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Minnesota House of Representatives

Agriculture Finance and Policy

THIRTY-THIRD MEETING

2023-2024 Regular Session - Thursday, March 21, 2024

STATE OF MINNESOTA
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES THIRTY-THIRD MEETING
NINETY-THIRD LEGISLATURE


Agriculture Finance & Policy Committee Minutes

Representative Samantha Vang, Chair of the Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee, called the meeting to order at 1:00 PM on March 21, 2024, in the Basement Hearing Room of the State Office Building.

The Committee Legislative Assistant noted the roll.

Members Present
VANG, Samantha, Chair
PURSELL, Kristi, Vice Chair
ANDERSON, Paul, Republican Lead
BURKEL, John
CHA, Ethan
FREDERICK, Luke
HANSEN, Rick
HARDER, Bobbie
JACOB, Steven
NELSON, Nathan
SENCER-MURA, Samantha
TABKE, Brad

Members Excused
REHM, Lucy

A quorum was present.

Representative Pursell moved that the minutes from March 19, 2024, be approved. THE MOTION PREVAILED.

Presentation from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Presenting:
• Daniel Lofthus, State Statistician, Upper Midwest Region – MN, National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA

Presentation from Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA).

Presenting:
• Patrice Bailey, Assistant Commissioner, MDA

HF4323 (Vang) Minnesota Rural Finance Authority provisions modified.

Chair Vang moved that HF4323 be recommended to pass and re-referred to the General Register.

Chair Vang presented HF4323.

Chair Vang renewed the motion that HF4323 be recommended to pass and re-referred to the General Register. THE MOTION PREVAILED.

Representative Pursell assumed the gavel at 1:48 PM.

HF4908 (Vang) Limited-resource farmer defined, farm down payment assistance grants reporting requirements modified, beginning farmer tax credit and certain grants eligibility and priority modified, and social equity applicants definition modified for purposes of cannabis licensing.

Chair Vang moved that HF4908 be laid over for consideration in an Agriculture omnibus bill.

Chair Vang moved the H4908A3 amendment. THE MOTION PREVAILED. THE AMENDMENT WAS ADOPTED.

Chair Vang presented HF4908 as amended.

Testifying on HF4908 as amended:
• Levi Welbourn, member, Latino Economic Development Center, and emerging farmer
• Sean Carroll, Policy Director, Land Stewardship Project
• KaZoua Berry, Farm Director, Big River Farms
• Farhio Khalif, Executive Director, Somali American Farmers Institute
• Michael Chaney, Founder and Director, Project Sweetie Pie
• Julius Cochran, emerging farmer, Black Farmers Association

HF4908 as amended was laid over.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:24 PM.




__________________________________________
Representative Samantha Vang, Chair




__________________________________________
Jared Margolis, Committee Legislative Assistant

More Info On This Meeting..
Bills Added:
  • HF4908 (Vang) - Limited-resource farmer defined, farm down payment assistance grants reporting requirements modified, beginning farmer tax credit and certain grants eligibility and priority modified, and social equity applicants definition modified for purposes of cannabis licensing.
  • HF4323 (Vang) - Minnesota Rural Finance Authority provisions modified.
Documents:
Audio:
Listen Now
House TV Video:
View Archive

00:35 - Emerging Farmers data presentation.
30:04 - Emerging Farmers report presentation.
47:24 - HF4323 (Vang) Minnesota Rural Finance Authority provisions modified.
48:42 - HF4908 (Vang) Limited-resource farmer defined, farm down payment assistance grants reporting requirements modified, beginning farmer tax credit and certain grants eligibility and priority modified, and social equity applicants definition modified for purposes of cannabis licensing.
Runs 1 hour, 35 minutes.

HF 4323 (Vang) Minnesota Rural Finance Authority provisions modified. Bill was previously heard. No additional testimony will be taken.
Emerging farmers data presentation -- Dan Lofthus, State Statistician, Upper Midwest Region - MN, USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Emerging farmers report presentation -- Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
HF 4908 (Vang) Limited-resource farmer defined, farm down payment assistance grants reporting requirements modified, beginning farmer tax credit and certain grants eligibility and priority modified, and social equity applicants definition modified for purposes of cannabis licensing.

HANDOUTS: Handouts MUST BE IN PDF FORMAT and emailed to the committee administrator by 12 p.m. (noon) the business day before the hearing.  If you are bringing hard copies, bring 40 copies.  Note: submitted written testimony is public and will be included in the official committee record.  It may be posted to the committee webpage if received by deadline.
TESTIFYING: Testimony is limited. The number of testifiers and length of time permitted is at the discretion of the chair, and is subject to change. Please plan accordingly. If you would like to testify, please email the committee administrator by 12 p.m. (noon) the business day before the hearing.
DOCUMENTS: Meeting documents may be found on the Agriculture Finance and Policy webpage.
VIEWING: This hearing may be viewed on the House webcast schedule page.  All video events are closed captioned with automatically generated captions.
ACCESSIBILITY: To learn more about requesting an accommodation, please visit the FAQs for Disability Access.  If you have further questions on accommodations or accessibility, please contact the Committee Administrator.
*Agenda items (including bills) may be added or removed, and/or order may change.

o For further information on accommodations, please visit FAQs for Disability Access or contact the LCC Accessibility Coordinator at accessibility.coordinator@lcc.mn.gov
o If you are having accessibility or usability problems with any Minnesota Legislative website or software, please send your comments to the Accessibility & Usability Comment Form
o To request legislative services for American Sign Language (ASL), Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) closed captioning services, or live language interpretation services for Hmong, Somali, or Spanish speakers to testify, please contact the Committee Administrator as soon as possible.