Union members were locked out by American Crystal Sugar after they overwhelmingly rejected a contract proposal at the end of July.
The Obama administration announced new job initiatives in Peosta, Iowa, Tuesday, a day after discussing the economy in Cannon Falls, Minn. Recommended by the White House Rural Council, the initiatives are specifically geared toward growing the economy and creating jobs in rural America.
Rep. Collin Peterson, a Minnesota Democrat who serves as ranking member on the House Agriculture Committee, said that he is “pretty well resigned that we’re not going to get anybody in the House that’s going to have much of a connection to agriculture on the [super] committee.”
While on tour of flooded areas near the Missouri River in Iowa Monday, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann characterized a government settlement with black farmers who were discriminated against in the 1980s and 1990s as fraud, eliciting outrage from the farmers’ advocates.
President Barack Obama is expected to create a new advisory council Thursday that will focus on quality of life and economic issues facing rural America. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, former Iowa governor, will likely lead the effort.
Much of the attention on corn-based ethanol has focused on the role that this supposedly renewable fuel is playing in driving up global food prices. Now environmental groups and some conservative politicians are pointing out another problem — corn-based ethanol consumes the bulk of federal funding on renewable energy and the big oil companies that blend the ethanol into gasoline are collecting subsidies to the tune of about $6 billion a year.
A bipartisan slate of 30 legislators — from liberal Minneapolis Rep. Phyllis Kahn to conservative Rep. Mark Buesgens of Jordan — are proposing legislation to allow Minnesota farmers to grow industrial hemp. The Industrial Hemp Development Act would legalize hemp plants while maintaining strong restrictions on marijuana possession. The bill even includes the collection of fees from farmers as revenue to run the program; during time of budget deficits, it won’t cost the state anything.
A bill introduced in the Minnesota Legislature on Thursday would make it legal for farmers to grow medical marijuana and sell it to dispensaries in states where marijuana can be legally used for medicinal purposes. The Medical Marijuana Production and Export Act would direct the state government to develop a strict licensing plan for the potential grower and cites a positive economic benefit for the state’s agricultural sector.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is giving citizens a new way to access a wealth of county-level data. The Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America is an online mapping tool that captures more than 60 statistical indicators encompassing demographic, economic and agricultural data from across the U.S. By releasing the county-level data, the USDA hopes to spur additional economic development.
Legislators in the Minnesota House and Senate are proposing a repeal of a decades-old program to protect the Mississippi River. HF95/SF39 would eliminate the Mississippi River Critical Area (MRCA), a program that since the 1970s has provided planning and management for the 72-mile stretch of the Mississippi from Ramsey in northern Anoka County to Hastings in southern Dakota County. River advocates say the repeal of the program could have significant impacts on the environmental and aesthetic benefits of the river.
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