Year: 2017

EXCERPT: “The USDA Agricultural Research Service lab in Morris is slated to be closed under President Donald Trump’s budget but a local advocacy group is already working to make sure it doesn’t happen . . . The ARS lab in Morris has an annual budget of $2.8 million, representatives of the Barnes-Aastad Soil & Water ...

EXCERPT: “May is melanoma awareness month. This is a good time for everyone to consider their own proactive approach to managing skin cancer risk. Ag professionals – whether farmers planting, consultants making recommendations, or applicators spreading fertilizer – need to be aware of the dangers of sun exposure. “Many of us in agriculture spend a ...

CRPD President Brad Finstad gives his wrap up of the 2017 Minnesota legislative session.

Limited resources are putting growing pressure on rural communities May 2017 By Marnie Werner, Research Director The mobile crisis and outreach teams of the Northern Pines Mental Health Center in Brainerd are busy. In 2016, they made 1,200 calls in the counties they cover—Aitkin, Cass, Crow Wing, Morrison, Todd and Wadena—and most of those calls ...

From Don Davis via The Forum, EXCERPT: “Environment-related spending and policy changes come in a lot of bills, but the most discussed issue has been buffers. “The buffer stuff is huge,” House Environment Chairman Dan Fabian, R-Roseau, said. Dayton upset a lot of farmers when he began pushing for a law, passed in 2015, to require ...

From Mikkel Pates via Forum News Service, EXCERPT: “It’s counter-intuitive to start an inland shrimp business in Minnesota, but Michael Ziebell is building more than that. “We’re building a very large, fully-integrated shrimp company,” he says. And by the way — a new protein industry for the Upper Midwest. Ziebell is president and chief executive officer of ...

Rural Minnesota Radio’s Jim Gullickson talks with Community and Economic Development Associates’ Courtney Bergey, a Lanesboro native, about the economic impact and opportunities artists bring to rural communities.

Tim Velde of the Center for Rural Policy and Development talks with Rural Minnesota Radio about strategies to expand clean energy production despite proposed cuts by the Trump administration.

Initiative Foundation President Matt Varilek talks about the aging population in rural Minnesota and what his organization is doing to reach out to a younger demographic.