On March 8, 2025, Ag for All, Minnesota’s first agricultural conference for the LGBTQIA+ community, took place in St. Cloud.
Transcript
Britt Aamodt: The Ag for All conference on March 8, began, like many ag conferences...
[background audio: Initially, not knowing, is there a path for me in agriculture…]
Britt Aamodt: ...with a panel discussion. And this being an agricultural conference, the speakers were, unsurprisingly, farmers and others at work in the field of agriculture. The rainbow balloons festooning the stage added a festive touch,but they also provided a visual cue as to why this conference was different than other Minnesota ag conferences, and why it was so highly anticipated by the attendees.
Joe Rand: We are here in St Cloud at the first annual Ag for All conference, which is space for LGBTQ plus folks who work in agriculture or connected to agriculture, to come together and network and learn and just be in space with each other.
Britt Aamodt: Joe Rand is one of the conference organizers. The idea for the conference came to him when he and his partner were registering their Lazy Toad Farm on Minnesota Grown, a site that links agricultural producers and consumers.
Joe Rand: We registered on the Minnesota Grown website, and noticed that we could select that we were LGBTQ plus-owned. And when we did that, there were only, like, four or five other farms listed in that directory. And so there was just sort of this moment of, I know that there are more farms than that in Minnesota owned by folks in the LGBTQ plus community. So what can we do? Then we just sort of decided, like, maybe we need to have a gathering. Maybe there needs to be a conference space and people can connect and learn and be together. And so that's how it happened.
Emily Krekelberg: I am Joe's co-chair for the Ag for All conference where we are here today. We've spent the last year putting this event together. We're really excited to be hosting the first conference.
Britt Aamodt: Emily Krekelberg is an extension educator with University of Minnesota Extension, which sponsored the event, along with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
Emily Krekelberg: In the agriculture space, especially, we in Extension have been doing conferences for years for a variety of audiences, so we're really excited to just be offering one more audience to our menu of options.
Britt Aamodt: Ag for All was the first-ever conference of its kind in Minnesota. There were breakout sessions on pollinators and livestock alongside ones on queer joy and thriving in agriculture. This safe space also allowed participants to share experiences they might not bring up at another conference, like the gay married agricultural underwriter who shared at his panel discussion that he sometimes takes off his wedding ring when calling on a farm with a political sign in the lawn.
Laura Frederickson-Gosewisch: It's just kind of always been an undercurrent of my farming experience that I'm a queer person farming.
Britt Aamodt: Laura Frederickson-Gosewisch runs Vital Ground, a small farm operation she uses to supply produce to a St Paul farmer's market. Early on, she had a bad experience trying to rent land.
Laura Frederickson-Gosewisch: You know, their father owned the land, and he was a friend, and he thought, oh, yeah, come on down. We'll farm together. It'll be fun. And I was excited and making plans and buying seeds. I had already bought a bunch of stuff, and I got a phone call from my friend, and he said, I'm real sorry, but you know, my son lives on the land right now, and he just will not allow you to be there.
Britt Aamodt: Because she was queer.
Laura Frederickson-Gosewisch: I was really shocked. I think it was, it was a surprise to me, even though I've definitely experienced some hatred and bigotry, and it was late enough in the season where I didn't know what I would do, it kind of pulled the rug out from under me.
Britt Aamodt: About 80 participants from Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin and Illinois participated in the first Ag for All conference, from traditional farming backgrounds to first-time farmers and small acre renters like Laura. Emily Krekelberg says they're already planning for next year.
Emily Krekelberg: We are hoping to make this an annual conference and expand to include things like seminars and tours and farm visits.
Britt Aamodt: You can find updates on the Minnesota Department of Agriculture website. This is Britt Aamodt for North Star Stories.