Rep. Murphy Helps Bring Solutions to Creamery for Local Business Owners Hastings, MN – Representative Tom Murphy (R – Underwood) has brought together local officials, the met council commissioner, and the commissioner of agriculture to keep Hastings Minnesota creamery operational for constituents. Along with Representative Shane Hudella (R – Hastings), a meeting of all of the involved parties was organized to keep the community staple creamery operating at full capacity. Dairy farmers have increasingly faced challenges bringing their product to market and in some cases have been forced to dump it when no processing capacity is available. This is a costly last resort and can quickly put a small dairy farm behind on their other obligations if they can’t bring more product to market. A closure of the Hastings Creamery, even temporarily, would leave dozens of dairy farmers across the state and into Wisconsin without a place to bring their milk. A closure which would affect hundreds of suppliers and thousands of livelihoods. The creamery processes as much as 150,000 pounds every day and a halt in production would have a massive ripple effect on local dairy farmers, supporting businesses, and customers. To keep the milk flowing, Reps Murphy and Hudella organized a meeting including Commissioner of Agriculture Thom Peterson and Chairman of the Met Council Charles Zelle with the creamery owners as well as numerous local dairy industry experts. “I’m glad we were able to bring all of the necessary parties together to find a solution.” Said Representative Murphy on his part in getting the stakeholder meeting planned. “that’s what we’re all elected to do, that’s our job, to help facilitate solutions to the problems Minnesotans in our district and across the state face every day.” Going forward the Hastings Creamery will be working closely with Met Council regulators and local infrastructure to insure the business can stay operational for the numerous local businesses that count on their processing capacity as well as the consumers who want to buy their dairy products from homegrown agriculture. ### |