Omnibus agriculture policy bill passed by House

A controversial nitrogen provision is among the measures contained in the Department of Agriculture’s omnibus policy bill passed by the House 81-43 Monday.

Sponsored by Rep. Paul Anderson (R-Starbuck), HF4133 would make a number of policy and technical changes to statutes including the nitrogen language, which is opposed by the department, and would prohibit it from adopting a rule regarding fertilizer application unless specifically approved by law.

The bill now heads to the Senate where Sen. Bill Weber (R-Luverne) is the sponsor.

Rep. Paul Anderson

Proposed by Gov. Mark Dayton in early March, the rule would restrict the use of fertilizer in some parts of the state during the fall. Nitrogen in the fertilizer has been linked to elevated nitrate levels in the state’s drinking water, which can be harmful to humans.

An amendment unsuccessfully offered by Rep. Clark Johnson (DFL-North Mankato) would have removed the controversial language. Johnson said the department had worked to address concerns about the proposed rule, and removing the nitrogen language would make the bill less political and more like a bill “the Legislature rallies around” and makes it the governor’s desk quickly.

Three amendments were adopted during the floor debate, however.

Rep. Jim Newberger (R-Becker) offered an amendment that would allow individuals in the cottage foods industry to register as limited liability corporations in order to buy liability insurance, while an amendment offered by Anderson to remove a section of the bill related to data privacy was also adopted. Anderson said the language was unnecessary because it is also contained in a standalone bill that passed the House in late March.

The final amendment adopted also came from Anderson, who said it would expand the Agricultural Best Management Practices Loan Program to allow drainage authorities to seek those loans, and add other clarifying language.

The bill also includes several changes to the Rural Finance Authority loan program. It would allow the RFA to help facilitate loans for the purchase of a livestock farm and also expand eligibility for disaster recovery loans by including “a market disaster” or other emergencies declared by the Agriculture Department.

The RFA works with local lenders to operate a number of loan programs that help beginning farmers get started in agriculture along with established farmers who want to make capital improvements, add costly equipment or need other assistance.

Some other provisions of the bill would:

• allow Grade A eggs to stay on the shelf longer before they must be removed from sale;
• prohibit haulers, with some waiver exceptions, from picking up milk if it has been stored on a farm for more than 72 hours;
• modify some requirements and regulations surrounding saltwater aquatic farming;
• modify some cellulosic forestry biomass requirements;
• classify some data created, collected or maintained by the University of Minnesota as private or nonpublic; and
• modify certain biomass and renewable chemical definitions;.

What’s in the bill?

The following are selected bills that have been incorporated fully, or in part, into the omnibus agriculture policy bill:

• HF2887 (Backer)
• HF2982 (Hamilton)
• HF3374 (Munson)
• HF3472 (Swedzinski)