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Ask Your MN Representative to Co-Author LSP’s Manure Management Reform Legislation

April 24, 2024

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Over the past few decades, the dominant push in agriculture has been for farms to grow larger and for the industry to consolidate into a few hands to maximize profits. One of the many ways the biggest have been able to get bigger at the expense of small and mid-sized farmers, rural communities, and our water and climate is by externalizing the costs of pollution. When an aquifer becomes contaminated due to agrichemical and manure runoff, the people who draw from that aquifer are forced to spend up to tens of thousands of dollars to access safe drinking water. If the operation itself had to pay the costs for getting clean water to the community, it would most likely have to do business quite differently or not exist in the first place.

In southeastern Minnesota, for example, approximately 9,000 people have unsafe drinking water. Meanwhile, the Legislature is using public dollars to assist with getting these people access to clean water while doing little to address the root of the problem. The Land Stewardship Project strongly supports funding to ensure Minnesotans have safe drinking water, but without a more holistic approach taxpayers will spend decades subsidizing Big Ag’s pollution with no end in sight.

In fact, Minnesota feedlot rules have not been updated in nearly 25 years. According to data from the 2022 U.S. Agriculture Census, between 1997 and 2022, Minnesota lost 78% of our dairies and the average dairy herd increased in size by 277%. Our current rules and regulations do not reflect what our agricultural system looks like today.

That’s why, this Minnesota legislative session LSP’s Animal Agriculture Steering Committee has been working to introduce and build support for legislation that supports comprehensive manure management reform. The bill was introduced by Rep. Andy Smith and Sen. Mary Kunesh in March. Our goal this legislative session is to show legislators that Minnesotans want our lawmakers to prioritize this proposal in 2025 and to secure 40 legislative authors and co-authors on the bill. So far, we have 15 authors.

To make sure we reach our goal, we need your help. Can you take just two minutes to ask your Minnesota Representative to co-author this legislation, if they aren’t already?

Take Action HERE!

The Bill:

• Lowers the threshold for required manure management plans to include the largest 16.75% of feedlots.
• Adds the testing wells and application fields identified in or affected by a manure management plan for baseline nutrient load levels as a part of approving a manure management plan.
• Requires mapping of manure management plans to identify overlapping manure management plans and areas of potential over-application.
• Creates a tiered fine system for unremedied violations directed toward improving water quality in the fined feedlot’s watershed.
• Strengthens setbacks for manure application from municipal and private wells, hospitals, sinkholes, bodies of water, or wetlands.
• Slowly increases county feedlot inspection rates from 7% of feedlots in the county each year (approximately once per 14 years) to 20% (once per five years).
• Increases Minnesota Pollution Control Agency feedlot inspection rates for the largest 13% of feedlots to once per year.

Please take action now and ask your Representative to co-author this legislation today! 

Want to get more involved in LSP’s Animal Agriculture Campaign? Join our next Animal Ag Campaign Action meeting on Tuesday, May 28, at 7 p.m., via Zoom. Learn more and register here.

 

Category: Action Alerts
Tags: CAFO • clean water • factory farm • livestock production • manure • Manure spills • Minnesota Legislature • nitrate pollution

Contact

Amanda Koehler, LSP Policy Manager, e-mail

Upcoming Events

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May 2025

Saturday May 31

10:00 am – 12:30 pm
Multi-species Pasture Walk
Saturday May 31
10:00 am – 12:30 pm
Multi-species Pasture Walk
872 320th Ave, Frederic, WI 54837, USA

The NW Wisconsin Graziers Network, River Country RC&Dand UW-Madison Extension invite you to a multi-species pasture walk hosted by JohnsonFamily Pastures LLC. The farm is located five miles east of Frederic in PolkCounty. This educational event willemphasize direct marketing, multi-species grazing, part-time family agricultureand silvopasture development. Light snacks and refreshments will be provided.

TheJohnson Family Pastures farm is home to Chris and Tamara Johnson and their twochildren. They raise grass-fed beef, silvopastured goats, and recently raised anumber of other species. The farm consists of about 160 acres of gently rollingpastures, silvopasture, and forest. Use of both temporary polybraid fencing andhigh tensile permanent fences allow for rotational grazing of small ruminants andout-wintering of beef cattle. Use of long-term farm transition strategies, cost-shareprograms, silvopasture development with goats, regenerative grazing, cattlehandling facility and bale grazing will be discussed along with answering anyand all questions from pasture walk participants.

An extensive and diversified direct marketing programhas been developed by Tamara and Chris that has included farmer markets, e-maillists, newsletters, website ordering, on-farm freezer storage, and other strategiesand tools to support direct sales and services for their customers.  Come and learn all about their successfulapproach.

For more information,contact Chris Johnson at 920-960-4475 or Lynn Johnson 715-225-9882 at NW Graziers.

June 2025

Wednesday June 25

2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
LSP-PFI Grazing Field Day at Hoosier Ridge Ranch
Wednesday June 25
2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
LSP-PFI Grazing Field Day at Hoosier Ridge Ranch
Hoosier Ridge Ranch, 15998 Wabasha County Rd 26, Altura, MN 55910, USA

Over the last 50 years, livestock have left many farms. Eric Heins is doing the reverse: bringing cattle – and their poop, pee and hooves – back to his land. Come see how Eric is using his Normande-shorthorn crosses in a variety of grazing situations. During this Land Stewardship Project-Practical Farmers of Iowa field day, you can view permanent pasture, where Eric (like everyone) is battling the cool-season grass takeover. You’ll also learn how Eric is using his cattle in cover crop mixes, prairie and woodlands.

Since purchasing the farm in 2020, Eric has converted the cropland to pasture. He also custom-farms a diverse rotation of crops, covers and small grains on neighboring farms, including an established prairie on Iowa Department of Natural Resources land. A possible bonus: Eric is hoping to have virtual fence collars by the time of the field day, but no guarantees!

A meal featuring Hoosier Ridge Ranch burgers will follow the field day.

See & Discuss

  • Cash-flowing the conversion to pasture on owned versus rented cropland
  • Stockpiling pasture for winter grazing
  • Mechanical buckthorn clearing for silvopasture
  • Grazing agreements on DNR prairie and neighboring cropland
  • A sudangrass mix after a canning pea crop
  • An extended rotation with oats, barley and Kernza

For details and to register, click here.

Saturday June 28

4:00 pm – 8:00 pm
LSP's Boots & Roots: A Celebration of Land & People
Saturday June 28
4:00 pm – 8:00 pm
LSP's Boots & Roots: A Celebration of Land & People
Dream Acres, Co Hwy 8, Spring Valley, MN 55975, USA

Join Land Stewardship Project members and supporters to kick-start the Driftless summer with an evening of good food, good music, and good times. We’ll have activities for all ages that will get you out in nature, exploring the connection between our region’s farms and your community’s food, land, and water. Bring a side or dessert to share for dinner, and the Dream Acres wood-fired oven will provide locally-sourced pizzas and flat breads. Dinner will be followed by live music and contra dancing by the Crater City String Band.  

To reserve a spot, click here.

Camping sites are available at nearby Masonic Park and Forestville Mystery Cave and Lake Louise State Parks. Camping at Masonic is rustic,first-come-first-serve, free, and does not require a reservation. Fillmore County, who manages the park, only asks that you call the dispatchers at507-765-3874 when you arrive with your vehicle information and phone number in case of emergency. State Park reservations cost $25 a night and can be made online.

July 2025

Tuesday July 15

5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Organic Fruit & Vegetable Field Day
Tuesday July 15
5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Organic Fruit & Vegetable Field Day
1805 Dudley Ave, Falcon Heights, MN 55113, USA

Join U of M researchers and Extension for updates on organic fruit and vegetable research and tour the Student Organic Farm and the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station in Saint Paul. Topics include: organic insect management, integrating livestock into vegetable farms, new crops for Minnesota, irrigation strategies, and more. Free to the public.
 
For details and to register, click here.

Wednesday July 16

9:30 am – 2:30 pm
Russell Hedrick Soil Health Event: Cottonwood County
Wednesday July 16
9:30 am – 2:30 pm
Russell Hedrick Soil Health Event: Cottonwood County
27092 Co Rd 8, Comfrey, MN 56019, USA

Details here.

View Full Calendar

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