MN House Speaker Lisa Demuth visits Christensen Family Farms
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SLEEPY EYE - Minnesota Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth visited Christensen Family Farms Monday for a tour and conversation on how best to support farmers across Minnesota.
Demuth said the visit was as a legislative leader as well as a gubernatorial candidate.
"It is my honor to be at Christensen Farms today and what I want to learn is about the industry," Demuth said. "I've visited before, but specifically I want to know how the decisions that are made in St. Paul directly affect our pork producers and Christensen Farms."
Demuth said this was her third visit to Christensen Farms in the last two and a half years. She said Christensen Farms has an operation that spans multiple states and that makes it great for comparisons. It helps identify what is working in Minnesota and what is making things harder.
"We can see what is going well in other states and how we can learn from that," she said.
Demuth said the top thing she has heard from agriculture producers on her campaign is that they want "certainty."
"They want to know the legislator and governor are not going to make things harder to do the work in the state of Minnesota," she said. "Those in agriculture need to know that they will have a leader in the state that supports what they do and doesn't make it more complicated."
Demuth said one of her top campaign promises is to choose new commissioners across the board. She said the new commissioners will be experts in their field, but will work together to prevent unintended consequences.
The speaker also addressed the tariffs placed by President Donald Trump. Demuth said she had separated herself from the president on this issue, especially the tariffs placed on Canada, which she acknowledged as hurting Minnesota farmers.
Demuth also addressed the long permitting process in Minnesota of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
"I want to take care of our air and water, but when you see delays from MPCA and other agencies that delay operations from starting or expanding, we can't get by," she said.
Christensen Farms' Government Relations Manager Josh Anderson provided Demuth with a tour of the Sleepy Eye facility. He said his top hope is that both sides of the political aisle will understand the challenges facing his industry as a whole.
"We want to bring more young farmers onto the farm," Anderson said. "We want to find new young farmers that want to grow pigs and grow pigs on Christiansen Farms or other operations."
Anderson believed there were multiple ways to bring more young people into farming. He agreed with the speaker that permit reform could help. He wanted to see the timeline for permit approval shrink, but
he also supported tax rebates to offset inflations on new constructions or possibly tax credits for farmers.
He said this would improve opportunities for young farmers but also create a level of certainty for all farmers.