NSS Weekly: Farming Innovation Could Make Tough Growing Years Fruitful

Transcript

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INTRO: You are listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, a weekly newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota, produced by AMPERS, Minnesota's community radio stations.

BRITT AAMODT: This week, as many Minnesota farmers head into the final months of harvest season, we look at the challenges the agriculture sector has faced this year, and how technology, diversification, and land conservation can shape farming in our state today and in the future. I'm Britt Aamodt.

VICTOR PALOMINO: And I'm Victor Palomino.

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VICTOR PALOMINO: But first, North Star Stories reporter Xan Holston with some of the news that made the headlines around the state.

XAN HOLSTON: A last-minute federal policy reversal is saving one of the state's most important research stations from the chopping block. AMPERS member station KAXE's Emma Crabbe has more.

EMMA CRABBE: The U.S. Forest Service research lab in Grand Rapids will remain open after the agency walked back some of its large-scale reorganization plans, originally announced last March. In a news release, the U.S. Forest Service announced it completed a national review of regional offices and labs, and that it would retain 61 offices nationwide. Of those retained offices, 41 were told back in March they would be closing. This includes the research lab in Grand Rapids, which is located on the Minnesota North College Itasca campus. The 65-year-old office has produced world-renowned research on forests and water. It's known for developing the concept of ecological forestry and the exploration of how different kinds of wetlands function. Scientists working in the Grand Rapids office have made significant discoveries about carbon emissions, mercury, and other pollutants, and the impacts of climate change. Emma Crabbe, KAXE News.

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XAN HOLSTON: A federal drought disaster designation now opens emergency loans in Koochiching and four surrounding northern counties. Farmers say that help matters, but it's not enough to fix the problems.

NAT SOUND: Disaster recovery is kind of a band-aid. It never will make you whole.

XAN HOLSTON: Farmers are also dealing with record-high diesel, raising the cost of running farm equipment and hauling food to stores by an extra 100 million dollars this year. When farmers, truckers, and retailers cannot absorb those costs, families can pay more at the grocery checkout.

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XAN HOLSTON: Drivers have a new school bus law to remember: You must stop at least 20 feet from a stopped bus as soon as its red lights begin flashing, even if the stop arm does not extend. The only exception is traffic moving in the opposite direction on a divided highway. A violation carries a fine of at least $500 and possible license suspension.

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Minnesota voters will decide in November whether to increase what public schools receive from the state's permanent school fund. Supporters say the permanent increase from the fund will help cash-strapped schools without raising taxes. The amendment would also give future legislatures more control over the payout. The bill's author, Republican Representative Spencer Igo says the small increase will make a big difference.

SPENCER IGO: Whether it's keeping a teacher or a para, or it's investing in building maintenance, or maybe it's helping with bussing, this funding is critical for filling those gaps.

XAN HOLSTON: The amendment needs a majority of November voters to mark yes in order to pass. Leaving the question blank is the same as voting no.

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XAN HOLSTON: The fight over who controls Minnesota's local election procedures is now in the hands of the state's Supreme Court justices. The fight is not about the ballots; it's about who controls the voter check-in list. Minnesota Supreme Court justices heard arguments about whether the North Metro City of Oak Grove or Anoka County decides which voter rosters the city's four precincts can use in November. Anoka County chose electronic rosters. Oak Grove says it wants paper.

NAT SOUND: The question here is which local officials do the weighing and choose the roster format. Happily, the statute unambiguously answers that question.

XAN HOLSTON: But the secretary of state says the county auditor decides in statewide elections. Minnesota's attorney general's office says the election rules allow cities to control standalone elections, but not November's broader ballot.

MINNESOTA'S ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE: The court should dismiss the petition because Minnesota's roster statute vests county auditors with the authority to determine roster types for all precincts in their counties for federal, state, and county elections.

XAN HOLSTON: With November approaching, Minnesota's Chief Justice Natalie Hudson says they will make a ruling very soon.

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XAN HOLSTON: It started as a permit for a hay shed. Now it's a court fight involving weddings, the Geneva Convention, and medieval Roman Catholic decrees from the 1400s. In Central Minnesota, Stearns County officials say a resident received a permit to build a shed for personal use but has operated it as an event venue business for several years. Representing himself, the man argues he's not a U.S. citizen, is tax exempt, and doesn't have to follow government rules. Citing medieval Catholic Church doctrine, he argues he is a living man and not a corporate fiction. A judge rejected those claims and ordered him to stop hosting events.

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The ICE agent accused of shooting a Venezuelan man in North Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge is out on bond with an ankle monitor. Christian Castro turned himself in and pleaded not guilty in Texas to six federal counts of making false statements to the FBI. Castro also faces state assault and false reporting charges in Minnesota. He's due in federal court in Minnesota September 18th.

And finally, [SFX: carousel music] Cafesjian's Carousel in Saint Paul's Como Park turned 112 years old. The hand-carved merry-go-round was set to be auctioned off piece by piece in the late '80s before a Saint Paul couple saved it. They formed a nonprofit, got a city-backed loan, and bought the carousel for $1.1 million just minutes before the first horse was sold at an auction. Gerard Cafesjian, whose name now graces the carousel, donated $600,000 to help pay back the loan and keep the herd racing together. For North Star Stories, I'm Xan Holston.

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BRITT AAMODT: An old agricultural weather saying goes: A dry May and a leaking June make the farmer whistle a merry tune. But for many Minnesota farmers, this year has brought more than just rain and shine. Costs are rising. Climate change is making weather more extreme. Labor is hard to find. And for some, challenges around land ownership are adding new pressure.

VICTOR PALOMINO: Reporter frankie felegy talked to farmers about the issues they are navigating as they bring in this year's harvest.

ROGER PEINE: Well, it seems like every time a farm goes out of business, the land ends up in the hands of a larger farm, not the neighbor down the road.

FRANKIE FELEGY: Roger Peine co-owns Peine Farms in Cannon Falls in southeastern Minnesota. He's one of many Minnesotans seeing farmland consolidation impacts in real time.

ROGER PEINE: It's a very, very tough deal.

FRANKIE FELEGY: Consolidation-it's an increasing trend in Minnesota, where more and more investors and non-farming landowners are owning the farmland, not individuals, not farmers. Peine's in his 60s and has farmed with his family since the 1990's. They raise corn, soybeans, and cattle on the land.

ROGER PEINE: And you know the land in this area in particular, Dakota County, is very-it's so competitive. It's a lot of pressure. It forced us into that situation where you can't just have your family, small family farm. It's not feasible at all unless you have an off-farm job.

FRANKIE FELEGY: Peine says it's forced his farm to find other ways to make money.

ROGER PEINE: We do some trucking, some little custom farming, and like I said, the livestock. We've expanded our beef operations slowly over the last 10-15 years.

FRANKIE FELEGY: It's all to be as efficient and proactive as possible, but it can seem like non-operating landowners, like investors, who don't farm, are putting just as much into consolidation.

ANNE SCHWAGERL: So people who don't have a direct connection to the land, to the farm, who control kind of the basically the wealth generated off of that land is you know at its core really concerning to me as a farmer and to us as Minnesota Farmers Union.

FRANKIE FELEGY: Anne Schwagel is a farmer and the vice president of the Minnesota Farmers Union. She says this consolidation has real impacts on Minnesotans, whether behind a tractor or a grocery cart.

ANNE SCHWAGERL: I mean, I think the way that this shows up is raising prices for all food, right?

FRANKIE FELEGY: It comes down to the basic supply, which is lower, and demand, which is higher. Land consolidation means rising prices for the average consumer, less money for farmers, and more money for shareholders and larger corporations. That's felt perhaps most intensely by folks trying to join the just 2% of the national population that farms. It's harder to enter and exit the field.

ANNE SCHWAGERL: So, as farmers, we don't have like retirement plans. Our land is our equity, and so they are in this like bubble of how we transition farmland into the next generation of farmers, especially when it is such an expensive asset.

FRANKIE FELEGY: And this consolidation isn't just affecting people's pockets; it can also mean food insecurity, environmental degradation, and less vibrant rural communities. Schwagerl says one person controls the food instead of the many, and often investors aren't in it for long-term soil, water, or human health. And the fewer people farming in the area, the fewer people going to church, school, and supporting local economies. Still, someone has to grow the food Minnesotans depend on. Aaron Brand owns and operates Brand Farms with his dad. They're on 240 acres in Farmington, just south of the Twin Cities. They do row crops and dairy, plus apples, eggs, flowers, and agro tourism. So, does consolidation affect them much?

AARON BRAND: I'd probably say no, just because of the heavy diversification that has happened on the home property.

FRANKIE FELEGY: Brand Farms is what's called a specialty crop business, which helps his consolidation case or lack thereof. They grow everything except traditional row crops like corn and soybeans. That makes them less prone to both market fluctuations and being bought out.

AARON BRAND: I am making money on visitors that come out and purchase items, or they purchase a ticket to come out and see, like the tulip field, as an example. My prices are not based off of global markets. In so many words, I kind of name my own price.

FRANKIE FELEGY: Along with varying that farm income, there are other ways Minnesota farmers and consumers can respond to farmland consolidations impacts. Schwagerl with the Minnesota Farmers Union says policy change is likely first and foremost. Beyond that, shoppers can switch from buying food to having partnerships with their food and the growers that make it possible. That can look like signing up for local co-ops or community-supported agriculture groups, also called CSAs. It's one way everybody can help keep food, money, and land local. For North Star Stories, I'm frankie felegy.

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VICTOR PALOMINO: After the break, how sustainable farming and technology are building a new hope for the state's agricultural sector.

BRITT AAMODT: This is North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, produced by AMPERS, Minnesota's community radio stations, with support from the state of Minnesota. We'll be right back.

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[NSS Promo: "North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, Minnesota's Community Radio Stations. Check out our other programs at AMPERS dot ORG: Minnesota Native News brings you weekly coverage of the state's Native American communities. MN90 - Minnesota History in 90 Seconds - transports you to historical moments in our state through short, engaging stories. Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine is a weekly podcast featuring conversations between Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe members and siblings, Leah Lemm and Cole Premo, and Native community members. Hear more at AMPERS dot ORG."]

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VICTOR PALOMINO: You are listening to North Star Stories. I'm Victor Palomino.

BRITT AAMODT: And I'm Britt Aamodt. For many farmers, the connection with the land goes beyond the season's yields. Farmers who practice sustainable agriculture aim to protect the environment, enhance natural resources, and make the best use of renewable inputs.

VICTOR PALOMINO: To learn more about this practice, we're joined by Jonathan Kilpatrick, Farmer Education Director for the Sustainable Farming Association. He is based in Alexandria and works with farmers in counties throughout the state, Jonathan, welcome to North Star Stories.

JONATHAN KILPATRICK: Absolutely, Victor. Thanks for having me today.

VICTOR PALOMINO: What is sustainable farming?

JONATHAN KILPATRICK: Sustainable farming, you know, really got its roots about I would say 50-60 years ago, as a result of, you know, a reaction to the post-World War II industrialization of agriculture. Right now, the current trendy word is regenerative agriculture, which, in a lot of ways, mirrors a lot of the sustainable practices. Although we know so much more now, we've had advances in in research that allow us to quantify, you know, soil carbon and water quality benefits from regenerative and sustainable practices. Sustainable agriculture, in in a lot of ways, does a good job of capturing a different system of agriculture that strives to be in sync with our resources and not overuse the resources we have, whether that soil, water, air, and we strive to leave the resources in the environment better than when we found it.

VICTOR PALOMINO: So, just less destructive than traditional agriculture, or is more like in tune with the terrain and in the place where the farm is.

JONATHAN KILPATRICK: So many of us, as myself is, I'm a farmer rancher myself. We are farming depleted resources, whether that's soil or water. And someone said, "Well, I don't want to sustain that. I want to make it better." And so I think that's really what regenerative agriculture is. You know, to regenerate to make it better, and with a lot of these practices such as you know adaptive grazing and cover cropping, we can make our resources better over time. You know, increasing soil organic matter, pulling more carbon out of the air, storing it in the soil long term, and also increasing infiltration of our of our water into our fields so that the soil carbon actually acts as a filter and increases that water quality.

VICTOR PALOMINO: Is this type of practice, this type of farming, is helping farmers in Minnesota? And especially this year that we're seeing that prices are going up, fuels going up, fertilizers are getting more expensive. So how are they doing this year?

JONATHAN KILPATRICK: I think in general the consensus in the farming community is that we're all struggling, right? There's drought. You know, just looked at the drought monitor again this morning, and it's not getting much better. Higher fuel prices. I didn't project that I'd be paying over $5 a gallon for diesel this year, over $4 a gallon for gas when I made my plan in January. So that's affecting a lot of people. The price of fertilizer because the war in Iran, yeah, I would say in general, yeah, people are struggling. I do think the bright spot is though folks that are choosing or farmers that are choosing to farm with more regenerative, low input practices. So, in one of the you know one of the practices of cover cropping you know it's there's roughly 32,000 pounds of nitrogen in the atmosphere above every acre of land right, and with certain cover crop blends and certain species we can pull and even some grasses now we know with advances in research can pull some of that nitrogen out of the air and you know put it in the soil, make it available for crops. It might not completely do away with you know nitrogen fertilizer bill, but you know even if we can cut nitrogen by a fraction, that's still a savings at the end of the year, and it results in increased margin. The other thing I would say is the farmers that can use the same acre of land for multiple enterprises, and I think the farmers that are able to do that kind of thing are more resilient really over the long haul.

VICTOR PALOMINO: How do farmers get involved with the Sustainable Farming Association?

JONATHAN KILPATRICK: So we're a legacy, I guess, membership organization driven by chapters. We have nine regional chapters. We've been going for over 35 years, getting closer to 40 years, and the DNA of what we do is that farmer-to-farmer network. Farmers sharing with farmers best practices, things that work, and so people can join SFA as a member. They can attend an event. You don't have to be a member to attend an event. Several of our chapters do signature festivals, and then we have our annual conference in February, our grazing and soil health summit in March. Obviously, as a nonprofit organization, we do you know appreciate donations to keep our work going and support sustainable regenerative agriculture.

VICTOR PALOMINO: For someone that is not in farming but wants to support sustainable agriculture, what is a way that they can do that?

JONATHAN KILPATRICK: The best way is to connect directly with the farmer. And the awesome thing about SFA's events is that's our events are all farmer-led. We have quite a few people that'll come that are not necessarily farmers, but they just support what we're doing. Whether it's non-operating landowners that are just interested in conservation and this type of farming, or foodies, you know, et cetera, and just find a farmer and support local food and agriculture. Like in that story, it was talking about the specialty crop farm. That's a fantastic way to support an alternative food system and support that farm directly. You're keeping those dollars right in the rural economy. You're supporting all those businesses that that farm is supporting. It's a fantastic effect there, and then you can go to the SFA website and find a lot more information or resource library too about sustainable and regenerative ag.

VICTOR PALOMINO: Looking ahead, what gives you hope for the future of farming and agriculture in Minnesota?

JONATHAN KILPATRICK: Yeah, that's a that's a good question. It's September and it's I don't know. It feels like it's close to 90 degrees here in West Central Minnesota. Typically, the calendar turns to September, school starts, and you want to feel the fall weather. I also just went to a hay auction to purchase some hay for our livestock for the winter, and you know hay prices are probably double or close to double what I paid last year. So, ouch, that check hurt. So, funny day to ask that question, but the reality is, it will rain again. The prices will come down. You know, nature works on its own timeline, and we tend to think in calendar years. It's funny because last year I was complaining of how wet it was, like I couldn't get a break from the rain, and now this year we're not getting enough. I think the thing that gives me hope is zooming out and looking at the big picture, and also the farmers I get to work with, I've had two interviews with farmers in the last day to join our consulting program, and just seeing people who are excited and energized to pursue a different form of agriculture, and not just a different form of agriculture, but just a different lifestyle. I think that really gives me a lot of hope. You know, every day, just seeing the sun come up and seeing the dew on the grass and watching the grass grow, there's hope when the sun's shining. So as long as the sun's coming up, I think we're gonna have a good day.

VICTOR PALOMINO: That's a good way to put it. The little things that make life feel doable.

JONATHAN KILPATRICK: You have to. You have to. Like yeah, just along our field path, there is, I stopped. I slammed the brakes on because I was driving past a milkweed, and there are two monarch caterpillars, you know, chewing away at the milkweed, getting ready to do their chrysalis thing, and I was like, "Oh, that's pretty cool, you know." Just and when you farm sustainably, regeneratively, like we do, we get opportunities to see that kind of stuff. We've had clutches of pheasants running around our fields that I keep scaring up every time I go out there, and so I don't know. I get a lot of a lot more joy. I think out of the way I farm, which is sustainable and regenerative than potentially you know a different kind of farm, just because the practices we use encourage the wildlife and encourage ecosystem presence. That's really fun. So it's a fun way to farm.

VICTOR PALOMINO: Jonathan, thank you so much for your insights and for coming here to North Star Stories.

JONATHAN KILPATRICK: Absolutely, thanks Victor for the opportunity.

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BRITT AAMODT: Technology these days can be found in almost every part of our daily lives. Here in the state, farmers are working with researchers to explore ways to produce food while lowering emissions, saving energy, and creating new income opportunities. At the University of Minnesota's West Central Research and Outreach Center in Morris, researchers are studying agrivoltaics, combining solar power with working farmland, farm electrification, and green ammonia.

VICTOR PALOMINO: To learn more, we're joined by Eric Buchanan, Renewable Energy Program Director at the West Central Research and Outreach Center. Eric, welcome to the program.

ERIC BUCHANAN: Thanks. Glad to be here.

VICTOR PALOMINO: Let's start with agrivoltaics. What is that?

ERIC BUCHANAN: Yeah, it's kind of a mouthful, isn't it? Yeah. So it's kind of combining two words: one, agriculture, which we know that's farming, and then photovoltaics or PV. So this is solar photovoltaics. That's collecting electricity from the sun. So we put those two words together: agrivoltaics is kind of a new area of research where we're trying to put farming and solar panels in the same place, so we don't have to-it can't-it doesn't have to be just one or the other.

VICTOR PALOMINO: Some farmers might worry that developing the solar farms can take on the productivity of their land. Is that the case?

ERIC BUCHANAN: That is the case. We see a lot of resistance in rural areas. They don't want to see prime farmland converted into solar farms. Where and this is that either or I was talking about, where someone says, "Okay, we're not going to plant corn anymore. We're going to, we're going to plant solar panels," and then they're just going to be there, and that's all that's going to be there. So when we, when we're doing our research with agrivoltaics, we're looking at ways that we can combine both activities. So at our research farm here in Morris, Minnesota, we have put in some solar arrays where we put the solar panels about six to seven feet off the ground, and then our grazing dairy cows can graze under those panels. And so now we're collecting that energy, and we're still using it as a pasture. We haven't sacrificed anything, so that's kind of that. That's one way to do agriculture.

VICTOR PALOMINO: And you're also doing research in farm electrification and introducing robotics to farms. How is that going?

ERIC BUCHANAN: So that's a really interesting area of research, and it's growing a lot. So there's a lot of startup companies that are looking at this. And to be fair, most of this work so far with startup companies is geared around vegetable crops. Here in the Midwest, where we're doing a lot of row crop farming, it hasn't really taken off because you know we're looking at the productivity of a farmer and how much land can they cover. We're talking about thousands of acres for some farms. You know the reason you see tractors that are so large is we're trying to increase the productivity of one driver. We don't have the battery technology today to electrify a tractor that large, and so what we're looking at is making smaller vehicles that maybe are operating in only one row, with the idea being that 30 one-row tractors or one-row robots can do the same work as one 30-row implement pulled behind a huge tractor, as long as each of those robots doesn't need a driver. So if we can do this work mechanically, now it doesn't matter if you're an organic farmer or conventional farmer. You just want your weeds gone, and you want to know how much it costs per acre.

VICTOR PALOMINO: That makes you have a picture of your mind of a farmer in a close future. Instead of being on a tractor in a field, it will be just behind a computer inside their office in their farm, and just making sure that all these little robots are doing the job they need to do.

ERIC BUCHANAN: I think the average age of a farmer today in Minnesota is like 58 years old or something like that. They're not looking maybe that close to retirement, thinking about wanting to convert everything to robots. But their kids and their grandkids, they'll have no problem sitting with an iPad watching 30 dots weed in their field and getting a text message when one gets stuck and you know going out and dealing with that. It's also potentially a new business opportunity for again for younger folks to stay in rural communities.

VICTOR PALOMINO: And green ammonia. How is this research is going to help the farmers?

ERIC BUCHANAN: We're doing a lot of interesting research here at the West Central Research and Outreach Center. There's three main areas of research we're doing, all geared around reducing fossil fuel use in agriculture. So one is agrivoltaics. We talked about that. Another one is electrification. So that's why we're doing the robots. And then the third area is what maybe generally would call e-fuels, but especially green ammonia. And it's gotten a lot of buzz lately because ammonia can also be used as a fuel. Now farmers know ammonia as a fertilizer. It's either. Applied directly anhydrous ammonia, or it is the first thing that's made and then turned into urea, which is a common fertilizer that's also used in a granular form. And so farmers are doing that all the time. Now ammonia traditionally is made; it's nitrogen and it's hydrogen. The nitrogen is what makes it useful as a fertilizer, and that no matter how it's made, comes from the air. The hydrogen is the hard part, and traditionally the hydrogen comes from natural gas. So ammonia is made someplace where there's a lot of natural gas. That hydrogen component can also be made using renewable energy to electrolyze water or split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Now it's a little bit more expensive today to use that technology, but that hydrogen component of ammonia makes it possible to use it as a fuel. And some of our colleagues at the University of Minnesota, the mechanical engineering department, are actually designing and building internal combustion engines that burn ammonia. So we could see ammonia, green ammonia, especially being used as a tractor fuel or as a grain drying fuel. It could be used in a power generator to actually generate electricity. And so there's a whole lot of potential to reduce fossil fuel use in agriculture.

VICTOR PALOMINO: It's so interesting to see how all these technologies and research have been applied to farming and in agriculture. But what are some of the things that you have learned since the beginning of this work, and what questions are researchers trying to still answer in the coming years?

ERIC BUCHANAN: There are no fossil fuels in Minnesota, and Minnesota farmers are spending almost a billion dollars a year now buying ammonia fertilizer. This is all coming from someplace else where they do have fossil fuels. We have abundant renewable energy sources here in Minnesota, especially wind and solar and a little bit of hydro. We could make ammonia in Minnesota right now. None is made in Minnesota except at our research site here in Morris. But it could be. It could be made regionally. You could have a regional wind farm where farmers could be part of a co-op where they would own that resource and they could turn that electricity into ammonia fertilizer, which they then would use on their farms. So it's just more of a circular economy. It's more of a local-based economy. Those dollars don't have to leave the state, and lots of research has been done showing that if you spend $1 in your local area instead of sending somewhere else, it gets recycled several times in your local community. It's one way to revitalize rural communities is if those dollars can stay in those communities, and if we can, farmers have the land, they have the demand for both energy and fertilizer. And if we can put those things together, I think we could find a way where we could profit, and at the same time lower costs, and at the same time address climate change. And so it's kind of a win-win-win.

VICTOR PALOMINO: Eric, thank you so much for talking to North Star Stories.

ERIC BUCHANAN: Thank you, Victor. It's my pleasure.

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BRITT AAMODT: That's it for today's program. If you missed any part of today's newscast, you can find this and past episodes at ampers.org, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. You can also get North Star Stories Daily on our website, or check your favorite station's schedule.

VICTOR PALOMINO: Thanks for listening, and we'll be back next week with more stories and voices from the North Star State.

OUTRO: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, Minnesota's community radio stations with support from the state of Minnesota. Online at ampers.org.