Senate adopts conference report on agriculture budget, preserves food-access and cottage-food changes

The Minnesota Senate on a voice vote and subsequent roll call adopted the conference committee report on House File 2446, the state government appropriation bill for agriculture, sending the measure back as repassed by a 58–8 roll call vote.

Senator John Putnam, the Senate author who moved adoption, said the bill balances support for farmers with expanded food-access programs. "This bill was written on Minnesota's farms to help farmers feed all Minnesotans," Putnam said on the floor, urging senators to "vote green." The conference report was the product of negotiations that raised the Senate target from an initial negative figure to a positive conference target, Putnam said.

The measure funds the Department of Agriculture, the Board of Animal Health, the Agricultural Utilziation Research Institute and the Office of Broadband Development and contains both appropriations and policy changes. Supporters highlighted increases to the ag emergency account and to compensation for wolf and elk depredation, expanded farm business management support, rural mental health and farm-safety funding, and new or expanded…