Here in rural Minnesota, Bluestem finds that many of our neighbors are concerned about the decline of pollinators. One action that helps bees and other pollinators is to provide habitat (though this in itself doesn't solve the complex matrix of habitat, parasites, pesticides and fodder that factors into the problem).
A storm-damaged area of Loren Thompson Park will soon see new life with the planting of a pollinator garden.
The Baxter City Council learned about plans for the garden—which represents a partnership between the city's parks and trails department, the Crow Wing Power Green Touch program and Crow Wing County Master Gardener Ken Lueken—at its Tuesday work session.
Rick Pederson of Crow Wing Power said the park seemed a good fit for the program, which recently wrapped up a three-year project in Berrywood Park. The program provides funding up to $1,000 per year toward improving parks. . . .
Pederson said the goal of the garden is to introduce a more natural environment for pollinators while restoring the landscape from the storm damage. Attracting butterflies and bees offers an opportunity to educate the public about their importance, Pederson noted.
"I didn't realize how big of a deal pollinators actually are, in terms of our food stocks," Pederson said.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, pollinating animals assist in pollinating more than 75 percent of flowering plants and almost 75 percent of all crops.
"Often we may not notice the hummingbirds, bats, bees, beetles, butterflies and flies that carry pollen from one plant to another as they collect nectar," the FWS website states. "Yet without them, wildlife would have fewer nutritious berries and seeds, and we would miss many fruits, vegetables, and nuts, like blueberries, squash, and almonds, not to mention chocolate and coffee, all of which depend on pollinators."
Recent studies on the populations of pollinators indicates a precipitous decline for a multitude of reasons, including habitat loss and disease. The FWS notes planting pollinator gardens, which offers a variety of nectar and pollen sources, is one way to help.
The educational aspect of a garden like this meant encouraging people to install gardens like this one at their homes, he said.
"It's a living classroom for the public in general," Lueken said, noting youth projects in the past have resulted in young people encouraging their parents to plant pollinator gardens. . . .
We're happy that the project has already educated Otter Tail Power's Green Touch coordinator about the value of pollinators. If the company ever gets around to developing solar gardens, perhaps it would consider planting pollinator habitat around them. All the cool kids are doing it.
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It could be worse: ordinary Minnesotans might not even have a seat at a summit at all.
Witness what appears to be the original design for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and Environmental Initiative's Pollinators Summit on February 12.
We posted about that and took a screenshot (above). The webcache for the page shows the original copy from January 4, in which the event was listed as free and open, but for which space was limited, is still online (and we have screengrabs of that as well).
A few days later, state legislators received emails from the Minnesota Commissioner asking them to register for the pollinator summit if they were interested--and that the summit itself was to be an invitation-only event. UPDATE: It's not clear whether all state legislators received these invitations. We will be checking on Monday to see [end update]
Legislators from both parties forwarded the email from Minnesota Department of Agriculture Dave Frederickson. Here's the text, which was posted on January 8, four days after the original "free and open to the public" copy had appeared online:
From: "Frederickson, Dave (MDA)" <dave.frederickson@state.mn.us> Date: January 8, 2016 at 4:47:22 PM CST To: [redacted] Subject:Invitation to Minnesota Department of Agriculture Pollinator Summit
January 8, 2016
Dear Representative [redacted]
I am writing to invite you to participate in the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s Pollinator Summit, to be held on February 12, 2016 at the Wellstone Center located at 179 Robie Street East, Saint Paul, Minnesota. This summit will convene the full spectrum of Minnesota’s insect pollinator experts and interested stakeholders—from beekeepers to landscapers to farmers—for a day of information-sharing and collaboration on potential solutions that will protect and support Minnesota’s insect pollinators.
Pollinators are an irreplaceable public resource. Insect pollinators, such as bees, butterflies, wasps, flies, and beetles, are critical for the pollination and production of crops and the health of native flora and landscapes. Some are especially valued for their beauty and place in our culture, like the monarch butterfly and the honey bee.
However, Minnesota’s insect pollinator populations, both domesticated and wild, are in decline. This summit will bring the full range of interests who can play a role in protecting Minnesota’s insect pollinators together to identify challenges and propose broadly-supported solutions that will address this decline, particularly those strategies that could be implemented by state agencies in the near term.
I encourage you to join us for a full-day summit on February 12, 2016, where we will tackle these issues collaboratively and ensure that future generations will continue to enjoy the food, landscapes, and other societal benefits that depend on our insect pollinators. You can see the agenda for the day here.
Due to the fact that space is limited, this event is an invitation only event. You can register for the event here.
If you have any questions or concerns about the event, please feel free to contact Greg Bohrer at Environmental Initiative (gbohrer@environmental-initiative.org) or Assistant Commissioner Matthew Wohlman at the Department of Agriculture (matthew.wohlman@state.mn.us).
Due to limited space, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and Environmental Initiative have reserved remaining registrations for invited issue experts that are essential for a productive and informed conversation.
Contact Greg Bohrer at 612-334-3388 ext. 111 with questions or to be added to a waiting list for this event.
This seems rather peculiar, since one would think that the planners would simply have reduced the number of open seats by the number of invited "issue experts." We do not know of any conferences where the experts aren't simply including in the head count for planning.
But those "stakeholders"--landscapers, farmers and other folks that the Department of Agriculture saw fit to invite--got on the guest list.
Not us. Not the young millennials we know who work in sustainable rural and urban ag. Indeed, the only people we know who got invites are some legislators.
We understand that space is at a premium, though the Wellstone Community Center isn't exactly tiny. According to the Event Space page for those wishing to rent the space:
The Wellstone Center is a 93,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility that opened in 2006, offering a wide range of distinctive venues for any size or style of event and features a free parking ramp. We provide a unique setting for intimate groups of ten or twenty, banquet rooms perfect for 75 to 120, performance space seating for 250, or an open gymnasium for up to 800, plus the luxury of using your own caterer.
Couldn't concerned citizens be worked in there somehow? Through the miracle of the Internet, satellite locations might have been set up around the state or remote access (it's being done for stakeholders by the MPCA for the Clean Power Plan).
Will the presentations and sessions be live streamed and videotaped? Minutes kept and distributed? This would seem to qualify as a public meeting--it was advertised as such on the only place it was made public, regardless of how little it was promoted.
Gatekeeping blues
We registered at the time we discovered the page and do hope that our standing as a member of the public still qualifies us to be there. We've kept the confirmation of our registration that was sent us.
Perhaps nearly ten years of writing about Greater Minnesota politics--and a column in Hutchinson's paper before that will validation our registration.
Perhaps our education--we were elected into Phi Beta Kappa at Hamline and can understand science and math as well as the literary arts and philosophy--qualifies us.
Perhaps those years spent on the policy committee of the Minnesota Farmers Union, or our many years as an organic farmer's daughter and gardener in our own right is enough for a seat.
Or maybe we just had to know someone.
Screengrab: The original event page on the Environmental Initiative website.
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As an ardent vegetable gardener who raises and preserves much of our own food, we've been writing for years about the need to craft sound policy for pollinators, which help produce much of what people eat. We're all stakeholders in the health of our state's pollinator population.
With the decline of bees and other pollinators, we're always on the lookout for discussions about pollinator best practices and chances for our readers to participate in the exploration of policy. Thus, we're pleased to find news of (and a chance to register for) the Minnesota Department of Agriculture Pollinators Summit on Friday, February 12, 8:00 am--4:30 p.m., at the Wellstone Center in St. Paul.
With pollinator policy still a hot topic in the Minnesota legislature, we urge concerned readers to get to this day-long event, which is free and open to the public, since policy frameworks are often drafted in these sorts of informal events or by task forces before lawmakers formally convene. Likewise, agency personnel might not hear from concerned citizens unless an event like this is open to the public.
It is a day-long commitment, however, and so registration shouldn't be taken lightly, especially since space is limited. Come prepared to work.
The event is co-hosted by the Environmental Initiative, which has posted a link to information about the event under its Our Work/Environmental Policy drop down menu. Here's the post:
Pollinators are an irreplaceable public resource. Insect pollinators, such as bees, butterflies, wasps, flies, and beetles, are critical for the pollination and production of crops and the health of native flora and landscapes. Some are especially valued for their beauty and place in our culture, like the monarch butterfly and the honeybee.
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is convening the full spectrum of Minnesota’s insect pollinator experts and interested stakeholders—from beekeepers to landscapers to farmers—for a day of collaboration to identify solutions that will protect and support Minnesota’s insect pollinators. The goal of this summit is to identify challenges and propose broadly-supported solutions, particularly strategies that could be implemented by state agencies in the near term.
Participants should come prepared to discuss current efforts and offer specific policy and program ideas that will protect and support Minnesota’s insect pollinators. This summit, and its associated outcomes, will better position our community and state agencies to implement strategies that will reverse the decline of our insect pollinators, both domesticated and wild. [emphasis added]
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Due to limited space and a desire to accommodate and engage the greatest possible range of interests and perspectives, we ask that organizations limit their attendance to no more than two individuals. Register »
Contact Greg Bohrer at 612-334-3388 ext. 111 with comments or questions.
Environmental Initiative is working on behalf of Minnesota Department of Agriculture to convene this summit. Per our contract with the State and Minnesota Statutes 13.04, Enviornmental Initiative will provide the names and contact information for all individuals participating in the summit to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
Here's a screengrab of the page:
The agenda is embedded below. The event is free and open to the public, as the Environmental Initiative notes, and we encourage all people who hope to learn and craft meaningful pollinator policy to register ASAP. Space is limited, and so only two people per organization. The agenda:
a nonprofit organization that builds partnerships to develop collaborative solutions to Minnesota's environmental problems. The organization:
Plans and hosts events for environmental leaders from businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies to share information, network, and learn from one another.
Facilitates environmental policy conversations between diverse stakeholders.
Takes action and implements on the ground environmental projects to improve our air, land, and water.
As a catalyst, convener, or implementer, Environmental Initiative develops creative solutions to environmental problems with our partners.
Among those listed on the group's Members and Sponsors page are Flint Hills Resources, Great River Energy, Xcel Energy, Aveda, Barr Engineering, Otter Tail Power, Enbridge, Minnesota Environmental Partnership, Tiller Corporation, Polymet Mining, Minnesota Agri-Growth Council, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, The Nature Conservancy, University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment and the Sustainable Farming Association. Check out the full list here.
Photo: A pollinator on a wild aster, via the Environmental Initiative page about the summit. It's great that the public is invited to this event, since we are all stakeholders in food. We have registered and urge all who are interested in pollinator policy to register ASAP (above); Screengrab of the page inviting the public (below).
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A garden plant labeled “pollinator friendly” would no longer need to be free of insecticides, under a change in state law moving through the Legislature.
Last year, after pressure from gardeners and environmentalists, lawmakers passed a rule that nurseries could not market plants as bee- and butterfly-friendly if they were grown with the controversial class of pesticides called neonicotinoids, which have been implicated in the global decline of honeybees and other insects.
This year, the nursery industry has successfully pushed back. New language approved by the House Monday and before the Senate as early as today, says nurseries can advertise a flower as good for bees and butterflies as long as it’s not toxic enough to kill them after one sip of nectar or single load of pollen.
“There is a level of pesticide that is safe for pollinators,” said Tim Power, head of government affairs for the Minnesota Nursery and Landscape Association. “Last year’s law was passed based on an emotional response rather than scientific facts.”
Advocates who supported last year’s rules change say the new language is misleading to gardeners, who assume that a label with a bee or butterfly on it means that it’s safe for insects.
“It’s not friendly,” said Kristy Allen, a Minneapolis beekeeper who testified in favor of the original law last year. “It’s like saying, well, it’s OK to eat this food that has a little bit of poison because it won’t affect you right away.”
Moreover, it makes the law unwieldy, said Vera Krischik, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota who studies insecticides and insects. . . .
Find out how by reading the rest of the article. This being the case, Bluestem recommends buying only certified organic plants and seeds, or buying from a local nursery that you know doesn't use pesticides.
Photo: Bees, an insect which consumer hope to help, but the Minnesota legislature appears to be a-okay in poisoning just a little bit.
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Months after rural voters helped Republicans reclaim the majority in the Minnesota House, lawmakers in both parties are looking to weaken environmental laws tied to agriculture.
One of the most bizarre illustrations of this trend is the move to strip consumer labeling language from Minnesota law. Scheck reports:
State Sen. Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls, is pushing language that removes the definition of a "pollinator lethal insecticide" from state statute. Those include the neonicotinoid class of insecticides that some researchers have linked to the deaths of bees and other pollinators.
Dahms' move has the backing of the pesticide industry. The lawmaker said he worried the definition of the insecticide was loosely drawn.
"The terms and the facts just aren't there," Dahms said. "We don't have any limits. We don't describe what a lethal plant is. We don't have any targets and it's very vague. And that is why I'm asking for this to be repealed."
What's peculiar about this effort is that there's nothing in Minnesota statute about banning the use of these insecticides by farmers, nurseries or consumers. The definition was inserted in law as part of an effort to make sure that plants and seeds treated with neonicotinoids were not marketed to consumers as "pollinator friendly."
Alarmed by declines in the populations of bees and other pollinators, many Minnesotans want to create islands of pollinator-friendly habitat in their gardens and landscapes. As Solomon Gustavo reported last October in Representatives hold pollinator conservation forum in Montevideo:
Pollinators, like butterflies, moths and particularly honeybees, are integral members of the Minnesota River Basin, doing the part of fertilizing plants by transporting pollen. [Rep. Rick] Hansen spoke of four detriments to health of pollinators - poor habitat, poor nutrition, parasites and pesticides. Pesticides weaken pollinator food sources and habitat, which weakens pollinators that are finished off when fighting parasites below full strength.
Common sense would tell us that a consumer labeling law that helps ensure that gardeners who want to help bees are buying products that will in fact help bees is sound policy.
Representative Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul), one of the architect of the threatened pollinator-friendly consumer labeling law, tells MPR:
But state Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, says the farm lobby push is all about politics. Groups representing agriculture and other rural interests are looking for a payback for showing up at the polls last November, he said.
Hansen worries the state's environmental laws will be weakened as lawmakers from both parties compete for the support of rural business interests.
"The money is the pollution in the system here in the Minnesota Legislature," Hansen added. "And it's getting worse."
The bees can't turn all that delicious honey into gold and hire lobbyists or start a SuperPAC to create independent expenditure ads and direct mail. Only Minnesotans contacting their legislators to demand that they leave this common sense measure in place can help protect pollinators from that "pollution in the system . . .in the Minnesota legislature."
Photo: Bees can't hire lobbyists and create SuperPACs. All they do is make honey as they pollinate plants that produce much of our food.
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Bluestem Prairie thought our readers might enjoy the anecdote as much as his colleagues did:
. . .I just gotta say, this bee stuff fascinates me. I got called by a local farmer in my district, a good friend of mine from growing up actually in the southern part of the state when we lived in Rochester, and I got conned into getting these bees and going and picking them up and putting them in my trunk.
Well, I had no idea they were actually like [pause] ...
[Committee member]: Like bees?
[Laughter]
They were. . .when you grabbed the box and it gets shaken, you get a little worried, especially when you realize that you don't have a truck, and the thing's sitting in your trunk and there's plenty of spots to get through. So I drove as fast as I could back home, within the perimeters of the law of course.
Here's the audio in YouTube format:
Metsa later learned that the hive did not survive the winter as they were "southern bees," and that "Russian bees" might have been better for Minnesota's winters.
Pollinators, like butterflies, moths and particularly honeybees, are integral members of the Minnesota River Basin, doing the part of fertilizing plants by transporting pollen. Hansen spoke of four detriments to health of pollinators - poor habitat, poor nutrition, parasites and pesticides. Pesticides weaken pollinator food sources and habitat, which weakens pollinators that are finished off when fighting parasites below full strength.
Metsa's "Russian bees" are a strategy beekeepers are adopting to cope with parasites as the strain is better able to fend off the varroa mite, according to the USDA's 1999 Agricultural Research Service article, Varroa-Tolerant Bees Keep Hives Buzzing.
While the strategy is new to Representative Metsa, researchers and beekeeper have looked kindly on Russian bees for many years. The strain was first imported by USDA researchers in 1997. Russian bee colonies are better able to survive cold weather in part because fewer bees winter over in the hives. They also emerge from the hive later than the Italian strains do, and thus are not so stressed by the relative lack of pollen of our later springs.
Obviously, researchers have years of work with Russian bees. The bill that was the subject of consideration when Metsa shared his hilarious education was a matter of tweaking language about consumer labeling for plants and seeds as pollinator friendly. It's mostly a provision for home gardeners who want to provide habitat for bees that won't inadvertently kill the bees.
Under a law passed last year in Minnesota, plants and seeds cannot be labeled as pollinator-friendly if they have been treated with a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids, which are lethal to bees.
One point that the committee was trying to work out was which fund in the Minnesota Department of Agriculture would pay for spot testing of seeds and plants to make sure lots met the labeling requirements.
Photo: Not Jason Metsa's trunk, but bees in a trunk nonetheless.
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Establishment.The Agricultural Utilization Research Institute is established as a nonprofit corporation under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. The Agricultural Utilization Research Institute shall conduct onsite and applied research, promote the establishment of new products and product uses and the expansion of existing markets for the state's agricultural commodities and products, including direct financial and technical assistance for Minnesota entrepreneurs. The institute must establish or maintain facilities and work with private and public entities to leverage the resources available to achieve maximum results for Minnesota agriculture.
Here in our remote mountain village nestled among the verdant organic coffee plantations of Chippewa County, we swear we heard hardworking coffee farmer neighbors cheering at testimony given Thursday during the joint meeting of the Minnesota House Ag Policy and Ag Finance Committees and streamed live online.
What prompted the dancing in the snowy fields from Maynard to Montevideo?
If you have an idea for a new ag-related product or business you would like to bring to market, but don’t have the expertise to make it happen, Minnesota’s Agricultural Utilization Research Institute may be able to lend a hand.
James Curren found that out not long ago when he began trying to create value from the byproducts generated during the roasting process at Javacycle – the small fair trade organic coffee business he founded in Fairbault. Curren shared his story at a joint hearing the House Agriculture Finance and Policy committees Thursday, where the work of AURI was the first item on the agenda.
Although he knew the chaff produced after the beans are roasted had potential as fertilizer, Curren did not have the technical expertise to turn what had been a waste product into a new opportunity for sales and growth. Then he heard about an organization that could help.
“AURI very quickly just connected those dots and within a fairly short period of time we were in the lab testing,” Curren said. “This was just way beyond anything that was in my scope or capacity, and as a small business owner, AURI was critical at getting me to the point where now I’ve got product on the shelf.”
AURI was created by the Legislature in the 1980s during troubled economic times for farmers who faced high interest rates and low commodity prices. Its mission was to add value to the state’s agricultural products. That mission continues today. . . .
Is it any wonder that the humble coffee farmers on the fertile slopes of the Red River Valley found their coffee just a little bolder today?
Some other guy talked about soybean feed research for baby pig and fish food, but the response of area soybean growers seems to have been far more stoic.
Photo: The coffee plantation lovingly tended by our dear friend Johann Valdesen. We do enjoy a good coffee, and hope that some day those tiny bags of organic coffee chaff fertilizer might be scaled up so that the product might be used at larger farms of a couple of acres or more.
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Bluestem has covered pollinator policy debates in the past few years, and so we're excited to learn that this event is happening in our county (via CURE):
State Representative Rick Hansen (DFL – South St. Paul) will be hosting a Pollinator Public Policy Forum on October 10, 2014 at the Clean Up the River Environment (CURE) Office in Montevideo.
Discussion about pollinators and their importance to our food and eco systems, the agriculture industry as well as recently passed pollinator legislation will begin at 11:00 AM followed by a question and answer session. There is no cost to attend.
In addition to Rep. Rick Hansen (presenter), Rep. Andrew Falk will be in attendance and Rep. Jean Wagenius (chair, House Environment Finance committee) has been invited.
The CURE office is located at 117 S. 1st Street in Montevideo.
For more information please call 320-269-2984.
Founded in 1992, CURE works towards its mission to focus public awareness on the Minnesota River Basin and to take action to restore and protect its water quality, biological integrity and natural beauty for all generations. Visit www.cureriver.org for more information.
Photo: A bee on a prairie coneflower, via CURE.
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Bluestem Prairie followed two new pollinator bills throughout the session, pleased by the passage of both measures into law. They're now getting more attention.
Why it matters: Protecting bees is necessary to ensure an adequate supply of food can be produced economically. . . .
Minnesota has taken a stand for the bees with two new laws. One prohibits labeling plants as beneficial to pollinators if the plants have been treated with a detectable level of pesticide. And another law creates a scientific panel to investigate bee deaths and compensate beekeepers whose hives are destroyed by pesticide use.
The law provide adequate protection for farmers or others who apply pesticide. Pesticide applicators only have to pay financial damages to beekeepers if it is determined they improperly applied the pesticide. If it is determined pesticide killed bees but was applied properly, a fund set up by the state would compensate beekeepers up to $20,000 each.
Those applying pesticides — be it farmers or homeowners — have a responsibility to use them correctly and without affecting neighboring property. Pesticides are best applied very early in the morning, or better yet very late in the day as bees are not foraging at the time. And if gardeners choose to use pesticides, they should resist using them when flowers are in bloom.
The alarming collapse of pollinators is not simply a problem for beekeepers or those who love honey. About one third of the food we all eat is dependent on pollinators. That’s why the search for improved pesticides and other measures to protect bees is so important.
We've been enjoying the abundance of pollinators at our large garden we share at some friends' farm--and the bees' help with pollinating our plants. Having left milkweed for the monarch butterflies. we admire their caterpillars simply for their lovely striped selves.
Photo: A beekeeping demonstration in Fillmore County, June 2014. Via Representative Rick Hansen's Facebook page.
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They note the successful of earlier pollinator legislation in the Minnesota (both of which have made into law in some form or the other) on the campaign page:
1)SF2727 (Dibble)–Beekeeper Compensation–This bill concerns bees and other pollinators killed by pesticide. If the pesticide applicator cannot be identified or the pesticide applicator is identified and found to have followed application instructions and restrictions on the product’s label, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) could compensate the bee owner from state Pesticide Regulatory Account. The Pesticide Regulatory Account contains the fees and penalties paid to MDA by pesticide manufacturers, distributors, and applicators.
SF 2695 (Dziedzic) This bill defines “pollinator lethal insecticides,” and says that nurseries cannot label plants as pollinator-friendly if they’ve been pretreated with these pesticides. It prohibits labeling or advertising a plant, plant material, or nursery stock as beneficial to pollinators if the plant was treated with an insecticide that was absorbed by the plant and, as a result, the plant is lethal to pollinators.
Why are we not surprised to see Senator Dibble's name on a bill that's good policy? Thanks also to Senator Dziedzic.
Restitution is an old concept, and another Hansen bill, HF2908, hopes to provide for compensation when bee death caused by pesticide poisoning, establish a pollinator emergency response team, and provide a civil liability for bee deaths. The final item is restitution.
The money for compensation when "the loss of the bees was likely caused by an acute pesticide poisoning and the source and applicator of the pesticide cannot be determined" will come from the pesticide regulatory account. When an investigation determines that bee deaths came from a particular applicator, the bill provides that the applicator pay the beekeeper for the bee deaths:
A pesticide applicator that has knowingly violated the law resulting in the death of bees kept for commercial purposes is liable for any actual damages resulting from the violation, including any economic damages associated with loss or damage to bees kept. In awarding damages under this section, there is a rebuttable presumption that the economic value of a damaged or destroyed bee population is consistent with the value assigned to bees by the commissioner of agriculture . . .
It's not rocket science, but an old concept, and should help Minnesota's struggling beekeepers. This proposal shouldn't be considered controversial and deserves passage.
The Minnesota House and Senate have approved a bill designed to protect bees and other pollinators from systemic insecticides in garden plants.
The legislation says, “A person may not label or advertise an annual plant, bedding plant, or other plant, plant material, or nursery stock as beneficial to pollinators if the annual plant, bedding plant, plant material, or nursery stock has been treated with and has a detectable level of systemic insecticide.”
University of Minnesota bee expert Marla Spivak says the legislation is an important protection for bees and reflects a new consumer demand.
“Nurseries, to stay in business, will have to pay attention to this new and strong consumer demand,” she said.
The bill takes a good step to ensure that nurseries pay attention to insecticide use on flowering plants according to Spivak. With many other legislative initiatives passed this session to help pollinating insects and birds, “it puts Minnesota in the lead nationally,” Spivak said. . .
Sadly, ten legislators couldn't bring themselves to support this common sense measure. They are: Mark Anderson, Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, Steve Drazkowski, Sondra Erickson, Tom Hackbarth, Jerry Hertaus, Brian Johnson, Jim Newberger, Joyce Peppin and Peggy Scott.
Wednesday, the Senate approved an amended version of the bill, 60-0. Returned to the House, the pollinator buzzkill widened, although the bill pased 111-17.
The Journal of the House records these no votes: Tony Albright, Mark Anderson, Mike Benson,Kurt Daudt, Greg Davids, Steve Drazkowski, Sondra Erickson, Dave FitzSimmons,Pat Garofalo, Tom Hackbarth, Jerry Hertaus, Joe Hoppe, Ernie Leidiger, Jim Newberger, Joyce Peppin, Duane Quam, Peggy Scott.
Benson, FitzSimmons and Leidiger are retiring after this session. Constituents of the remaining 14 naysayers might contact their legislators and ask them what they have against a common sense bill that prevents plants treated with chemicals that will kill bees from being labeled as "pollinator friendly."
Uffda.
Meme: Bees mean life, since most fruits and vegetables need pollinators to create produce.
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. . . The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has added new language to neonicotinoid insecticides, with a bee icon that signals the pesticide has the potential to harm bees. Earlier this year, beekeepers, including one from Minnesota, sued the EPA, arguing the agency has not effectively regulated the use of neonicotinioids.
In the meantime, consumers can effect change by asking retailers not to use the products and boycotting those that do, Engels said.
"I think we can all make a difference," she said.
Tuesday, the Minnesota House of Representatives voted 118 to 10 in favor of HF2798, a bill prohibiting plants treated with pollinator lethal insecticide from being labeled or advertised as beneficial to pollinators.
It doesn't the sale of plants treated with "pollinator lethal insecticides," merely prevents customers who wish to help bees and other pollinators from being misled. It's a truth-in-labeling consumer bill that will help Minnesotans help bees and other pollinators.
Sadly, ten legislators couldn't bring themselves to support this common sense measure. They are: Mark Anderson Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, Steve Drazkowski, Sondra Erickson, Tom Hackbarth, Jerry Hertaus, Brian Johnson, Jim Newberger, Joyce Peppin and Peggy Scott.
A friend recommends calling them Kurt Daudt and the Neonicotinoid Nine.
It's not just a feel-good measure. Pollinators are essential for a significant percentage of food from plants, ranging from apples to squash.
Meme: Bees mean life.
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Missing from both reports? A bipartisan bill making its way through the Minnesota House that would prevent the sale of bee-lethal products as bee-friendly:
A person may not label or advertise a plant, plant material, or nursery stock as beneficial to pollinators if it has been treated with and has a detectable level of a pollinator lethal insecticide.
The growing season is fast approaching, and this year, many gardeners have a new worry: how to attract pollinators to their gardens without poisoning them in the process.
It’s a complex and controversial topic that caught fire last summer after the release of a study claiming that many plants sold at garden centers, even so-called “bee-friendly” plants, had been pre-treated with neonicotinoids, a widely used class of pesticides that some believe is a factor in bee die-offs or colony collapse disorder.
Many home gardeners had never heard of the “n” word before last year.
“One woman called me, crying, because her whole hedge, that she’d planted in part for pollinators, came from a company that uses neonics,” said Paige Pelini, co-owner of Mother Earth Gardens inMinneapolis, which recently hosted a seminar on the topic. “I’m glad people are worked up about it,” she said, although she doesn’t want gardeners to panic and overreact.
Neonicotinoids’ role in bee decline, as well as how long the pesticide remains active and toxic, is unknown and being studied. However, some garden retailers are already taking action. Minneapolis-based Bachman’s recently announced that it had removed products containing neonicotinoids from its store shelves, and was eliminating the use of neonicotinoids in its nursery stock and outdoor plants at its growing range in Lakeville. . .
Gertens will also be a neonicotinoid-free zone but the article notes that:
. . . it’s up to the biggest players in the market: Home Depot and Lowe’s. … Action from these two major companies will shift the whole supply chain in the right direction, making it much easier for small and midsize local stores to source neonic-free plants.”
If passed into law, the bill would give consumers confidence that they genuinely are helpful provide pollinators healthy habitat and food.
The pesticides that are now synonymous with the demise of honeybees don’t do much for the farmers who use them, according to an analysis by a national environmental group that could open up a new front on the fight to protect a beloved pollinator that is critical to American food supplies.
The Center for Food Safety said Monday that a growing body of independent scientific evidence shows that the pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, rarely improve crop yields. They are one of the most widely used agricultural chemicals in the world and a hot-button issue in the rising public concern over the fate of the honeybee.
Today almost every corn and soybean seed that is planted each year on 170 million acres across the Midwest is coated with an insect neurotoxin that is absorbed by the growing plant. They are commonly used in back-yard products, and are intrinsic to most nursery plants, which now come “pre-poisoned” as a defense against insects. . . .
Bayer CropScience, the primary manufacturer of neonicotinoids, disputed the conclusion and said that its own proprietary research shows that the pesticides are a valuable tool, and increasingly important as the world’s growing population will require even more food production per acre. . . .
Read both articles, and ask your state representative and senator to support the pollinator (and consumer) friendly bills.
HF2908, which provides compensation for death caused by pesticide poisoning, establishes a pollinator emergency response team, and provides civil liability for bee deaths, is moving on to the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Finance Committee. No hearing date has been scheduled.
Last spring, the Minnesota House Minority Caucus tried using a pollinator habitat bill authored by Jeanne Poppe (DFL-Austin) as a sign of "DFL Waste." The attack quickly faded as news reports of pollinator population crashes made headlines in Greater Minnesota newspapers.
Bees, butterflies and other pollinatora play an important role in agriculture, since most plants depend upon them for pollination to bear fruits and seeds.
And then there was the concern of ordinary Minnesotans who noticed that bees, butterflies and other pollinators just weren't making the rounds in their gardens and local parks. A House hearing in December confirmed what people were seeing in their own backyards.
Tonight in West Saint Paul, Representative Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul) will moderate a Pollinator Policy Forum at the Dakota Lodge – Thompson Park Center, 1200 Stassen Lane, from 6:30-9:30 p.m. Hansen has assembled an impressive panel of experts and authorities from the pollinator world, as well as Minnesota beekeepers.
A former employee of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Hansen still owns family farm and hunting/conservation land in Southeastern Minnesota where he grew up.
Via a press release, here's the schedule. This is a great opportunity for hear more about the situation of our pollinators and is worth a drive.
State Representative Rick Hansen (DFL – South St. Paul) will be hosting a Pollinator Public Policy Forum today, February 10, 2014 at the Dakota Lodge of the Thompson Park Center in West St. Paul.
Presentations from state agencies will begin at 7:00 PM followed by a panel discussion and question and answer session. Doors open at 6:30 PM — with displays available — and there is no cost to attend. The full agenda is below.
MEETING: Monday, February 10, 2014 Time: 6:30 – 9:30 P.M. Place: Dakota Lodge – Thompson Park Center 1200 Stassen Lane, West Saint Paul, MN 55118
AGENDA
I. Introductions: Rep Rick Hansen
II. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources: Pollinators on Public Lands
Bob Welsh – Wildlife Habitat Program Manager
III. Minnesota Department of Agriculture:
Pollinator Report Kevin Cavanaugh – Pesticide Management Advisor
Joe Zachmann – Manager, Pesticide and Fertilizer Management Division
IV. Board of Water and Soil Resources: Pollinators on Private Lands Dan Shaw – Hydrologist
10 MINUTE BREAK
V. Minnesota Zoo: Butterfly Research
Dr. Erik Runquist – Butterfly Conservation Biologist
Photo: Rep. Hansen visiting his farm in Bristol Township, Fillmore County, Minnesota. via Facebook. He probably will wear more formal working attire at the forum tonight, which is offical business.
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No one was more passionate about developing local food systems in this region, and few have done more to create the tools for local growers and Minnesota farm families to sustainably produce vegetables in deep winter.
With a two-year, $76,000 grant from the Bush Foundation, the Southwest Regional Sustainable Development Partnership (SW RSDP) will create a winter greenhouse growers association. The project is in memory of winter greenhouse pioneer Chuck Waibel, who had received a Bush Fellowship for his work several months before he passed away from cancer on August 16, 2013. Under the grant, Carol Ford, Waibel’s widow and partner in winter greenhouse work, will help establish the growers network beginning this month.
The grant’s purpose is to develop a mutual assistance network of small-scale, sustainable-food entrepreneurs using high-efficiency winter greenhouses in west central Minnesota, and potentially across the state. Some of the benefits envisioned for such a network include more producers bridging the cold climate season by growing fresh food during winter months, building a model distribution system for greenhouse users that will allow for increased sales to institutions, and price discounts for bulk supplies bought across the network.
“Through the generosity of the Bush Foundation, we are able to continue Chuck’s work and spread his enthusiasm for local foods and winter greenhouses in Western Minnesota,” said Kathryn Draeger, statewide director of RSDP and a principal investigator on the grant. “The Partnerships helped him and Carol to publish ‘The Northlands Winter Greenhouse Manual’ in 2009 and he served on an advisory panel for a recent grant we received from the US Department of Agriculture. We are pleased to continue Chuck’s legacy.”
“With this grant we seek to promote and develop the Deep Winter Producers Association (DWPA) and to hold a conference later on to share the association’s progress,” according to David Fluegel, Executive Director of SW RSDP and the other principle investigator on the grant. “While the project is based in west central Minnesota, we believe it will create knowledge that is applicable statewide and region-wide.”
Ford said she envisioned the conference highlighting three components of a successful local food model: the efficient, resilient passive solar greenhouse structure; the association’s ability to encourage new farmers; and the economic advantages of a local food hub distribution system.
Carol Ford will have an office at the West Central Research and Outreach Center/Extension Regional Office in Morris. In addition to co-authoring the "Northlands Winter Greenhouse Manual", she has presented at numerous conferences in the upper Midwest about winter produce production and has provided workshops for beginning producers. She has hosted many tours and talks in her greenhouse in Milan, MN and continues to consult with and support winter growers. She will also continue to work part-time as an Executive Office and Administrative Specialist for the Division of Science and Math at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
Are people who shop at Whole Foods part of a fringe culture trying to limit choices in the grocery marketplace?
Chris Ashworth, chair of the Animal Agriculture Alliance and technical service veterinarian for Elanco Animal Health, wants you to believe they are, if we are to trust a story in the West Central Tribune.
Ashworth cited a white paper prepared by Elanco president Jeff Simmons, including that by 2050 the expected 9 billion in the world will require 100 percent more food, with 70 percent of that food coming from efficiency-improving technology.
Schlosser reports that Ashworth believes that the media inflates consumer desire for local and organic food, creating "perceived issues" in the "developed world" . . . "with technology, especially how technological advancements relate to the production of their food."
A international consumer survey conducted by The Nielsen Company in 2010, Ashworth claims, paints a far different picture:
An international consumer survey conducted by The Nielsen Company in 2010, reviewing 28 studies from 26 countries involving 97,000 consumers, shows a much different picture, with 95 percent of consumers choosing food products from modern, conventional agriculture with taste, cost and nutrition as their leading concerns.
In contrast, only 4 percent are “lifestyle” buyers who pursue luxury or gourmet products and organic and local foods. The study identified the remaining buyers as “fringe” buyers supporting food bans, propositions and restrictions.
“We cannot let a small fringe speak for the rest of us,” Ashworth said. “It is really important that you and I have choices in food.”
Ashworth used an interesting statistic to illustrate his point: there are about 350 Whole Foods stores in the country, gaining significant press coverage and social media buzz for marketing organic foods. In contrast, there are 21,000 Dollar General stores in the nation, not getting much press at all, but the company is the second highest seller of gallon containers of milk in the country.
Take that, dirty hippies. We certainly can't have minority dictating choices.
Unfortunately, the study itself, reported in Simmons' white paper, doesn't say that only four percent of food buyers purchase organic and local foods. What it does say:
Research shows that the two groups tend to overlap in many areas,
depending on personal tastes and preferences. In other words, these
are not distinct market segments. In 2010, 75 percent of traditional food
buyers in the United States also routinely bought organic foods, even if
they cost more. Barcode scanner data prove this, just as they show that no U.S. consumers purchase only organic products. Similarly, many “locavores” regularly purchase products that can’t be grown in their local climate, such as the bananas and coffee beans enjoyed by citizens in the EU.
Thus, while the study created a category of elite "Lifestyle Buyers," painting this group as the elite club that grabs media attention for organic and local foods, as Ashworth does, distorts actual buying patterns, wherein three-quarters of the population routinely organic foods. Fringy weirdos all, we're sure.
As far as those Dollar General stores, Bluestem thinks that they most have had explosive growth in 2013, since the Star Tribune's Janet Moore reported in January 2012's The rising value of the dollar store:
. . .Dollar General recently announced that it would open 625 more stores
this year -- almost two a day -- across the country with "some" in
Minnesota, said Tawn Earnest, spokeswoman for the Tennessee-based chain.
She declined to be more specific. Although it is the largest chain
nationally with more than 9,800 stores, Dollar General only has 16
stores in Minnesota, many of them outstate. . ..
That's nearly 10,000 new stores in 2013 to reach Ashworth's figure of 20,000 Dollar General, and we're only in the beginning of October. Alas: a trip to Dollar General's Investors' Relations page claims that the chains counts over 10,700 stores.
Maybe Ashworth means all dollar stores in all chains. Huffington Post Business reported in late August that the industry is closing in on 25,000 stores.
A Nexis All-News search for "Dollar General" in the last month fetched 1579 hits, while Whole Foods Market fetched up 1005 hits, so Ashworth must not get out much if he only sees media about Whole Foods.
Perhaps he can pick up a gallon of milk at a Dollar General on the way back to the airport and tweet a selfie holding the jug to help the cause.
Photo: Dr. Chris Ashworth
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Guest column by John G. White Originally published in the Clara City Herald
The Rev. Chuck Waibel knows he’s dying. After weeks of stomach pain he went in for tests that came back pretty ugly. Stage Four colon cancer. “All that’s left now is handling the pain,” he said, “and going out in style.”
He was given a short calendar. Weeks, perhaps. Months on an outside chance.
“Going out in style” is classic Waibel. Count the eccentric reverend, author, teacher, muse and winter greenhouse instigator as one of the River Valley Liberals. He and his wife, Carol Ford, met via an internet singles site and a match couldn’t be more perfect. She’s a writer and musician. On our second year of the Prairie Fest Chili Cook-off, Carol played with one of her best buddies, Colleen Frye, the bluesy fiddler. Carol is of flowery garb and classic hair ware, Chuck of tropical shirts, suspenders, a full beard and short ponytail.
The two have caught a lot of growing curiosity and notoriety thanks to their passive solar winter greenhouse concept, a brainchild of Chuck’s, called Garden Goddess Greenhouse. Their courses at the home site in Milan, and their co-authored book, “The Northlands Winter Greenhouse Manual,” have been well received.
Chuck also wrote a most interesting novel called “Phoenix, Minnesota.” A sci-fi story, his book puts us into a future when corporate agriculture has run amok, confining the non-GMO and sustainable folks into forced ghettos. Very little imagination is needed to realize the ghetto is actually Milan, and that his characters are mostly based on people we River Valley Liberals know. Part of the fun is figuring out who is who.
“I know those on both sides,” Chuck said with a characteristic smile. “LOOZers are independent-minded folks,” he said of his protagonists. “They are hard working and self-confident. They are sophisticated, not decadent. They are well-read and thoughtful. They are the epitome of ‘Think Globally, Act Locally.’ Their culture is civic, not corporate, and I thank Ralph Nader for that phrase. They are aware of popular culture, but aren’t impressed by it. They are citizens of the world, but with their feet firmly on the Earth. Their spirituality tells them that we have abused Mother Earth too far.”
After knowing him for years and doing stories on their greenhouses, it was a joy this past winter when the Belle and I attended one of his “courses” at Elk’s Bluff Greenhouse outside of Montevideo. This was the latest of a growing number of passive solar winter greenhouses based on Chuck’s original “but ever-changing” concept.
We were there for a general love of fresh winter greens, although for me in particular, it was from a statement Carol had made shortly after a harrowing trip home from work at the University of Minnesota-Morris: “Afterwards, during the blizzard, I sat in our greenhouse in humid, 80 degree air while the winds and snow blasted the world outside the panels.” If you remember this past winter, and most of us do, you can imagine how this caught the attention of a man raised in the near south.
On this cold, wintry day, Elk’s Bluff was pleasantly warm. Parkas were ditched as we sat in the packaging room adjacent to the greenhouse as the heat drifted in. Joining us were people who had driven from as far north as Duluth, and from St. Cloud and South Dakota. It was typical Chuck — part mad scientist, part engineer and part community organizer while being wholly unorganized. An amazing accomplishment. Yet, he was in his subtle glory as the winds tore across the prairie. But, that was “yesterday.”
On Saturday afternoon he and Carol were at the Mayo Clinic trying to resurface after days of continuing tests. His oncologist, a Dr. Kasi, made a surprise visit after becoming worried about seeing Chuck slumped down in his wheelchair and the negative chart work ... and after doing a bit of online research. Apparently the doctor entered the room while a nurse was attending to Waibel and pronounced, “Do you who this man is? Go on, Chuck, tell her about yourself.”
Here, in Carol’s words, is what happened next: “And so Chuck did, because it doesn’t take much encouragement to get him talking about passive solar greenhouses and sustainable local foods systems. And as he did, I saw the energy build back up in him, telling the nurse about the ideas and hopes that will not let him fall back and let bad luck take him down.
“So the talk turned to his future chemo treatment, about the need for a port to be placed in his chest, about the healing time required before treatments start and about how soon we will return to Mayo (mid-November) to see how things are going and make adjustments to treatment. I think this was the first time we have heard talk about the future since all this began.”
The Rev. Charles Waibel is finding style, thanks to an oncologist who cares.
For more on Charles Waibel, check out:
Land Stewardship Project's Farm Beginning graduates profile of Carol and Charles, The Door into Summer by Brian DeVore
The four-year-old mayor of Dorset, Minnesota--a champion of ice cream and his unincorporation hamlet's restaurants--is running for re-election by urging voters to stuff the ballot box. The Associated Press investigates here in a story that's as viral as it is adorable.
He's not alone in the youth takeover of political news today. The Mankato Free Press reports in Madelia girl lunches with Obamas that the nine-year-old, whose recipe for garden stir-fry earned her lunch at the White House, favored one host over the other:
Kaitlyn Kirchner didn't miss a beat — didn't hesitate even a second —
when asked who was cooler: Barack Obama or Michelle Obama.
“Michelle,” she said, then let go of a giggle that gave away her age.
The 9-year-old from Madelia got the chance to meet them both Tuesday in
the White House. Mom went along, too, but it was Kaitlyn who got them
there. Her recipe for garden stir-fry was among the winners of a
national contest. . . .
For Kaitlyn, the highlight was meeting the first lady (she met both
Obamas). She got to meet Michelle Obama face to face when they arrived,
as each junior gourmet got to shake the first lady's hand and ask her a
few questions. . . .
It didn't surprise [Lea Kirchner] that her daughter thought Michelle was the cool one in the Obama house.
“She has thought that from day one when he was inaugurated and she was in preschool,” Kirchner said.
Dancing after gathering recipes beats collecting metadata any day, so Bluestem concurs with Kaitlyn.
Here's the Madelia girl's recipe for Garden Stir-Fry. Kaitlyn writes:
"This is my favorite recipe because it tastes great and it is fun to
make! My mom, sisters, and I grow all the vegetables in our garden,"
says Kaitlyn. "We pick the vegetables in the morning, wash and cut them,
and have them ready for our dad to stir-fry when he arrives home for
lunch. We serve the recipe with cooked quinoa and a glass of soy milk."
Dad is a chiropractor in Madelia. Here's a charming video from the University of Minnesota's Institute of Advanced Study featuring, Kaitlyn's mom and Bryce Wolle, talking about gardening together on Wolle's property. Kirchner talks about her ambition as a mother trying to introduce more locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables into children's diets, while Wolle shares his joy in supplying fresh watermelons and other produce to senior citizens.
A small city of 2,308 in Watonwan County, Madelia is situated beside the Watonwan River.
Photo: Kaitlyn Kirchner.
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A friend calls Bluestem's attention to former one short-term state senator Al DeKruif's letter to the editors in today's Mankato Free Press The young man prefaces the link in his email with this observation:
DeKruif is campaign SO hard with this letter. There's so much Republican red meat that the cow's still breathing.
To the contrary, Bluestem believes that while DeKruif's tossing his red meat, that beef is so aged that many of the complaints in Democrats used bait and switch on business have been hanging so long that they meet the traditional definition of having a couple of maggots nosing their way around the quarter.
Take this one:
We need legislators who understand the significant impact of
government regulations on farms and businesses. We all agree that clean
air and water are important, but what happened in the 2012 election when
folks voted for so-called business friendly Democrats is a whole other
story.
In the House of Representatives, Rep. Jean Wagenius, DFL-
Minneapolis, became chair of the Environment, Natural Resources and
Agriculture Finance Committee (another “great” Democrat idea by the way :
combining Agriculture with the “Environment” committee).
Rep.
Wagenius is far from business and agriculture friendly being an extreme,
environmentalist from the metro area; thus, the bait and switch. One
votes for a legislator who seems business friendly based upon their
campaign literature but one gets a chair of a major committee in St.
Paul who knows nothing about agriculture, has never lived on a farm, and
is not remotely business friendly.
One in five jobs in Minnesota
is related to the agriculture industry [3]. The best interests of rural
Minnesota and agriculture are not met by a chair who has no knowledge
in those areas.
The two women in charge of House agriculture committees spoke before
more than 70 people at the first Agri-Growth policy luncheon of the year
last week.
Rep. Jeanne Poppe, DFL-Austin, chairs the House Agriculture Policy
Committee. Rep. Jean Wagenius, DFL-Minneapolis, chairs the House
Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Finance Committee.
The duo introduced themselves at the Jan. 29 luncheon, with Poppe
telling of her upbringing in rural Houston County and Wagenius talking
about her Douglas County farm.
When it was time for questions, no one broached the subject that has
everyone talking -- putting agricultural finance with environment and
natural resources – but Poppe brought it up.
In an interview after the meeting, Poppe said it's better to bring up
the issue and deal with it in a way that's constructive. The more people
are open about it, the more opportunity there is for discussion, she
said.
And who controlled the Minnesota House at that time? Republicans, who must have found that "Democrat" idea attractive. As Bluestem has noted before, suburban/exurban Dakota County representative Dennis Ozment (R-Rosemount) chaired that commitee.
Wagenius owns land in Douglas County and her husband, Dwight, grew up on
a farm. Her grandfather was a truck farmer. They have trees and gardens
on their Douglas County land where research is conducted in cooperation
with the Chicago Botanic Garden and the University of Minnesota.
This isn't the first time ag finance has been combined with other areas.
In the 2005-2006 session, the Agriculture, Environment and Natural
Resources Finance Committee was chaired by Rep. Dennis Ozment,
R-Rosemount.
Poppe mentions that people had been judging Wagenius by what they had heard about her; one description passed around was "mother earth feminist." Oh noes! What was left out was the context (from a Wagenius campaign page):
During this time Jean and Dwight bought an old and very rundown
farmstead in Douglas County near where Dwight had grow up. They could
nourish family ties and the love of the outdoors at the same time. Jean
went though Master Gardener training which prompted Koryne Horbal, a
founding mother of the DFL Feminist Caucus, to call Jean a "mother earth
feminist." The name stuck.
So an activist's reaction to Master Gardener training is more significant than the knowledge gained about soils, plants, and the like from the training itself--and owning a farm near rural in-laws? Grandfather a farmer? Fiddle-dee-fiddle! Al DeKruif thinks a Minneapolis address means person's interests--even that economic interest in the Douglas County farm, which is a matter of public record--couldn't possibly have anything to do with rural Minnesotans' interests.
Perhaps DeKruif has gone completely "paleo" conservative, ingesting truly "high meat" before writing his letter.
While the deep red Republicans in the First may scrape the slime from the hanging slab of this red meat talking points and eat up, Bluestem thinks that Southern Minnesotans will listen to Ag Policy chair and Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Finance Committee member Jeanne Poppe (DFL-Austin) instead.
Divisive Republican rhetoric pitting rural and urban Minnesotans against each other isn't just showing its age. It's getting pretty rank in the heat, now that summer's finally here.
Photo: DeKruif's aging beef, going bad even while fresh. As far as the public goes, "Democrat" Governor Dayton is now enjoying his highest job approval rating ever, at 57 percent, and the "Democrat" tax package received 52 percent support of those polled outside of the Twin Cities (which liked it) and metro suburbs (didn't like it). Indeed, we wonder if DeKruif be a happier man if he built a place in the burbs, where his choice cuts would welcome at the local backyard BBQ. That might make it difficult to run against Congressman Tim Walz. Details. Details.
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enjoy reading posts like this on Bluestem Prairie, consider throwing
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A year ago, the Minnesota Legislature blocked a grant that [University of Minnesota associate professor of entomology Vera] Krischik received from the Minnesota Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources to study how treating trees for emerald ash borer is affecting bees.
This year the Legislature passed a pollinator habitat bill. It appropriates $150,000 a year to improve bee habitat and increase public awareness of pollinators. The legislation also requires state agencies to create a report on pollinator habitat and to establish a process for reviewing the safety of neonicotinoid insecticides.
The legislation reflects a growing public concern about bees, said Marla Spivak, a Distinguished McKnight Professor in the University of Minnesota's entomology department.
When Republicans controlled the Minnesota legislature, they blocked bee research. Thrown out of office, they chose to use the common-sense bee legislation--introduced by Ag Policy chair Jeanne Poppe (DFL-Austin), a Greater Minnesota lawmaker the Republicans had early on praised for her knowledge of farming (Mountain Lake Republican Rod Hamilton wanted her committee to handle all ag finance)--as the mascot for endless prattling about wasteful spending.
There's more of the cheap sound bites from House minority leadership, then this curious exchange:
There is Republican support for legislation to help pollinator habitat. Rep. Paul Torkelson (R-Hanska) co-sponsored HF595, which would direct DNR to establish criteria for a program to provide enhanced habitat for honey bees, and other pollinators, on state lands. But that language was not included in Wagenius’ bill. . . .
Language is one thing, but bees don't feed off words, however much those words might be fodder for Republican talking points. The article continues:
Wagenius said educating people about the importance of pollination and pollinators was a good idea and that, while she shared Torkelson’s concerns, her bill does more than the original legislation asked for, directing DNR to include growing plants that are good for pollinators throughout the growing season when doing restorations.
“You did not include any money,” Wagenius said. “We spent some money and we changed policy.”
Words are like honey, but money will actually sweeten the hive. Is that wasteful spending? Bees are an economic driver:
Bluestem believes it's better that the Republicans are left in the minority to whine about bee research, rather than controlling the legislature and blocking it outright, as their buzz is far worse than their sting these days.
All of the statements, opinions, and views expressed on this site by Sally Jo Sorensen are solely her own, save when she attributes them to other sources.
The opinions, statements, and views of contributing writers are their own.
Sorensen, editor and proprietor of Bluestem Prairie, serves clients in the business and nonprofit sectors. While progressive in outlook, she does not caucus with any political party.
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