ST. PAUL – The 2025 Minnesota legislative session convenes tomorrow, and Minnesota Farmers Union (MFU) is preparing to advocate for a strong agriculture budget, affordable healthcare, support for beginning farmers and other priorities defined by our members.

“As a grassroots organization, we’ll be focused on priorities established by members at our state convention in November,” said MFU President Gary Wertish. “At a basic level, lawmakers are going to have to come together to pass a new two-year budget for our state. And we want to help make sure that it works well for farm families and others in rural Minnesota—continuing strong investments in agriculture programs, ensuring farm families have access to care and helping young people build lives in agriculture.”

Building on the Special Orders of Business that delegates to MFU’s 83^rd Annual State Convention approved in November, top legislative priorities for the 2025 session include:

• Stable funding for agriculture programs, including full, dedicated funding for Minnesota’s Agricultural Growth, Research and Innovation program; expanding Minnesota Grown, farm to school and other opportunities to build new markets, and investing in programs that help farmers become more resilient to the effects of climate change. Despite driving nearly a fifth of the state’s economy, the agriculture department budget is less than .5 percent of the state’s budget.
• Ensuring affordable and accessible care in rural Minnesota, including childcare, healthcare, elder care and emergency services. This calls on lawmakers to expand healthcare programs, support independent pharmacies, invest in Emergency Medical Services (EMS), address childcare shortages and prevent nursing home closures.
• Promoting land ownership and access by increasing funding for the Beginning Farmer Tax Credit, ensuring the Ag Homestead Tax Credit serves all farmers, promoting land ownership programs and defending Minnesota’s longstanding ban on corporate ownership of farmland.
• Supporting cooperatives, investing in cooperative development and leveraging the 2025 International Year of Cooperatives to educate Minnesotans on the current and future value of co-ops.
• Ensuring fair markets by ensuring funding for antitrust enforcement, modernizing antitrust laws and passing Right to Repair for farm equipment.

For more of MFU’s legislative priorities, visit mfu.org/legislation/.

“We’re also looking forward to getting to know new legislators and building on existing relationships,” said MFU Vice President Anne Schwagerl. “One of the most important things we do as an organization is highlight the voices of our members through their interaction with lawmakers and participation in committee hearings.”

MFU will hold its annual Lobby Day for members on Feb. 4 to continue building those relationships and sharing stories of how what happens in St. Paul matters to family farmers and rural communities.

The 2025 legislative session must conclude no later than May 19 and the fiscal year ends on June 30, 2025.

About Minnesota Farmers Union

Minnesota Farmers Union works to protect and enhance the economic interests and quality of life of family farmers and ranchers and rural communities. MFU is a nonprofit membership-based organization. Membership is open to everyone. Learn more and join at www.mfu.org and follow MFU on Facebook, X, Bluesky and Instagram.

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Minnesota Farmers Union—Standing for Agriculture, Working for Farmers (www.mfu.org).