2024 Minnesota Legislative Session Wrap-Up

As the clock struck midnight on Sunday, the Minnesota Legislature concluded its 2024 session. During the past few months, lawmakers primarily focused on revenue-neutral policy changes and some targeted funding of specific programs. During the session, Land Stewardship Project members made some progress on advancing our priorities and built a strong foundation to hit the ground running with larger proposals in 2025.

LSP members were particularly successful around time-sensitive issues, such as the southeastern Minnesota water quality crisis and the prioritization of emerging farmers within Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) programs. It’s clear that the hard work of LSP and our members paid off in some areas. It’s also clear we need to continue to build power and shift the public narrative in other areas, particularly in addressing the root causes of consolidation, water pollution, and climate change.

Policy Accomplishments

Land Access & Emerging Farmers

The Legislature kept the existing definition of an emerging farmer intact and maintained its use within the Emerging Farmers Office, Emerging Farmers Working Group, Beginning Farmer Tax Credit, Technical Assistant Grant Program, and The Good Acre’s Local Emergency Assistance Farmer Fund (LEAFF) Program. Learn more about this issue in our recent blog here.
Lawmakers ensured the final language changing prioritization for the Farmland Down Payment Assistance Program and Beginning Farmer Equipment and Infrastructure Grants work for emerging farmers and organizations serving emerging farmers. The Farmland Down Payment Assistance program will now prioritize eligible applicants who raise specialty crops, hemp, and/or cannabis, and/or had gross farm profit of $100,000 or less the previous year.
The Beginning Farmer Equipment and Infrastructure Grant program will now prioritize eligible applicants experiencing limited land access or limited market access. “Limited land access” is defined as an individual farming without ownership of land who a) is under a lease or other rental arrangement of no more than three years (the person leasing or renting the land must not be related to the lessee or renter by blood or marriage) or b) rents land from an incubator farm where a majority of the farmers grow specialty crops, cannabis, and/or hemp. “Limited market access” is defined as an individual who grosses no more than $100,000 per year from the sale of farm products.
An additional $300,000 for Beginning Farmer Equipment and Infrastructure Grants will now be available.

Soil Health

The Legislature provided an additional $495,000 for the Soil Health Financial Assistance Program, targeted for southeastern Minnesota, where the need for widespread adoption of soil health practices is most urgent to address the nitrate pollution crisis.
It’s now assured that equipment purchased through a Soil Health Equipment Grant may be rented to neighbors.

Regional Food Systems

There is now an additional $125,000 for the Farm to School and Early Care Program.
Lawmakers clarified that in-home childcare providers are eligible for the Farm to School and Early Care Program.

Water Quality in Southeastern Minnesota

The Minnesota Legislature took significant steps forward to ensure that southeastern Minnesotans have safe drinking water — a direct result of a petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that LSP signed onto with partner organizations calling for immediate action on the nitrate crisis facing the region. LSPers in southeastern Minnesota have laid the groundwork for this action for decades by speaking up about nitrate pollution in their communities. While more work needs to be done to clean up our aquifers and address the root causes of nitrate pollution, it’s exciting to see the Legislature take action on this issue. Lawmakers passed:

$2.8 million for home water treatment for private wells in southeastern Minnesota at or above the Environmental Protection Agency’s safe drinking water limit for nitrates of 10 mg/L.
$2.79 million from the Clean Water Fund to inventory, test, and provide education and outreach around private wells in southeastern Minnesota.
$3 million from the Clean Water Fund to monitor and evaluate nitrate levels.
$850,000 for grants to feedlots under 1,000 animal units to implement manure management projects that improve water quality or reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as dry manure management systems. Anaerobic manure digesters are not eligible for this grant. This legislation was championed by the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy.

Setting a Foundation for 2025

Introduced comprehensive manure management reform legislation and secured 19 co-authors on the bill.
Introduced and secured a House hearing on bipartisan comprehensive soil health legislation.
Introduced an updated version of the Next Generation Minnesota Farmer Act in the House.

What Stalled

Unfortunately, a few bills that LSP was actively supporting did not move forward, primarily due to lack of political will on the part of a handful of legislators within the Minnesota Senate Majority. What did not move forward included:

A mandatory environmental impact statement (EIS) for feedlots over 10,000 animal units, which was strongly opposed by organizations like AgriGrowth, the Minnesota Farm Bureau, and Minnesota Milk.
Redirecting an existing 40-cents-per-ton fertilizer fee from the Agriculture Fertilizer Research and Education Council (AFREC) toward private well drinking-water assistance. LSP advocated for these funds to go toward supporting on-the-ground soil health practices and programs to help with prevention in the field. There were improvements made to AFREC, including reauthorizing the fee for 5 years instead of 10, and adding sustainable agriculture and public health representatives to the Council, which LSP suggested in our written testimony and discussed with legislators during meetings.

LSP would have liked to have seen much stronger versions of these proposals as a way to have a bigger impact on the root causes of consolidation and pollution. So it’s disappointing that even when it came to these watered-down proposals, a handful of legislators in the Minnesota Senate Majority continue to side with Big Ag at the expense of small and mid-sized farmers, rural communities, and our water and climate.

Organizing Accomplishments

Thousands of LSP members and supporters made their voices heard this legislative session in a variety of ways:

Three LSP steering committees and working groups made up of 25 LSP members set LSP’s legislative agenda and led LSP’s legislative strategy.
Dozens of LSP members shared their stories by testifying in legislative hearings focused on water quality, emerging farmers, soil health, and more. 
In February, members of LSP’s Climate Policy Steering Committee spent a day at the Capitol to meet with Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Aric Putnam, Senate Environment Committee Chair Foung Hawj, House Agriculture Committee Vice Chair Kristi Pursell, along with the Governor’s office, about LSP’s climate priorities. 
In February, LSP members from southeastern Minnesota traveled to the Capitol to attend a hearing and hold a press conference about the nitrate crisis facing Minnesotans in their communities.
In March, LSP held our largest-ever Family Farm Breakfast and Day at the Capitol with approximately 305 attendees, about 140 of whom stayed to meet with their legislators. Thirty-four percent of attendees were farmers this year. During our Lobby Day, we also held a town hall Meeting with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Rep. Pursell, and MDA Emerging Farmers Office Director Lillian Otieno.  
In March, LSP members, staff, and partners authored a Star Tribune commentary in support of prioritizing emerging farmers within Minnesota Department of Agriculture grant programs.
In April, 10 LSP rural, urban, and farming members participated in LSP’s Animal Ag Day at the Capitol, where we delivered a letter from 85 farmers asking legislators to co-author our  manure management reform bill. Folks met with and shared their stories with eight legislators, most of whom became co-authors of our legislation!
Nearly 1,000 people took action by signing a petition, adding their name to a farmer sign-on letter, or contacting their legislators about LSP’s legislative priorities. 
Over 450 people attended virtual or in-person LSP policy campaign events, other than the Family Farm Breakfast.

Join Us

Please join LSP as a member, renew your membership, or make a special gift to support our policy and programmatic work.  LSP is only as strong as our membership, and each of us plays a part in creating the food and farm system we want and need. And please consider sharing this blog with your legislators, your neighbors, your family, your friends, your social media networks, and people in your community — it takes all of us to transform our farm and food system!

For more information on LSP’s state policy work, contact policy manager Amanda Koehler via e-mail or see our state policy web page.