State rep Tim Miller: MN state public officials beholden to radical anti-livestock enviro groups

UPDATE 10/25: The more we look at the image above, the more questions we have. For instance, the presence of two windmills--one for grinding grain on left, and one for pumping well water on the right--make us wonder whether there's a secret agenda for wind power that's not dedicated to electrical generation. Where's the farmhouse? What's with the mountains in the background? And once again, what's up with the tiny Cornish game buck (as one of Miller's legislative colleagues called retriever-sized deer. [end update]

In a legislative email sent Friday, New Republican state representative Tim Miller, Prinsburg, condemns the DNR's pointing a shaky finger at public officials responsible for steering "livestock and agriculture policy in Minnesota."

It's a conspiracy! They're "beholden to radical environmental groups who do not want livestock farming to exist."

We posted about the ban in DNR temporarily bans farmed deer movement into & within MN to protect wild white-tailed deer and MN Deer Farmers Association sends House environmental committee chair a letter.

Miller goes where the deer farmers themselves didn't tread, sending out this message Friday in an emailed legislative update:

Accusing Department of Natural Resources commissioner Strommen of being "beholden" to "radical environmental groups who do not want livestock farming to exist" seems a bit odd, given her background. Perhaps Miller sees the Board of Water and Soil Resources, where she worked before joining the DNR, as a radical environmental group.

Or perhaps it's Thom Petersen, the Minnesota Commissioner of Agriculture, who is beholden to "radical environmental groups who do not want livestock farming to exist." If so, Commissioner Petersen completely fooled us. We first met him when he worked for the Minnesota Farmers Union, which we have on good authority is not a radical environmental group.

Here's Commissioner Petersen's biography on the MDA website:

Thom Petersen was appointed Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture by Governor Tim Walz in 2019.

Commissioner Petersen is a long-time resident of Royalton Township near Pine City where he lives on a horse farm. Before being appointed Commissioner, Petersen served as the Director of Government Relations for Minnesota Farmers Union (MFU) since 2002, working on behalf of MFU’s farmer-members in both Washington, D.C. and St. Paul.

Prior to his work at the Minnesota Farmers Union, Commissioner Petersen spent most of his life working for his family and his own horse and farm business. He has a wide range of experience in state and federal farm policy, and travels to almost every county in Minnesota each year to fully understand how these policies affect farmers’ daily lives. He has served on many boards and committees, including the University of Minnesota Extension Citizens Advisory Committee, Farmers Legal Action Group, Citizens Utility Board, Minnesota Ag in the Classroom, Minnesota State Organic Task Force, Minnesota Rural Broadband Coalition, and the Minnesota Fair Plan.

Commissioner Petersen received his Associate’s degree from Normandale Community College and studied at both the University of Minnesota and University of Georgia. The Commissioner and his wife Alana live in Pine City with their two sons. The Petersens show horses around the state and have competed at the Minnesota State Fair for over 25 years.

Farmers everywhere should be shaking in their overalls.

We have been told  that the family Miller's fellow New Republican Jeremy Munson, Lake Crystal, show horses in the same shows as the Petersens. Should Miller check Munson's teeth for the scourge of radical environmentalism?

As for Minnesota House Environmental and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee chair Rick Hansen, DFL-South Saint Paul? His Economic Interest Statement at the public disclosure board reveals a couple of things to which he's beholden. There's Oneota Farms LLC; its website describes its mission in these terms:

Located in Harmony, Minnesota, we work with several Amish families to provide fresh, high-quality food from the land in an environmentally-friendly manner. We are an official Bon Appétit Farm to Fork Vendor for pork, vegetables and honey.

From the About page:

For over 100 years, our farm (located in Harmony Township in Fillmore County, Minnesota) has been cared for by our family. During the 1930's, land was added to our farm in Bristol Township, and in the early 2000's, more beautiful acreage straddling the Bristol-Harmony Township border was acquired. The topography of our farm is rugged; in it are knolls of basswood and oak as well as wooded ravines and gullies. It is Karst, characterized by fractured bedrock limestone with intermittent creeks feeding the Upper Iowa River, which flows through the Oneota Valley to the south.

The small farms of our Amish neighbors and their traditional agricultural practices look like farms of 100 years ago. The Amish family farms are located in the Upper Iowa Watershed on both sides of the Minnesota-Iowa border. The Upper Iowa River was originally called the Oneota by the Native Americans who resided there.

We work with several Amish families to provide fresh, high-quality food from the land in an environmentally-friendly manner and we are an official Bon Appétit Farm to Fork Vendor for pork, vegetables and honey.

We strive to compliment our environment by planting and maintaining native prairie and trees. This organic carbon storage helps sequester carbon and combat climate change. Our Amish growers are horse-powered and care for their animals. Quality and care are a way of life and a daily practice. Oneota Farms can bring you our sustainable farm products.

There's a photo of some beef cattle on the page and the logo includes a hog.

We doubt Miller considers the Amish to be a radical environmental group, rather than a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian Anabaptist origins, but with Tim, one never knows.

During the State Fair, Hansen tweeted about a niece's grand championship:

My niece Anika Hansen with Grand Champion Purebred Duroc 4-H 🍀Barrow Grand Champion in Duroc and overall Purebred class @mnstatefair 🐖🐖🐖🥇#swine #statefair pic.twitter.com/yEV0s8lWfe

— Rep. Rick Hansen (@reprickhansen) August 27, 2021

Perhaps Miller frets about the Hansens' family connection to those radical hippies at 4-H.

In closing, we have to reflect on the disease itself. One thing we learned from Beltrami County and elsewhere is that if a farm goes positive and Chronic Wasting Disease prions are put out in that environment, they are concentrated and can spread outside of the farm or the dumping ground for the carcasses of infected deer, including downstream. It’s different in the wild deer population, as the herds not as concentrated.

It's also sad to see us-versus-them rhetoric--including the visual rhetoric of a target on a human face--when it seems to us that the scientists at the University of Minnesota' College of Veterinary Medicine Research and Minnesota Center for Prion Research and Outreach are working for solutions for all deer.

Related posts:

• MN Deer Farmers Association sends House environmental committee chair a letter
• DNR temporarily bans farmed deer movement into & within MN to protect wild white-tailed deer
• CWD update: DNR Commissioner's letter to BAH Director on regulation to protect state's wild deer
• Bemidji Pioneer: Must-read article on illegal dumped CWD deer remains in Beltrami County
• Statement: Minnesota DNR learns of 2 deer farms that received deer from CWD+ farm in Wisconsin
• Hunters, tribes, conservation groups and St. Louis County call on state to get rid of deer farms
• Tune in to House Enviro Committee hearing tomorrow morning for latest CWD information
• MN DNR press release: Return to mandatory testing in chronic wasting disease zones this season
• South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks: CWD detected in mule deer in new area, Perkins County
• UMN MNPRO’s latest research detects CWD prions in cervid muscles using RT-QuIC
• MNReformer Radio podcast interviews Jamie Becker-Finn on Chronic Wasting Disease politics
• Listen to MN House environment committee chair Rep. Rick Hansen talk CWD on Matt McNeil Show
• Special Board of Animal Health meeting to review farmed Cervidae rulemaking postponed
• Bad news from the North: CWD sweeps through Alberta & Saskatchewan deer & elk herds
• Forum News Service: MN Deerhunters Association wants to end deer farming
• Just in: House DFL Lawmakers urge resignation of Minnesota Board of Animal Health President
• Star Tribune: Deer farming and "CWD-infested dump site on public land" in Beltrami County
• Are deer farmers posing against MN DNR rule pausing movement of captive whitetails?
• MN DNR temporarily bans movement of farmed whitetails in state to protect wild deer health
• 5 more MN deer farm herds exposed to CWD; Beltrami carcass dump site inquiry continues
• News release: U of M testing finds presence of CWD prions at Beltrami Co. carcass dump site
• BAH: Southern Minnesota CWD investigation identifies new infection in Beltrami County
• Concerned about CWD in MN deer? Learn about new research from MNPRO's Peter Larsen 
• Some of the science at the center of Update on Chronic Wasting Disease Efforts hearing
• VIDEO: MNHouse passes bill for process to extend funding for ENRTF projects for one year 
• Session Daily: Experts want to study how CWD flows in state's waterways 
• Sen. Andrew Lang seems behind the curve on current funding & progress of CWD test research
• VIDEO: University of Minnesota scientists share CWD research, search for test with lawmakers
• Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund plan from U of M for CWD diagnostic test 
• Peter Larsen slideshow: Development of Advanced Diagnostic Tests for CWD by U of M 

Images: From Representative Miller's email. Online here at his official website at the Minnesota House.

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