(excerpt of article by Jason Schoonover “Klobuchar Visits Steele County”, published by the Albert Lea Tribune)
Sen. Amy Klobuchar visited the area last Saturday, stopping at Tom Favra’s farm between Ellendale and Blooming Prairie on a tour of farms and agriculture-related businesses.
Klobuchar said farming and agriculture-based businesses have helped rural Minnesota endure economic hardships.
“If you look at rural Minnesota, that’s one of the reasons that our state hasn’t fallen off a cliff like some states,” the senator said. “Because the rural economy has been held strong.”
Klobuchar said farmers like Favra are an essential part of Minnesota’s economy.
“He started out with nothing. Just a family farm and he expanded,” she said.
That’s not to say agriculture is completely unscathed by economic hardships. The senator was talking about a recent agreement to end the Ethanol Reform and Deficit Reduction Act.
“That was incredibly difficult the last few weeks, but we were able to come out of it with an agreement that is supported by the Farm Bureau, the Farmers Union, major ethanol groups and the corn growers,” Klobuchar said.
The deal would bring the subsidy to an end, while dedicating $1.3 billion of the remaining money to reducing the national debt. The remaining $668 million would be used with long-term infrastructure needs for the ethanol industry, the senator said.
http://www.albertleatribune.com/2011/07/11/klobuchar-visits-steele-county/
Our Take:
We appreciate Klobuchar’s good work on behalf of Minnesota’s farmers and the ethanol industry–as Klobuchar frequently says–agriculture and farm-based energy are big on the list of reasons Minnesota’s economy “has been held strong.”
It takes courage and vision to fight for these things when they have become a convenient scape goat for bloated government and energy businesses with far more lobbying leverage than farmers and ethanol makers possess.
We are lucky to have Klobuchar on the Senate agriculture committee and we know she will continue to fight for the farmers and the economic stability they bring to Minnesota.
Minnesota Cornerstone Blog 