Thursday, April 23, 2015

Proposed Minnesota state legislation establishes a self-appointed board of corporate ag interests that oversees millions in public funds.

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.




thedatabank, inc.

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