COOK- The Minnesota Farmers Union brought its “Conversation about Climate and Agriculture” community engagement series to Cook on Tuesday, the fourth such event the organization has staged recently as it seeks input from local communities about how to best address the effects of global warming on land and agricultural practices.
A well-engaged group of about 20 people, many but not all engaged in agricultural production, filled the Cook Community Center to listen to presentations and engage in focus groups around current and future impacts of climate change on farming practices. St. Louis County Farmers Union President Missy Bakker Roach served as host of the event.
“This is a great turnout,” Roach said, looking around the room as she opened the evening’s event. “I’m wearing a few different hats tonight. I’m the chapter president for St. Louis County Farmers Union, and I’m also an organizer for Northern Progressives, and I’m also the executive director for the Iron Range Partnership for Sustainability. These are the organizations that are here today, and we’re excited that you all are here to talk about climate and agriculture.”
“Minnesota Farmers Union takes climate change very, very seriously,” Roach continued. “I’ve watched it come from part of a small thing that we need to keep our eye on and track to something that’s become so important that we have new staff dedicated solely to climate change. We don’t get a lot of attention in this part of the state when it comes to these kinds of conversations, so I’m thankful that they’re doing this.”
MFU Climate and Working Lands Program Director Ariel Kagan then offered additional context.
“Climate change and climate resilience has become a huge priority for us because of our members identifying that as something that they care about,” Kagan said. “Members of the public are looking to working lands and agriculture for a solution to climate change. And businesses are, too. We’ve got some of the biggest companies in the world looking at agriculture as the way that they’re going to reduce their carbon footprint, either through carbon credits or through investments in their supply chain. And then we also have a lot of policymakers looking at agriculture, with huge investments coming from the federal government and the state and local as well. In all of those big investments, farmers are being asked to do new things, whether that’s change their management practices or grow new crops or adapt to more severe weather.”
Kagan also talked about a new MFU initiative, a pilot grant program called Cooperatives for Climate, which will empower farmer-led cooperatives to build capacity for organizing business that leads climate action. She also talked about a new “Farmers Guide to Carbon Market Contracts in Minnesota,” created in partnership with Farmers’ Legal Action Group and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, which will help farmers successfully navigate the world of establishing contracts with companies looking to offset their carbon emissions by paying farmers to sequester more carbon in the ground by the farming practices they use.
Kagan highlighted MFU’s advocacy work during this spring’s state legislative session, including helping to secure an additional $48 million in new funding for the Department of Agriculture, $100 million for rural broadband, ag tax credits and property tax relief, and $30 million for climate resilience investments in green fertilizer production, soil health financial and technical assistance, and planning funds for the University of Minnesota Extension Service. She also noted $33 billion that has been committed at the federal level for climate change initiatives.
St. Louis County Extension Educator Troy Salzer was up next, and while his remarks focused on cover crops and pasture lands that are beneficial to soil health and the climate equation, the audience seemed most curious for his take on the challenged dairy industry in the county. Concern was expressed that dairy farms in the county don’t have a local buyer for their raw milk and must depend on a Wisconsin-based dairy to buy and transport their product.
“I definitely do not think dairy farming is dead at this point in time,” Salzer said. “We have currently five operations, I believe, that are producing milk, and there is a dynamic of each of them working together. They are very united. I have personally lobbied on their behalf, as have folks like (Minnesota Agriculture) Commissioner Thom Petersen – I’ve had him on their farms to hear some of their concerns. And I also work quite closely with the coop that is purchasing their milk and have twisted arms because I think it’s critical to let them have their own autonomy in relationship to their operations, even though they are working quite closely together. I really would count it as a great loss if any one of those dairy farmers went out of business.”
High interest rates, the need for capital investments, and high transportation costs have all contributed to the challenges dairy farmers face, Salzer said, and the economic pressures have been exacerbated by a downturn in raw milk prices, which have dropped almost 40 percent in the past year.
“Ultimately, they are producing milk at a loss every single day,” Salzer said.
Conservationist Becca Reiss, from the North St. Louis Soil and Water Conservation District, talked about how the conservation district system grew as a response to the extreme conditions of the 1930s Dust Bowl, and how working in northern St. Louis County is a bit different than districts with more ag production.
“We were created in order to help private landowners, especially farmers, do conservation that they wanted to do, both to benefit them and their soil and the water,” she said. “Up here in northeastern Minnesota, many people say that our farming is more forestry, necessarily then row crops or even pasture, so our district does do a lot more work with forestry than it does with traditional farming.”
The district covers three different watersheds, and “soil and water are intricately connected, because what’s good for the soil is usually what’s good for the water.”
Reiss drew parallels between what’s happening with climate change related to forest stewardship and what’s happening in agriculture, particularly with respect to carbon sequestration and carbon credits. She also talked about the option for farmers to participate in the Minnesota Water Quality Certification Program, a process that would make them eligible for additional funding to implement best practices in their operations. Participants also receive technical assistance to bring their farms into compliance with regulatory changes without being penalized.
After hearing from speakers, it was time for the audience to get to work. Clustered around tables, groups were provided a list of questions about climate change and agricultural practices intended to stimulate brainstorming and discussion. After 15 minutes, groups reported on their discussions.
The first group noted that agriculture is subsidized by things that aren’t widely recognized as such, as in federal and state funding of highway systems and subsidized purchase of fertilizers from foreign sources.
Subsidizing large corporate farms has had a detrimental effect on the environment, they said, and more subsidies should be directed to local farming operations instead of corporations.
Another group talked about the need to encourage more people to grow their own food. They suggested that it would be beneficial to have a program that would connect would-be growers with farmers who have available land they could use in a responsible manner. Salzer noted that a program like that operated in the Duluth area for a number of years.
The next group to report focused on forestry for the bulk of their discussion, noting that forest management in the region isn’t as proactive as it needs to be for the health of the forests, with a significant amount of timber that could be responsibly harvested instead going uncut and falling over on its own without being utilized. The group also mentioned the decline of family farms, with families who had longtime relationships with the land, and the corresponding loss in the number of agriculture advocates as a result.
Another group talked about advancements in precision farming and the potential for maximizing yields while reducing chemical usage. However, they expressed concern about the entry costs to the profession for a new generation of farmers. As equipment has become more sophisticated and expensive and farms have grown in size, younger would-be farmers have been priced out of the profession unless they happen to inherit a family farm, they said.
The last group expressed concern about the lack of habitat for pollinators and the uncertainty created by climate change. Because of this year’s late winter, pollinators didn’t arrive at the right time to pollinate chokecherries. They also questioned the rationale used by the county and others for mowing roadsides, as that can destroy habitat for pollinators. They also suggested promoting more solar power would be beneficial, as would encouraging the use of electric mowers rather than ones that use fossil fuels.
Kagan took a few minutes after the meeting to reflect on the proceedings.
“This was a fantastic group who were really thinking hard about these issues of resilience, community strength, and our environment and natural resources,” she said. The Cook meeting, she said, added to their growing knowledge base about climate change issues that are important to local communities.
“This is actually our fourth meeting,” Kagan said. “We did one in the Twin Cities, we did one in Thief River Falls, and then we did one last night near Duluth. Each one is different. In Thief River Falls, for example, we heard that with the climate warming it’s allowing for more growing days for corn, so it’s been somewhat positive. But there are also other pressures like pests and extreme weather, drought and heat, that is new. In the Twin Cities we heard a lot about local food and the concerns of consumers, because there was obviously more of a focus on the consumer side rather than the production side.”
And particular takeaways from the Cook meeting?
“I think hearing about forestry is a big one,” Kagan said. “And, also, the concerns about water quality and where the water goes. I heard from the Soil and Water Conservation District speaker that the watersheds here go to Lake Superior, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi River, and those are three of the most important bodies of water in the world. It’s all being affected by what’s happening on the landscape here.”
Kagan noted that discussions around climate change and agriculture are complex and multifaceted.
“Agriculture is complicated when it comes to climate change,” she said. “Agriculture contributes to climate change. We produce greenhouse gasses through nitrogen fertilizers, through tractor passes releasing carbon when you till. Agriculture is also affected by climate change – drought, rain, heat – but it can also be a solution for climate change by sequestering carbon and creating more resilient landscapes. It’s all three of those things at the same time, which makes it dynamic and challenging and exciting. I think that’s why we’re having conversations like this.”