Bluestem was entertained by the frame in Jeff Beach's story for AgWeek and other news outlets in the Forum news service chain.
In College professor ready to learn as new Minnesota Senate Ag Committee leader, Beach begins:
State Sen. Aric Putnam admits he doesn’t know a lot about farming, but as a scholar, he’s ready to take a crash course to prepare to lead the Minnesota Senate Agriculture Committee.
Putnam, a Democrat from St. Cloud, was named to his leadership post just before the Minnesota Farmers Union state convention and went to the event Nov. 19 to be introduced.
“The first thing I said was, ‘I don't seem like a clear fit for this,’” Putnam said. “I still think that the committee is a space to do great things for the whole state. So the full title is Agriculture, Rural Development and Broadband, so there's a lot of stuff in that jurisdiction that I think I can help with.”. . .
As someone who was born in Mankato and grew up across the Minnesota River from St. Peter and Gustavus Adolphus College, the notion of a college professor as "the other" in Greater Minnesota seems peculiar. I tweeted the maps of public and private colleges in the state:
That prof-as-other-than-rural frame in the Forum chain "College professor ready to learn as new Minnesota Senate Ag Committee leader" still baffles me, a country girl. Maps suggests lots of profs don't have 612 area codes. #mnleg #mnsenate pic.twitter.com/Z7qeriXxXS
— Sally Jo Sorensen (@sallyjos) November 26, 2022
Bluestem suspects a buried conflict in the way-down column Beach copy. It's the agenda of the Walz administration's Department of Agriculture--which follows Putnam's sense that Greater Minnesota might be best served by a wider agenda that serves beyond the agribusiness industry:
“Making sure we have resources to deal with avian influenza and the potential African swine fever outbreak in our state,” [Department of Agriculture Commissioner Thom] Petersen said. “We were hit pretty hard this last year, the (avian flu) virus has kind of hung around.”
Petersen said despite the change in Senate leadership, he seeks bipartisan support.
“Yes, the DFL has a majority but we’re still going to need to work on things … reach across the aisle,” Petersen said.
Some of the things that are important to the Ag Department for possible funding:
- Value-added processing.
- Meat processing.
- Soil health and developing third crops.
- Biofuels.
- Bringing in the next generation of farmers.
“We'll be looking at a very large ask through bonding to make sure that our Rural Finance Authority has enough money to make loans to farmers. Our beginning farmer loan is our number one loan,” Petersen said.
Putnam said a new generation of farmers is a priority."One thing that's important to me from talking to farmers, my community and just from my day job, I'd like to see us do some real intentional work on getting more people into farming, especially young people," Putnam said.
We agree it's important to get new people into farming, but we're hoping Putnam's vision of the Agriculture, Rural Development and Broadband doesn't just shrink to agribusiness lobbyists' interests alone. We do hope that he works closely with Brooklyn Center DFL Samantha Vang, his counterpart at the House Ag committee (she was an impressive vice-chair during the 2021-2022 session).
Nonetheless, there's more in the Forum article about the administration's more departmental agenda than the professor's potential broad vision as a resident and leader in Greater Minnesota.
Related posts
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- Drawing the line at family: contrasting cases of Republican state senate candidates in SD, MN
- After wasted weeks in Ag committee, Westrom drops deer farmer special non-drought demands from Minnesota Senate drought aid bill
- Fact check: Did Rep. Paul Anderson say WI farmers got $100 million drought relief?
- MN House passes drought relief bill 101-33
- House to vote on drought relief Thurs afternoon; Senate burdens its bill with deer farmer aid
- Minnesota House Ways & Means Committee passes drought relief bill while senate dawdles
- Second Walz administration drought relief bill meets with GOP crabfest in committee
- Drawing the line at family: contrasting cases of Republican state senate candidates in SD, MN
- After wasted weeks in Ag committee, Westrom drops deer farmer special non-drought demands from Minnesota Senate drought aid bill
- Fact check: Did Rep. Paul Anderson say WI farmers got $100 million drought relief?
- MN House passes drought relief bill 101-33
- House to vote on drought relief Thurs afternoon; Senate burdens its bill with deer farmer aid
- Minnesota House Ways & Means Committee passes drought relief bill while senate dawdles
- Second Walz administration drought relief bill meets with GOP crabfest in committee
Photo: State Senator Aric Putnam, from the December 2020 St Cloud Times article, Get to know St. Cloud Senator-elect Aric Putnam and his philosophy. Photo by Dave Schwartz, St. Cloud Times.
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