Give it a Listen
Episode 374 of LSP’s Ear to the Ground podcast features a discussion with government relations director Laura Schreiber about how the organization’s priorities fared during the legislative session.
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As I write this, the regular session of the 2025 Minnesota Legislature wrapped up with some unfinished business, which means a special session will be required by June 30 to avoid a government shutdown. However, the Agriculture Bill is on its way to the Governor’s desk. That’s good news for several Land Stewardship Project priorities that are addressed in this massive piece of legislation. A big thanks goes out to Agriculture Chairs Rep. Rick Hansen, Rep. Paul Anderson, and Sen. Aric Putnam, as well as all the conferees, for putting together a strong Agriculture Bill. I’d like to take this moment to send a special thanks to all of LSP’s members, allies, and coalition partners who testified, signed petitions, and reached out to lawmakers to push through important pieces of policy during a particularly chaotic legislation session.
And it was chaotic right up to the end. For example, conference committees are the venues where lawmakers meet to hammer out differences between House and Senate versions of specific pieces of legislation. In the case of the Agriculture Bill, that conference committee met on May 9 and there was not another conference committee meeting scheduled prior to the bill being sent back to the House/Senate floor on Sunday, May 18. That means that since there were no public meetings or time to take additional testimony, in recent days I had to make sure I was meeting with the House and Senate Ag Chairs and conferees, as well as staying in close communication with folks at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and partner organizations to stay in the loop and be able to influence the final legislation. It pays to stay on top of the bill-making process to the bitter end, especially when the overall process lacks public transparency. We couldn’t do this kind of work without the support of our members!
Here’s a quick wrap-up of where we landed:
Getting Food from Farms to Kids
In recent years, the AGRI Farm to School and Early Care Programs have been critical for expanding market access opportunities across the state, especially for beginning farmers and smaller operators, as well as for getting healthy, local food to our kids in both schools and childcare settings. Year-after-year there is greater demand for these resources than funding available; in 2023, for example, there were $5.3 million in requests for the program, and currently the state funds it at just $1.29 million.
During the session, LSP leaders and supporters lobbied legislators to support increased funding for Farm to School and Early Care and testified before the House and Senate Agriculture Committees about how this program creates market access for smaller farmers across a range of products, from produce to protein, and makes the cafeteria a classroom for students. LSP, along with our allies, collected 31 letters from farmers and grantees currently engaged in the program, as well as students from Roosevelt High School (shout out to LSP member Chris Macleod for organizing), which were sent to the Agriculture Chairs. We also delivered a petition that collected nearly 500 signatures from farmers, school food service staff, early care providers, partner organizations, parents, and supporters. In April, LSP organized with Aimee Haag, the farm to school coordinator for the Hutchinson, Dassel-Cokato, and Litchfield School Districts, a Farm to School Tour and Lunch that brought together legislators, farmers, agency staff, community leaders, and advocates to see the program in action. This was a fantastic event that highlighted how the positive effects of Farm to Kids expands beyond the school walls or childcare setting, having ripple effects into the greater community.
Thanks to the work of LSP and allies such as the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, the Agriculture Bill that was passed now provides $1.59 million in funding for Farm to School and Early Care the first year and $1.54 million the second year, which represents a $300,000 and $250,000 increase, respectively, over current funding. The new baseline funding for this program starting in 2028 will be $1.63 million going forward, which is also a win from the previous base or “set” amount of $1.29 million.
Public support for local food marketing is more critical than ever, now that the USDA has cancelled future funding for such initiatives. For example, the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program (LFPA) has proven to be a highly effective way to get farmers paid a fair price for food that is then given to food shelves in their community.
Throughout the session, LSP supported legislation that would create a state-level LFPA. Big thanks to Minnesota Farmers Union for getting the bill first introduced with the help of Rep. Fue Lee and Sen. Mary Kunesh. LSP helped organize letters of support from farmers, food hubs, and food banks. We also worked to organize testifiers from Sprout Food Hub in Little Falls and the Village Agriculture Co-op in Rochester. They shared the positive impacts that the federal LFPA program had had for their organizations and communities and what the federal cuts of future funding meant for them.
Legislators heard loud and clear from farmers and advocates about how this is a smart, win-win investment, and as a result the Agriculture Bill establishes a Minnesota version of the LFPA with an investment of $700,000 the first year and $700,000 the second year. This new program is required to source at least 70% of its food from “limited land access farmers” and “limited market access farmers.” These are farmers that do not own land and or have a lease that is three years or less in duration and have less than $100,000 in annual gross sales. The food that is purchased from local farmers must then be provided free of charge to food banks and food shelves.
Land Access
An initiative developed to assist beginning farmers with purchasing farmland — the Minnesota Down Payment Assistance Program — has been overwhelmed with applications since it was established in 2022. During the 2025 legislative session, LSP and our allies worked to improve the program by allowing farmers up to a year (the stipulation is currently six months) to purchase land with awarded funds. And as a result of skyrocketing land prices, LSP and its allies pushed for legislation that would increase the grant award from $15,000 to $25,000 per successful applicant.
Eight members of LSP’s Land Access and Emerging Farmers Steering Committee joined us at the Family Farm Breakfast and Lobby Day and had meaningful conversations with the members and chairs of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees. The Land Access and Emerging Farmers Steering Committee organized a petition signed by farmers and other organizations that was then delivered to the legislative Agriculture Chairs. The petition highlighted the need for a holistic approach to creating more opportunities for land access and called for an increase in the grant award amount. It also asked for an extension of the timeline related to purchasing land with awarded funds. Special thanks to LSP member and Farm Beginnings graduate Derek Ellis, who testified before the House Agriculture Committee about extending the grant timeline.
In the end, the timeline was not extended. However, overall the program will be funded at $1.25 million the first year and $1.25 million the second year, which represents a $250,000 per year increase over the current budget. In addition, each grantee is now eligible for up to $20,000 in funding. We will continue to work with legislators to expand opportunities for greater land access.
Soil Health & Water Quality
During this session, LSP backed legislation that would provide continued funding for the popular Soil Health Financial Assistance Program, which provides farmers resources for purchasing the kind of equipment they need to build healthy soil in an economically viable manner. Given that the program recently received requests worth $5 million, it’s clear there’s huge demand for this initiative’s resources.
LSP’s Climate and Soil Health Steering Committee collected 422 petition signatures from farmers, Soil and Water Conservation District staff and board members, as well as supporters. This petition called for support of soil health legislation and was submitted to the Agriculture Committee Chairs as they headed into final negotiations.
The final Agriculture Bill provides the Soil Health Financial Assistance Program $639,000 in the first year and $639,000 in the second year. There is additional support for this program in the Legacy Bill under Clean Water Funds that would add $1.75 million in the first year and another $1.75 million in the second year. That’s still below meeting the needs of farmers seeking to adopt soil-healthy practices, but it shows continued public support for regenerative farming methods, something that has been growing in recent legislative sessions due to the work of LSP and our allies. Rep. Anderson, the House Agriculture Committee co-chair, shared that the modest legislative funding was due to money Minnesota received from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Smart Food Systems grant program; that EPA money brings $200 million to Minnesota for various initiatives, including the Soil Health Financial Assistance Program.
For the past few years, southeastern Minnesota’s Olmsted County has been implementing a program that pays farmers to grow cover crops, small grains, and forages, as well as utilize rotational grazing. Notably, this program doesn’t just reward farmers for putting in practices — it pays for results. The Olmsted County Groundwater Protection and Soil Health Program is seen as a model for taking a proactive, holistic approach to keeping nitrates and other pollutants out of groundwater.
There were proposals during the session to expand this program to southeastern Minnesota in general. However, in the end, the Agriculture Bill instead provides $75,000 to do a cost-benefit analysis of this program in terms of environmental outcomes. The results of this analysis are due June 1, 2027, and could possibly serve as the basis for eventually expanding the program beyond Olmsted County.
Another program that LSP supported this year was additional funding for the Forever Green Initiative to continue research and innovation into continuous living cover crops like Kernza and winter annuals like pennycress. In the end, the program was funded at $802,000 per year in the Agriculture Bill and received additional support to the tune of $2 million in the first year and $3 million in the second year from the Legacy Bill under Clean Water Funding. There might be more funding for the Forever Green Initiative in the Environment Bill that has not yet passed. Once it’s passed, the Environmental Bill may also end up providing money for developing supply chains that support the kinds of continuous living cover crops Forever Green is developing.
The MDA’s AGRI Livestock Investment Grant Program has long provided funding for farmers looking to add or update their livestock infrastructure and equipment. Climate Land Leaders, an LSP ally, pushed for legislation to help especially beginning farmers purchase equipment that could support practices such as managed rotational grazing. In an attempt to make more resources available to small and medium-sized farmers, the Agriculture Bill now provides a cost-share level of 50% for the first $20,000 of qualifying expenses and 25% for the next $220,000. Thanks to Sen. Rob Kupec for making sure this preferred language was in the final deal.
Some Things to Watch
Here are a few provisions in the Agriculture Bill that LSP was not working on, but which bear watching as they are implemented:
- A new “biofertilizer” program that Rep. Anderson championed instructs the Department of Agriculture — in consultation with the University of Minnesota, the fertilizer industry, and farmers — to create a new biofertilizer innovation and efficiency pilot program that would pay farmers to switch to alternative sources of fertility. Such alternatives might include soil amendments, fertilizers with nitrogen-fixing properties, or biological sources of nitrogen that can reduce commercial nitrogen fertilizer usage. This program, which is based on a similar effort in Iowa, holds some promise for addressing the rampant nitrate pollution problems we’re seeing in places like southeastern Minnesota.
- A study was funded to the tune of $50,000 to develop recommendations for an incentive-based program targeted at agriculture retailers, such as co-ops, which are the main suppliers of fertilizer and fertilizer application services to farmers. The goal is to promote so-called “4R” nutrient management practices. The 4Rs include: the right source of nutrients, at the right rate, and right time, in the right place. The study would also examine the feasibility of pairing such an incentive program with the popular Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program.
Watch your e-mail inbox and LSP’s web calendar for information on a virtual meeting (tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, May 27) where we will discuss the results of the 2025 legislative session in more detail.
LSP government relations director Laura Schreiber can be reached via e-mail.