News

Farm crisis meeting held in southwest Minnesota

Nearly 200 people recently gathered in southwest Minnesota to discuss the farm economy.

Wabasso livestock farmer Paul Sobocinski says he helped coordinate Saturday’s farm crisis meeting in Redwood Falls hosted by the Land Stewardship Project.

“We see very similar lines to the farm crisis of the 1980’s when farmers were under severe financial pressure then.”

He tells Brownfield the group created a farm crisis statement that was presented to Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen and Attorney General Keith Ellison.

“This is the sixth year of low farm prices here in Minnesota, so it’s been very difficult for many farmers to make financial ends meet.”

The Land Stewardship Project is calling for a doubling of farm advocates, a program launched during the 1980’s farm crisis.  Other policy requests include more money to provide legal assistance to farmers in financial trouble, and for the state to pick up loan origination fees to help both farmers and banks through restructuring.