Newly appointed to the House ag finance committee Glenn Gruenhagen (R-Glencoe) and representative-elect Tim Miller (R-Prinsburg) are vowing to stymie the dirty hippie dreams of Greater Minnesota conservationists and their pals at the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
The Hutchinson Leader's Jeremy Jones reports in Minnesota representatives get their assignments that Gruenhagen and Miller are so not letting clean water, soil health and other pesky externalities get in the way of policy for agribusiness.
First, there's Gruenhagen talking about federal water policy:
Agriculture Finance Committee
“We are a farming district. I haven’t served on there before, so I wanted to be part of whatever comes out of session to affect farmers,” Gruenhagen said. “I am especially concerned about federal Environmental Protection Agency regulations, and their wanting to regulate water and other aspects of farming. As a free-market person, I will be opposing anything that would infringe on private property rights.”
Take that, downstream neighbors and Gulf Stream shrimp!
And Miller is on Gruenhagen's team. Jones reports:
Agriculture Finance Committee
Miller will join Gruenhagen on this committee.
“The backbone of the economy in my district is agriculture,” he said. “I want to be sure we promote it in the best way for the industry. I think we have some regulatory issues that need to be worked on, and misconceptions about the role of ag in the environment. We may hear some of that on this committee.”
Balance? Science? Never mind the other part of the equation.
What would Rod Hamilton do?
Moreover, the strictly anti-environmental policy focus of their remarks seem at odds with the finance agenda that Agriculture Finance Chair Rod Hamilton is sharing with Forum Communications' Don Davis in Republicans prepare new rural agenda:
Hamilton said one of his top priorities is finding workers to fill thousands of vacant agriculture-related jobs. “There is a huge shortage of agriculture professionals.”
Part of the solution, he said, is to encourage the state’s universities and colleges to train more high school ag teachers. The state also could support a variety of organizations that promote farming to young people, he added.
. . .Also, Hamilton said, the University of Minnesota needs to increase spending on crop and livestock disease research. “It is an absolute must that we invest in more research at the University of Minnesota.”
Hamilton said money to support more ag spending could come from rethinking budget priorities, and freeing some money now going to other programs.
Maybe Hamilton can assist both guys in focusing on ag finance rather than ag and environmental policy.
Photo: Tim Miller. Via Facebook.
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So their idea of helping Greater Minnesotans is to tie them up and gag them so the locals won't stop big-city megacorps from moving in and destroying the land, air and water?
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | Dec 26, 2014 at 09:41 PM