Bill Would Put Corporate Ag
Interests in Charge of Millions of Public Dollars
Proposed Minnesota state
legislation establishes a self-appointed board of corporate ag interests that
oversees millions in public funds. The House Omnibus Ag Finance Bill
(House File 1437) aims to put corporate ag interests in charge of millions in
public funds with no accountability. The bill creates the “Agriculture,
Research, Education, Extension, and Technology Transfer Fund” and establishes a
board that controls the funding. This board is made up primarily of corporate ag
and commodity groups that appoint their own representatives to the board. This
self-appointed board controls these public funds and the bill has no provisions
for transparency or accountability.
The fund focuses on
productivity, not sustainability. The bill directs the funds to focus
on “investments that will most efficiently achieve long-term agricultural
productivity . ” Directing research dollars to
focus only on productivity, with no regard for stewardship of our land and water
or profitability for farmers, is bad policy. This language needs to say
“productivity and sustainability.”
It’s hard to believe such a bad
idea could get so far. This is such a bad idea that the Star
Tribune newspaper on Monday wrote a major editorial opposing the idea: "New Minnesota ag board would set troubling
precedent." The editorial says, in part, “Essentially, the legislation
creates a pot of public money and turns it over to interest group
representatives with vague language about how it could be spent.”
Take action now to let
your legislators know that you don’t want special interests put in charge of
public dollars.
Act Now to Stop Legislation that Puts
Corporate Ag Interests in Charge of Millions of Public Dollars
|
No comments:
Post a Comment