At Farmfest, congressional candidates spar over stalled farm bill, D.C. and California regulations

MORGAN, MINN. – The only place that drew more ire than Washington, D.C,. on Tuesday at the opening day of Farmfest in southwestern Minnesota was California, but it was close.

During a debate Tuesday morning, congressional candidates in a broad swath of southern Minnesota railed against regulations — whether in far-away liberal states or the nation's capital — impacting the profitability of family farms.

"California should not be saying anything about what our Midwest farmers can and can't do," said Joe Tierab, a GOP candidate in the swing Second District, discussing controversial California regulations that went into effect earlier this year mandating how hogs must be grown to be sold as pork in the Golden State.

During a discussion about water pollution rules blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court, Rep. Brad Finstad, a second-term Republican representing the southern First District, said, "It's written by Washington bureaucrats who think they know how we farm."

But it wasn't just bureaucrats, but Congress, who drew blame on Tuesday, with the farm bill still stalled on the Hill.

While Finstad touted a version of the $1.5 trillion bill, undergirding programs for food stamps to crop insurance, passed earlier this year by the House agriculture committee, Rep. Angie Craig, a three-term Democrat representing southern suburbs through southeastern farm country, criticized the bill for cutting the nutrition title and adding to the national debt, saying it was unrealistic for the bill, as it's currently written, to pass the full House, let alone the Democratic-controlled Senate.

"We've passed 25 post office names since the farm bill passed out of Ag [Committee]," Craig said. "If we had the votes on the House floor, they'd have it there."

Tuesday's first debate offered an inaugural opportunity for incumbents and challengers — including Rachel Bohman, a Rochester attorney running as a Democrat, and Teirab, a former assistant U.S. attorney — to be on the same stage.

Before the farmer-heavy audience in a machine shed, the commonalities between candidates overshadowed any major distinctions.

Regarding criticism of the Biden administration for a biofuels formula that doesn't sit well with the state's corn growers to qualify for sustainable aviation fuel, Tierab noted he had basically the same position as Craig.

Similarly, Bohman said, she, like Finstad, opposed Proposition 12, a California policy mandating any pork that is sold or travels through the state must be derived from hogs raised in less confined conditions. The national pork industry has fought against the policy, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023.

In the afternoon debate with candidates from western, northern, and central Minnesota, the conversation soon gravitated to bird flu. This year's Farmfest comes as the dairy industry joins the turkey growers of Minnesota in battling H5N1 that has moved into mammals after leading to the devastating culling of millions of birds across Minnesota since 2022.

Republican Rep. Michelle Fishbach, who represents the heart of turkey country in western Minnesota, emphasized the importance of empowering federal agencies to respond to the bird flu crisis, ticking off a list of national biosecurity agencies: "We need to make sure that they are strong and able to respond."

But Steve Boyd, a businessman from Kensington challenging Fishbach from the political right-flank in the Aug. 13 primary, called for a "local," not a federal response to animal security.

"If we learned anything through COVID-19, it's that we don't want a federally legislated response to the disease," Boyd said.

Talk also ranged from climate change and conservation to rural housing and a stretched-thin labor force. On federal regulations, GOP Rep. Pete Stauber, representing northeastern Minnesota, echoed concerns he's heard from ranchers who've lost "hundreds to thousands" of dollars on livestock killed by wolves.

"We know the grey wolf has recovered," said Stauber, who called for the wolf to be de-listed from the federal endangered species list. "I trust the state of Minnesota to manage our wolf population."

There was some sparring across party lines, as Jen Schultz, a former DFL state lawmaker from Duluth challenging Stauber for the second time, invoked the collapse of a border security bill earlier this year after former President Donald Trump opposed its passage.

"If immigration is your number one issue, I don't know why you'd vote for any of the members on this table," Schultz said.

But Rep. Tom Emmer, a Republican representing the Sixth District, shot back that Schultz had made either an "ignorant or dishonest statement," invoking a House-passed immigration bill and charged the DFLer to "get [her] facts straight on that."

On Wednesday, farmers, industry representatives and politicos will once again gather under the shed in Redwood County to watch a debate among U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and a range of opponents, including Royce White, endorsed by the state Republican Party earlier this year.