separate existence of MSGA, a membership-funded, farmer-led advocacy group. Like a toddler with an iPad, I was hooked and became an MSGA board director in 2015. . . .

My mid-life crisis may be over, but, alas, the Buffer Law is not. Anti-ag organizations are trending. They are plentiful, politically savvy and well-funded. In contrast, MSGA is funded by dues from just 10 percent of Minnesota’s roughly 28,000 soybean growers. . . .

That pitch varies from earlier versions of Beyer's evolution as a farmer. In Beyers will share story of the southern Red River Valley, Lee Agri Media (the same publisher as Ag Update) reporter Andrea Johnson wrote:

Pretty much anywhere you look online, you’re going to find posts by Jamie Beyer of the Tintah/Wheaton area. She’s taken on a role as a social media “agvocate” sharing the story of agriculture with farmers and the general public. . . .

Jamie has spent most of her career working in government – colleges, universities, city government and now for the Bois de Sioux Watershed District.

“I’ve always had an off-the-farm job,” she said, “and then in 2013 and it just kind of hit me. We’ve got these three girls and we live in town. Unless I started to get involved in the farm, they weren’t going to know about the farm.”

She found part-time jobs so she could help on the farm. Working in the watershed district allows her to focus on water quality and quantity issues, and it matches up well with her interests in agriculture.

“It’s part time for me as it takes a lot of time to help with this and do the soybean stuff,” she said with a smile.

The first glimpse of Dayton's buffer ambitions appeared at a Pheasant Summit in December 2014, at least a year after the 2013 epiphany. Yes, she enrolled in the ASA’s Young Leader Program in 2015--co-sponsored at the time she participated by Dupont Pioneer--(and now by Corteva Agriscience, the multinational agrichemical corporation created when DowDuPont split into three corporations earlier this year).

But even before that, the Minnesota Soybean Growers' blog tells us in the 2016 post, Soybean Business: Keeping the Lines Open, Beyer had started communicating about beans before the Dayton-induced crisis:

What started out as a simple project three years ago morphed into a multi-pronged communication effort for Wheaton, Minn, farmers Rodd and Jamie Beyer.

In 2013, Jamie Beyer, a former Wheaton city clerk, college recruiter and graphic designer began assembling a newsletter to regularly share what was happening on the farm with their landlords. It wasn’t long, however, before her mailing list grew to include landlord’s family members, their own extended family and even their employees. Th e mailing list has grown to 30 people.

“We felt it was a way to communicate what we do and who we are,” she says. “It was a way to personalize the business and give a face to our operation.”

Jamie began by mailing the newsletter, but in this digital age, she also shares with some recipients via email. She has taken to Instagram and Snapchat to communicate with the younger generation, while Rodd regularly posts on Facebook.

Regardless of the method, the Beyers are being intentional about their efforts to communicate.

“Our original intent was to connect with landowners and those who will be inheriting the land that we rent. Most of them are a generation removed from the farm,” Jamie says. “My husband and I felt that the more those future landowners understood what we were doing, the better chance we have of retaining the land.”

Jamie says some of their landlords are connected to farming, but others are largely spectators. She says one of their landowners works in downtown Chicago, so negotiating rent can be complicated. Th e newsletter helps him better understand what’s happening in rural Minnesota.

Connecting With Landowners

The Beyer’s [sic] circumstances are hardly unique. A 2015 report from the USDA National Agriculture Statistics Service (USDA-NASS), showed that 11.6 million acres of Minnesota farmland was rented out by landlords. Results from the Tenure, Ownership and Transition of Agricultural Land survey revealed there were over 83,000 farmland landlords in the state. More than 69,000 of them were non-farming landlords.

Because many landlords are becoming further removed from farming themselves, experts say it’s becoming increasingly important for renters to keep landowners informed.

This post made us curious about the Beyers' farming operations. A May 2018 article in The Land reported:

The Beyers farm roughly 3,500 acres that they rent and own near Wheaton and across the border in South Dakota. Jamie Beyer, with her husband Rodd, grow wheat, corn, soybeans, sugarbeets and grapes.

For the third year, Jamie might keep some bees again.

“I’m trying them. We’ll see,” Jamie said. “I end up with the best honey you have ever had in your life, but it costs me $1,000 per year, and the bees have yet to make it through our brutal winters.”

They are also growing alfalfa because three new dairies are going in.

“A lot of growth out here. In cows anyway,” she said.  . . .

Jamie became active in the farm five years ago [2013]. The couple have three girls ages 9 to 12. “If the girls were going to be interested in the farm I had to be too.”

Jamie handles the bookwork for the farm and works part-time for Bois De Sioux Watershed District.

She left her fulltime job so she could help during planting and harvesting. . . .

About the Beyers' Farms

We were curious about the acreage, and so visited the EWG's Farm Subsidy Database. We found that while there are no payments or farms in Mrs. Beyer's name, two are connected to her husband, Rodd Beyer. According to the information at the Recipient ownership share(s) link, two farms are associated with Mr. Beyer:

Rdr Farms Inc (Traverse County MN and Roberts County SD)

Valiant LLC  (Traverse County MN and Roberts County SD)

Curious about the acreage--both owned and rented--that is farmed by these two corporations (since 1971, Minnesota has had a corporate farm law that allows families to create corporations for farming)--we visited the Minnesota Corporate Farm Report, which reviews the basic law:

Minnesota Statute Section 500.24 requires that all pension or investment funds, corporations, limited partnerships, limited liability companies, and irrevocable trusts must be certified by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture before engaging in farming or having an interest in agricultural land.

The law was passed in 1971 to "encourage and protect the family farm as a basic economic unit, to insure it as the most socially desirable mode of agricultural production, and to enhance and promote the stability and well-being of rural society in Minnesota and the nuclear family."

The corporate farm law restricts business entities (Corporations, Limited Partnerships, Trusts, etc) from engaging in farming or having any type of interest in agricultural land unless they satisfy certain requirements.

Using the Corporate Farm Lookup tool on the page, we looked for both entities. As the screenshots below show, neither company is in the MDA's corporate farm report. We also looked in the Commissioner's Exemption Report 2019 (PDF) and didn't find them in this document either.

However, RDR Farms Inc is registered as a business with the Minnesota Secretary of State and has been so since 1998. Rodd Beyer is the CEO, and the corporation's "Number of Shares" is 500,000. We insert the mandatory bean counter joke here.

Valiant LLC isn't registered with the Minnesota Secretary of State's office, so we thought perhaps the entity is organized as a South Dakota business. A search of online records at the South Dakota Secretary of State's office online tool Business Information Search revealed that Valiant LLC is filing number DL013232. The "Member Managed" business's initial filing was submitted to South Dakota in February 2007; the agent is respected Sisseton attorney Gordon Nielson.

Here's the screenshot from the results,since the link created by the search results doesn't display correctly:

We hope that as Jamie Beyer takes care of getting her family's operation certified as a Minnesota family farm or exemption as she continues to  learn about farming in Minnesota.

We would be remiss not to mention that Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan visited the Beyer farm earlier this month; apparently, no vetting was necessary about the status of the farm:

Who are the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association and where does its money come from?

We've gone on a couple of thousand words, but readers may recall this passage from Beyer's pitch for soybean growers to join the Minnesota Soybean Growers:

My mid-life crisis may be over, but, alas, the Buffer Law is not. Anti-ag organizations are trending. They are plentiful, politically savvy and well-funded. In contrast, MSGA is funded by dues from just 10 percent of Minnesota’s roughly 28,000 soybean growers. . . .

Well, not entirely. But first readers should know that the Minnesoyta website leads to "Two separate organizations serving Minnesota soybean farmers," the Minnesota Soybean Growers Research and Promotion Council, funded by a federally mandated check-off taken, and the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association, which is funded by a contract with the council, as well as that $100 yearly dues, fundraisers and other activities, according to the group's IRS 990 filings available at ProPublica's NonProfit Explorer.

According to the Soybean Council profile (p. 70) 2013 Evaluation Report by the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor on Agricultural Commodity Councils:

The Soybean Council contracts for administrative services, fund management, and promotion with the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association (MSGA). The council and the association also share staff. The council’s contract with MSGA accounted for 78 percent of the council’s total expenditures in 2012.

And this in a footnote on the same page:

The Soybean Council contracted with the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association for promotion and administrative services from 2009 to 2012. The annual contracts totaled: $4,198,901 (2009), $5,680,268 (2010), $6,106,013 (2011), and $7,119,616 (2012).

This pattern of funding appears to remain. The 2017 Annual Report for the MSRPC includes $8,129,850 for program expenses for the year that ended August 31, 2017 (Page 3). The full text of "Form 990" for fiscal year ending Aug. 2017, available on ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer database, includes this information:

Here's the value of that contract--and the Soybean Growers member dues:

When Beyer writes: "MSGA is funded by dues from just 10 percent of Minnesota’s roughly 28,000 soybean growers. . . ," that's somewhat disingenuous. In fact, those roughly 28,000 soybean growers provide the lion's share of the soybean growers' revenue--and there's considerable mission overlap.

Indeed, testifying on April 12, 2018 before the Minnesota House Agriculture Finance Committee, Beyer--then the vice-president of the growers association--claims at the 1:08:30  mark on the MN House Info YouTube channel version of the hearing that the Minnesota Soybean Association represents 27,000 soybean growers.

Apparently not: just ten percent, according to her pitch.

Given that so much of their check-off dollars fund the growers' association, can one blame ninety percent of the state's soybean growers for not forking over another $100 or so?

Screenshot: From the PDF of the June MSGA Benefits flyer. Because nothing says soybean grower mid-life crisis than a field of corn in the background.

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Minnesota lawmakers submit letter in support of restoring “Bdote” to Fort Snelling’s name

In a July post, Welcome to Historic Fort Snelling at Bdote, or maybe not under Christian right's Project Blitz, we wrote about the politics behind Minnesota Senate Republican threats to cut funding for the Minnesota State Historical Society.

Earlier this month, the Minnesota Historical Society seeks name to tell Historic Fort Snelling's entire story, Forum News Service's Shelby Lindrud reported:

Opinions differ on whether a new name is in order for the site where Fort Snelling is located, but those who attended public meetings seem to agree on one important issue: The Historic Fort Snelling site has a long, complicated and impactful history ranging from the experiences of the Dakota people and Dred Scott to the World War II language school and the fort's military past.

"The biggest surprise is, no matter their position on the name, almost everyone has said we need to tell all these stories," said Kevin Maijala, deputy director of learning initiatives at the Minnesota Historical Society. "People understand we are better when we tell all these stories."

The last of the public meetings on a potential name change was Oct. 17 at the Redwood Area Community Center in Redwood Falls. A Minnesota Historical Society survey on the topic remains open until Nov. 15. A report will be compiled for the society's governing board, which will consider whether to recommend a change, keep the name the same or seek more information. If a new name is recommended, it must go to the state Legislature for approval.

The potential name change is just one part of the larger, $34.5 million revitalization project the Historical Society is undertaking at the 23-acre historic site in St. Paul. This includes a new visitors center and natural landscaping including trails and gathering places. The project to be completed in 2022 will also expand the history that is taught at the site visited by thousands each year. . . .

Here on the Lake Traverse Reservation, we think of that history when we hear stories about members of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate (Dakota) who were detained in the concentration camp at the fort after the 1862 United States-Dakota War.

A group of Minnesota Houses members have signed a letter supporting for restoring “Bdote” to Fort Snelling’s name. From a DFL House press release:

Today, Rep. Mary Kunesh-Podein (DFL-New Brighton) sent a letter co-signed by 43 other DFL state legislators to the Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) in support of restoring the Dakota word “Bdote” to identify Historic Fort Snelling. Many Dakota people recognize Fort Snelling’s location as a place of origin for their people.

“All Minnesotans deserve to have their history, language, and culture recognized,” said Rep. Kunesh-Podein, a descendant of the Standing Rock Lakota tribe. “The Historical Society’s efforts to identify sacred tribal land as ‘Bdote’ acknowledges the full history of the place we call Fort Snelling.”

 Through November 15, MNHS is holding statewide hearings to seek public input on the name change. After the MNHS board of directors considers the information, they will make a recommendation to the state legislature, which has to approve the final name change.

Here's the letter:

Letter to the Minnesota Historical Society  uploaded by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd

Here in South Dakota, the Native Sun News Today reported last week that our state representative Tamara St. John, R-Sisseton, gave a talk at Rapid City's Journey Museum on the Aftermath of the Dakota War 1862. St. John heads the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO).

Photo: The Minnesota State Historical Society signage that supposedly prompted a proposed budget cut; a June ReWire article suggests another MSHS action prompted the proposed budget cut. Via the Pioneer Press.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

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Franson critic thinks Alex-area rep needs to account for Jason Lewis speaking at fundraiser

Back in late July, we posted U.S. Senate bid buzz? Jason Lewis headliner at Alexandria-area state rep's fundraiser. Since then, Lewis indeed stepped in as a Republican senate contender hoping to challenge Minnesota's junior U.S. Senator Tina Smith.

Franson critic and constituent Esther Mehrer thinks Franson stepped into it with the choice of the August headliner. In Franson has some 'splaining to do about Lewis, a letter to the Alexandria Echo Press, Mehrer writes:

We recently learned that four Minnesota Republicans have received political donations by two of Rudy Giuliani's associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. Both were arrested recently as they were about to leave the states. Those four: NRCC Tom Emmer, U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn, U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, and former shock jock radio host and one-term Representative Jason Lewis.

Mehrer isn't quite right about that. As we explained in A little campaign finance mess on the prairie: Parnas, Fruman, America 1st Action, MN1 & MN8, the Pioneer Press's Dave Orrick noted in How Minnesota Republicans benefited from Giuliani associates indicted on campaign crimes, Hagedorn and Stauber benefited from contributions by the pair to America First Action, which ran nasty independent expenditure ads against their opponents.

Orrick also reported that the House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC), which Representative Emmer chairs, received money from the pair before Emmer took over--and the amount of the contributions will be donated to charity:

Fruman donated $33,050 and Parnas donated $3,800 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, a political organization that seeks to have Republicans elected to the House.

The current chairman of the NRCC is U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer — a Republican who represents Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District — although Emmer wasn’t the chairman when the donations were made.

On Friday, NRCC spokesman Chris Pack said that the organization would donate the funds to a yet-to-be-determined charity.

But Mehrer is spot on about Lewis, who was indeed Franson's headliner. Orrick reported:

In 2018, when then-U.S. Rep. Lewis, a Republican, was running for re-election to Minnesota’s 2nd District against Democrat Angie Craig, Fruman made two donations to Lewis’ campaign committee, Jason Lewis for Congress, totaling $2,445.34, according to data from the Federal Elections Commission.

At the time, Orrick didn't get a response from Lewis; we've googled the news to see if a response has been made but came up blank.

Mehrer continues:

What is interesting here is that Jason got himself into trouble in the past for making derogatory statements against women and also making several antisemitic statements, one being that the Jewish lobby controls the Republican Party. His antisemitic comments were condemned as "factually false and morally reprehensible."

We noted in  U.S. Senate bid buzz? Jason Lewis headliner at Alexandria-area state rep's fundraiser before the Franson fundraiser:

We aren't close enough to the co-hosts to know whether their support is entirely for the sometimes controversial Franson (see City Pages coverage) or a wink to the former radio talk show host and former congressman Lewis (who generated his own notoriety for comments he made in 2012 lamenting that women could no longer be called "sluts").

Mehrer's second point (making several antisemitic statements, one being that the Jewish lobby controls the Republican Party. His antisemitic comments were condemned as "factually false and morally reprehensible") is based on a story first reported by CNN's Andrew Kaczynski in GOP Senate candidate Jason Lewis said Republicans have 'dual loyalties' to Israel, 'Jewish lobby' controls the party:

Jason Lewis, a Republican running for US Senate in Minnesota, once said Republicans had "dual loyalties" to Israel, adding that support for the country was the result of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and a "very strong American Jewish lobby."

Lewis, who also argued that the Israel lobby controlled the Republican Party, said in a February 2013 radio show that many in the party viewed the country as the "51st state." He claimed policymakers in President George W. Bush's administration, including former UN Ambassador John Bolton, were dual citizens of Israel and the United States. (Bolton, who was fired last week by President Donald Trump, is neither Jewish, nor is he a citizen of Israel.)

 

"You've got a number of dual citizens, by the way, citizens of Israel and citizens of the United States serving in government," Lewis said. "In any other country that might be seen as a problem, but it's not here because of that special relationship."

 

"John Bolton's a dual citizen for instance of Israel and America," Lewis added later. "There's no question that there are a number in -- during the Bush years -- there were a number of dual citizens, citizens of Israel, citizens of America who were making policy."

 

Lewis made his comments during the confirmation process of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who faced criticism for his use of the phrase "Jewish lobby" during an interview in 2006 to describe the lobbying power of pro-Israel groups. Lewis defended Hagel's comments, adding that Republicans knew they would lose money from "AIPAC or Jewish Americans or Sheldon Adelson" if they voted for Hagel's confirmation.

Read Lewis's defense--such as it is--at CNN. Mehrer closes:

The reason I bring Jason Lewis to the attention of the readers of the Echo Press is that Representative Mary Franson had a fundraiser this past August. Who was her guest speaker? Jason Lewis. She's got some 'splaining to do.

An interesting point. While the strategy of Minnesota Republicans hoping to secure the state for Trump in 2020 is to brand all Democrats as socialist extremists, perhaps their own brand might require a bit of management on its own.

Graphic: The Team Franson invite.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

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South Dakota News Watch: study shows neonics a danger to deer, pheasant study results soon

Back in March, we posted Study shows endocrine-disrupting imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid, messes up does and fawns.

On Wednesday, the ever-excellent South Dakota News Watch delved into the study and its implications in SDSU study shows world’s most common pesticide a danger to deer:

A groundbreaking study conducted by scientists in South Dakota has found that the world’s most widely used family of pesticides — neonicotinoids — is likely causing serious birth defects in white-tailed deer, deepening concerns over the chemical’s potential to harm large mammals, including humans.

A subsequent study by the wildlife scientists and ecologists at South Dakota State University in Brookings will examine whether ring-necked pheasants also could be harmed by neonicotinoid pesticides, which are used heavily in agriculture across the state.

The first study, with results published in March, showed that white-tailed deer with high levels of neonicotinoid pesticide in their spleens developed defects such as smaller reproductive organs, pronounced overbites and declined thyroid function. Fawns with elevated levels of the pesticide in their spleens were found to be generally smaller and less healthy than deer with less of the chemical in their organs. The study marks the first time neonicotinoid pesticide consumption has been linked to birth defects in large mammals.

“These (neonicotinoids) were deemed to be safe for higher organisms, and the fact that we saw so many diverse impacts on white-tailed deer, that was a big thing,” said Dr. Jonathan Lundgren an ecologist from Estelline, S.D., an independent scientist who co-authored the study. “And then, the fact that whitetail deer are not that far off from our livestock or even humans suggests that maybe we need to be examining these insecticides’ risks a little bit more closely.”

SDSU scientists told South Dakota News Watch that they are preparing to publish a similar study that looked at the effect neonicotinoids might have on ring-necked pheasants, a game bird that drives a multi-million hunting industry in the state. Because the results have not yet been published, the scientists said they couldn’t discuss the findings of that study.

Read the rest at South Dakota News Watch, which also looks at the presence of neonics in the human food chain:

The pesticide is often sold commercially as Imidacloprid, and is sold for home use in landscaping treatments such as Bayer Advanced Tree and Shrub Insect Control.

Neonicotinoids have not been definitively linked to human health issues. Until recently, scientists hadn’t been able to effectively monitor for the presence of neonicotinoids in the human population. Neonicotinoids can make their way into the human food chain when unabsorbed pesticides from farm operations become airborne or are carried into waterways and onto other crops by rain and run-off.

According to a paper published in September 2019, researchers with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found traces of the chemical in 49.1% of the urine samples collected from people during the 2015-16 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Based on the survey data, CDC researchers estimated that roughly half the U.S. population had recently been exposed to neonicotinoids. . . .

Why do we worry that this will not end well? Nick Lowrey's article concludes:

For [Jonathan] Lundgren, the SDSU deer study and its results are further evidence that farming practices need to change. Crop rotations should be more diverse and livestock should be integrated into more farming operations. Such practices would decrease the need for pesticides, make farms more resilient to extreme weather and have been shown to increase profitability, Lundgren said.

“Our farming decisions are having broad scale implications for the environment in ways that we didn’t predict, in ways that we can’t predict. And so while I’m not an advocate for banning all pesticides, I do think that we need to use them with a whole lot more respect than we are right now,” Lundgren said.

Photo: A whitetail doe and her fawn.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

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While SD snow fell, Governor Noem attended conference full of conspiracy theorists sponsored by prison company at a Trump resort

While South Dakota groaned under our first snow of the fall, Governor Kristi Noem was in Miami, Florida, dipping into the American Priority Conference, where the New York Times reported a Macabre Video of Fake Trump Shooting Media and Critics Is Shown at His Resort.

To her credit, Gov. Kristi Noem 'strongly condemns' fake video of Trump shooting media, opponents, Lisa Kaczke reported Monday in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader:

Gov. Kristi Noem said she "strongly condemns" a violent video depicting President Donald Trump carrying out a massacre of news organizations and political opponents. The video has been thrust into the national spotlight after it was shown at a national conference over the weekend. 

Noem was "briefly" in attendance for part of the American Priority conference, but didn't have any speaking roles at the conference and did not see the "horrible video" when it was shown at the conference, her spokeswoman Kristin Wileman said. Noem has since watched the video and "strongly condemns the despicable message of violence and division it portrays," according to Wileman. . . .

We grew curious about the American Priority Conference itself, wondering what drew the first-term governor to the event. Looking over the agenda, we saw nothing about demonizing industrial hemp or encouraging children to kill possums, badgers and other small mammals. We were baffled.

The New York Times broke the story about the violent video on October 13. On the opening day, Mother Jones' Stephanie Mencimer provided some background about the three-day event in Imagine a Conference Full of Conspiracy Theorists. Sponsored by a Prison Company. At a Trump Resort:

Last year, a group of far-right fringe agitators and conspiracy theorists set out to create a pro-Trump political conference in DC for people just like them. Headliners for the American Priority Conference included Trump whisperer Roger Stone, before he was indicted for lying to Congress, and short-lived Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci. But the event at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park proved to be an embarrassing flop, with attendance so dismal that one scheduled speaker fled rather than address such a small audience. Undeterred, organizers this year have taken a new approach by moving the event from DC to the Trump National Doral Miami Golf Club in Florida.

Relocating to a property owned by the president seems to have transformed the conference, which starts Thursday, into a bona fide political confab. It has attracted some more prominent speakers this year, notably the president’s son Donald Trump Jr., who will stand for selfies with anyone who pays the VIP rate of $2,500 to attend. But American Priority also seems to have nabbed the support of the sort of a big corporate patron that was missing from its 2018 fringe-fest. GEO Group, a Florida-based private prison company that has received nearly half a billion dollars in federal contracts to detain immigrants since President Trump took office, is now listed as one of its most prominent sponsors. . . .

A press release for the American Priority Conference touted the new location of the event with as many superlatives as it did for any of the major headliners. “Doral Resort offers an experience like no other with unbeatable savings and luxurious accommodations on a prestigious 800-acre resort in tropical Miami,” it read. “The $250 million renovation boasts a completely re-designed clubhouse, 643 new deluxe accommodations, fresh restaurant concepts, enhanced championship golf courses, re-imagined Trump Spa and an array of retail shops and recreational amenities, including the Royal Palm Pool oasis.”

We guess that beats bundling up in Pierre when the winds of October come calling. Perhaps she felt a need to hobnob with those who insist extreme weather events are not wrought by human activity. Mencimer reports:

The event will feature a climate change denier as well as promoters of QAnon, an internet conspiracy that claims Trump is fighting the deep state to stop liberal elites they believe are running a secret pedophile ring. Tracy Beanz, who organized 100-plus QAnon believers to march on Washington last year, will be on a panel called “Unmasking the Russian Hoax,” along with George Papadopoulos. He’s the former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser who pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about the campaign’s contacts with Russia.

Conferencegoers will hear from the internet troll Jack Posobiec, who helped promote an earlier conspiracy theory that suggested Hillary Clinton and her henchmen were running a pedophile ring out of the basement of a DC pizza parlor. The idea inspired an armed North Carolina man to show up at Comet Ping Pong and fire shots as he searched for the nonexistent basement holding cell. The event will also feature a speech from “free speech maven” Jason Fyk, who sued Facebook after the social media giant killed his business by shutting down pages he’d created that were dedicated solely to videos and photos of people peeing. (He lost.)

Along with a golf tournament and pool parties, the conference schedule is packed with random people who’ve become minor internet celebs for owning the libs, like Scott Presler, a member of Gays for Trump who organized a trash cleanup day in Baltimore after Trump criticized the city as “a disgusting rat and rodent-infested mess.” Trump’s military high school platoon sergeant, now a Florida lawyer, is on the schedule to talk about taxes along with Trump superfan, radio host and QAnon promoter Bill Mitchell. Sadly, raw food advocate David “Avocado” Wolfe will no longer be leading the QAnon crowd through downward dog poses at daily yoga classes. Touted early on in the conference promo materials, Wolfe was perhaps even too fringy for the American Priority Conference. As The Outline explains, “Wolfe has stated that mushrooms arrived on our planet via the cosmic wind. He tells his followers vaccines are a conspiracy, and believes that chemtrails are real.” He’s no longer on the schedule.

All in all, it’s not the sort of event that corporate America tends to get behind—and it hasn’t. Most of the other sponsors are conservative political groups such as American Majority or small outfits like Republican Legion, which sells MAGA hats online. GEO Group did not respond to a request for comment. The American Priority Conference is organized by a low-profile Virginia conservative activist and telecom exec named Alex Phillips, who also did not respond to requests for comment; nor did the conference’s PR team. . . .

Perhaps the Argus Leader and other members of South Dakota's press corps can inquire what the attraction was. Surely we can hope it was just the chance to be seen at a Trump resort.

Photo: Nice landscaping at the Trump National Doral Miami resort. The palms trees lining the opulent streets of Summit simply don't compare.

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Perham Focus headline writer gets a little confused about Nornes' press release

We're guessing the person at the Perham Focus who slapped the headline Otter Tail schools get $30 million in safety funding might not have been paying close attention to the copy in a press release send out by Fergus Falls Republican Bud Nornes on Wednesday.

Most constituents want lawmakers to bring home the bacon, but $30 million in safety funding for one county's schools is a bit over the top.

The copy in the rewrite correctly highlights information buried in the last paragraph of the original press release:

The money comes from a one-time Safe Schools Supplemental Aid appropriation in the state’s new education budget. The $30 million will be provided to school districts and charter schools on a per-pupil basis. All school districts encompassing Nornes’ District 8A will receive funding, including Fergus Falls ($100,483), Perham-Dent ($50,933) and Pelican Rapids ($30,110).

Most of that got moved to the two lede paragraphs at the Focus:

School districts throughout Minnesota are receiving a combined $30 million from the state to fund safety initiatives, according to a news release from state Rep. Bud Nornes, R-Fergus Falls.

In Otter Tail County the Perham-Dent ($50,933), Pelican Rapids ($30,110) and Fergus Falls ($100,483) school districts, among others, will be receiving funds.

Will readers see the headline and wonder where in Otter Tail County the rest of the $30 million is stashed?

Screenshot: Otter Tail County scores big-time in this headline. We're not sure how many millions would make DARE and gang resistance programs work in any county in Minnesota, but the headline writer might be on to something.

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A little campaign finance mess on the prairie: Parnas, Fruman, America 1st Action, MN1 & MN8

A national story has some rural Minnesota legs. In How Minnesota Republicans benefited from Giuliani associates indicted on campaign crimes, Dave Orrick reports at the Pioneer Press:

Four Minnesota Republican congressmen and the state party have found themselves entangled in the web surrounding two indicted associates of Rudolph Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney.

Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman made a host of political donations that are now being scrutinized after they were arrested on federal allegations that they leveraged their donations in a campaign to force the removal of the former American ambassador to Ukraine, a situation related to the Ukrainian issues at the center of the Democratic-led U.S. House impeachment inquiry of Trump. . . .

PETE STAUBER

U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, R-8th, didn’t receive any donations from Parnas or Fruman, but his victorious 2018 campaign against Democrat Joe Radinovich presumably benefited from an effort funded by Parnas and Fruman.

Global Energy Producers, a company created by Parnas and Fruman in 2018, also contributed $325,000 to pro-Trump super political action committee America First Action, according to the Washington Post. The PAC spent roughly $3.3 million in ads against Radinovich, according to FEC records.

Stauber could not be reached for comment Friday.

JIM HAGEDORN

Like Stauber, U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn, R-1st, didn’t receive any direct donations from Parnas or Fruman, but his campaign against Democrat Dan Feehan presumably benefited.

America First Action spent about $1.7 million in anti-Feehan efforts.

Hagedorn could not be reached for comment Friday.

My, my.

Photo: While Stauber will face one of several new contenders in MN08, it's likely that Hagedorn (left) will face Dan Feehan (right) again in Minnesota's Fighting First. Hagedorn beat the young combat veteran by 1,315 votes in 2018.

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Wet weather dampens ND, MN potato harvest

We decided not to feel sorry for ourselves and our late potato harvest after reading Forum Communications reporter Ann Bailey's article, Potatoes in the field looking bleak, in the Brainerd Dispatch:

With more than half of North Dakota’s potatoes still in the field, the outlook for harvesting a good quality crop after the latest round of rain and snowfall is poor.

“It’s pretty bleak,” said Ted Kreis, Northern Potato Growers Association marketing and communications director. As of Sunday, Oct. 6, 45% of North Dakota’s potato crop had been harvested, National Agricultural Statistics Service-North Dakota said. Last year, 73% of the state’s potato fields had been harvested by that day, the statistics service said. On average, 69% of the North Dakota crop is harvested as of Oct. 6.

In Minnesota, 68% of the state’s potatoes had been harvested as of Oct. 6, which meant the harvest was eight days behind average, National Agricultural Statistics Service-Minnesota said.

A late, wet spring, combined with as much as 10 inches of rain during the past month has hampered the harvest of potatoes — and every other crop in northeast North Dakota and northwest Minnesota.

The percentage of potatoes harvested may have increased slightly since Oct. 6 because a few farmers were able to get into the field earlier this week, but the majority of the North Dakota crop still is in the ground.

The remaining acres will be difficult, if not impossible, to harvest.

“It doesn’t look promising because we were getting a lot of rain, and the ground was already saturated before this happened,” Kreis said Thursday, Oct. 10. “This” was the rain and snow that began falling across northeast North Dakota and northwest Minnesota Thursday morning. . . .

Besides potatoes and sugar beets, hundreds of thousands of wheat, edible beans, soybeans, sunflowers and corn acres are unharvested in northeastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota. If and when those crops are harvested will depend on when the snow melts, and, if it does, when the ground freezes so it is firm enough to support combines.

Snow began falling here in Summit about 7:30 p.m., after a day of rain. We're not much for toxic taters, but farmers in the path of the storm have our sympathy.

Photo: An industrial tater harvester. Photo by Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

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An apology: winter is coming

We've been remiss in posting in a news-rich environment. Our reasons are simple: winter is coming. The National Weather Service at Aberdeen shares this forecast:

The 1st Winter Storm of the season over central South Dakota Thursday morning. Rain to mix with and transition to snow Thursday afternoon into Thursday night. Snow will continue into Friday. Expect much colder temperatures, and strong northwesterly winds will result in significant blowing snow. Travel will become difficult, to near impossible at times, especially across central South Dakota.

We've been gathering the last vegetables and digging potatoes planted after a late spring. We've brought wood in for the stove which heats our house, and will be snug inside posting as the storm rises. Check back for more sass from Bluestem tomorrow.

Map: Expected snow. Source: the National Weather Service at Aberdeen.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the  paypal subscription button.

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From Land Stewardship Project: Dont 'Get Big or Get Out'--Get Together and Fight Back

A number of readers had drawn our attention to remarks made by USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin. They echoed the testimony of Marin Bozic that we discussed in 2018's post U economist says help is disservice to many dairy farmers.

Reading around about the incident, we discovered that Southeastern Minnesota rural organizer Johanna Rupprecht had already said what we wanted to say, in words do the job better than we can. We reprint her Land Stewardship Project below.

If you appreciate the work she and Land Stewardship Project do, consider making a contribution to the non-profit, or joining the group. Learn how here.

Don’t 'Get Big or Get Out' — Get Together and Fight Back
By Johanna Rupprecht
Reposted with permission

Earlier this week, at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wis., U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue made the following remarks in regard to the economic crisis facing many small and mid-sized farmers, especially dairy farmers: “In America, the big get bigger and the small go out. I don’t think in America we, for any small business, have a guaranteed income or guaranteed profitability.”

He also said, “It’s very difficult on an economy of scale with the capital needs and all the environmental regulations and everything else today to survive milking 40, 50, or 60 or even 100 cows.”

Perdue’s comments are infuriating (after I read them I spent a good chunk of the afternoon mad enough to throw things), and unconscionable words for anyone, let alone a public official, to offer to people in pain. They’re also an example of powerful narrative strategy at work, and it’s important to pay attention to that.

For decades the message of corporate ag and its various supporters and figureheads has been, “get big or get out.” Perdue’s statements echo the words of Nixon administration agriculture secretary Earl Butz, who even more bluntly presented the same message. They also echo the 2018 comments of University of Minnesota economist Marin Bozic, when he told a state legislative committee that 80 percent of Minnesota’s dairy farms were doomed to go out of business and should not be offered help. Bozic praised the factory farm model of Riverview, LLP, with thousands of cows per site, as the future of dairy.

The big getting bigger and pushing out the small has been sold to farmers and the general public as the inevitable destiny of U.S. agriculture for a long, long time. It’s often even been presented as progress or a good thing; it’s always been presented as unstoppable — there's nothing you could do about it even if you wanted to. It’s no wonder how many well-meaning people, especially those not connected to farming, but also many farmers, now believe this. That's exactly how dominant narratives work. What is repeated most often (with all the weight of corporate money behind it) is what people are most likely to believe; it shapes what people see as true, right, and possible. It buries, smothers, other beliefs and values people also hold. This is a concrete way in which power is taken from people.

Perdue’s choice to frame his remarks with “in America” ties in American exceptionalism, another strain of the dominant narrative, in a particularly nasty twist. What he’s doing is using people’s feelings of patriotism as yet another way to stop them from questioning the harm that's being done to them, to hold them back from thinking other ways are possible. The message is: this is inevitable, you’re over, nothing you can do about, this is just how it is in America, and you’re an American, right, so how can you complain about that? And Perdue blaming “environmental regulations” for a crisis that is actually caused by corporate power is an example of yet another narrative element frequently and effectively used to distract from the heart of the real problems facing farmers.

The most important thing to remember, of course, is that the message isn’t true. Nothing is inevitable about factory farm dairies. Nothing is inevitable about the current course of U.S. agriculture. We’ve gotten to the point we’re at because of deliberate choices that have not only allowed, but heavily subsidized and supported, the big to get bigger and push out the small.

Corporate-driven public policy choices have led to the results they were designed for, to the massive benefit of those interests who designed and advocated for them. And through it all, agribusiness and its figureheads like Perdue have been telling farmers, essentially, “If you can't make it, it's your fault — get with the program.” The strategy has been to destroy people’s livelihoods and then blame them for it. Create the factory farm system and then tell dairy farmers, well, too bad, but sure is tough to make it milking 50 or 100 cows anymore what with all these big farms with their economies of scale.

We can make different choices. Different policies create different results! We can have any kind of food and farming system we want. It’s going to require people organizing to take control of our government away from corporate interests. Small- and moderate-sized farmers deserve a government that goes to bat for them. We can have that. Together we can choose to support farming at the scale that provides the lifeblood of countless rural communities.

Nothing is inevitable; so much more is possible than most of us have been led to believe. An enormous amount of corporate ag’s power is rooted in the mere fact that it's gotten so many people to buy into the myth that the corporate way is the only way. That can be changed. It’s past time to change it. Time to fight back.

LSP organizer Johanna Rupprecht grew up on her family’s livestock and crop farm near Lewiston in southeastern Minnesota.

To get involved in the Land Stewardship Project's campaign to fight for real solutions to the farm crisis, contact organizers Paul Sobocinski (e-mail, 507-342-2323 ) or Tom Nuessmeier ( e-mail, 507-995-3541).

Photo: Cows grazing in a pasture, contrary to the factory farm model. Via LSP.