Each week during the Minnesota legislative session, the Minnesota Farm Bureau will highlight its work with elected officials to support our members and agriculture. While we advocate for our members on a wide variety of topics, our Board of Directors set six priority issues for the 2023 state legislative session, and our efforts to advance those issues are highlighted below.

Recap: Week of May 8-12

Our public policy team and leadership has been connecting with elected officials and other policy influencers to share our member’s stories, and build relationships to reinforce our position as a leader in agriculture issues in Minnesota.

Here are the bills that moved through this week:

On May 11, both the Senate and House passed the final Agriculture, Broadband and Rural Development omnibus finance bill. The Senate was on a 49 to 16 vote, while the House voted 85-44. 

The bill contains many funding provisions that Minnesota Farm Bureau supports including:

  • funding for soil health grants
  • biofuel infrastructure 
  • meat processing
  • broadband
  • wolf-livestock conflict prevention
  • the Farm Business Management program through AGREETT
  • international trade support
  • the Agriculture Emergency Account
  • grain indemnity fund

The policy provisions in the bill contain small modifications to the Board of Animal Health and legislation around pesticides that contain PFAS. The bill doesn’t contain any language regarding treated seed.  

The bill now moves to the governor’s office.