Crookston, MINN— On Friday August 26, 2016, Governor Mark Dayton issued an executive order requiring farmers and nursery owners who want to use neonicotinoids to prove they have “an imminent danger of significant crop loss” without them to the Department of Agriculture.
Representative Deb Kiel (R-Crookston) released the following statement regarding the governor’s executive order:
“Governor Dayton has gone forward unilaterally with an executive order that will affect farmers across the state without engaging the agricultural community. This plan will add layers of bureaucracy to farming, an industry essential to the health of our state’s economy.
As Vice-Chair of the House Agriculture Finance Committee and as a farmer, I share the governor’s concerns over the health of our pollinator population, and believe state leaders and agriculture stakeholders need to collaborate to create science-based, common sense solutions to tackle this serious issue. The governor’s executive order, however, is a problematic, one-size-fits-all mandate that will create more problems than solutions.”