My Agriculture Policy Platform
I have been renting land and grazing cows for the past 10 years. During that time I have worked on a variety of neighbors farms. Growing up, I helped my Grandpa repair old Allis Chalmers tractors (an obsession of his) and spent my high school years working in large pig barns and at an animal vaccine lab.
Many great farm organizations, like Minnesota Farmers Union, have great agriculture policy platforms that I largely agree with. Below are points that I believe set me apart from other candidates, and other advocacy organizations. Thank you for checking it out.
Making it easier for farmers to have healthier soil. Adopting soil health practices is costly for farmers due to the expensive and specific pieces of equipment needed. That’s why state-run soil health programs that provide financial assistance for farmers are transformative not only for farm finances, but for our landscape. Yet it can take years and multiple tries for a farmer to successfully enroll in a program. Minnesota currently ranks the highest in the country for the amount of soil health money we provide, yet we are also first for denials. I’ve experienced these delays with my own farm. We need to create a centralized portal and application system for all soil health grants available across Minnesota so it’s easier for farmers to access this funding and implement measures to save our soil.
Protecting rural taxpayers from reckless federal budget cuts in the Big Beautiful Bill. When the federal government cuts funding for Medicaid and other programs, you shouldn’t have to foot the bill. The reality is that funding cuts make county governments face tough choices: cut services, raise property taxes, or both. This means that rural landowners are often left to pay for the tax cuts given to billionaires and corporations in order for their community to access the services they need to thrive. We can push to implement a tax on Minnesota's top 0.1% earners based on the assessed value of their assets, similar to what California has proposed. This tax would help replace lost federal funding and reduce the pressure on counties and local property taxpayers.
Creating a pilot program to make farming more profitable and more productive with dual-benefit energy production.
Greater Minnesota deserves a vision for energy production for farmers by farmers – one that focuses on productivity and farmland preservation. Farmers can, and have been, using solar panels in creative ways to increase farm productivity by making sure every part of the solar panel has a dual use. By raising a solar panel an additional four feet into the air, the mounting beams of the solar panel can be used as fence posts in fence rows, and cattle can rest under the panels during hotter summers, keeping them cooler and also increasing their productivity. If elected, I will work to launch a pilot program to assist farmers’ with costs of raising the panels higher, mounting on existing buildings, or over feedlots. This will allow farmers to farm creatively while also adding another significant revenue stream to farm business.