Wednesday, September 14th 2016
Courtesy of Brownfield Ag News
The Minnesota Soybean Growers remain critical of Governor Mark Dayton’s executive order limiting the use of neonicotinoids. Association director of public affairs Joe Smentek attended a House Ag Policy Committee informational hearing Tuesday intended to give producers clarification on how the order would affect their operations. “Unfortunately, we didn’t find out a lot. the Department of Agriculture focused more on their scientific in-depth review and didn’t really have good answers for why the Governor’s office was given that legislative report on neonics before the report was released (to the public).” In his testimony, Minnesota Ag Commissioner Dave Frederickson says the executive order is meant to set the table for further discussion about the declining pollinator population. Smentek tells Brownfield Minnesota Soybean and other commodity groups will be working with the legislature as the Department of Ag attempts to change aspects of neonic regulations. House Ag Policy Committee Chair Paul Anderson of Starbuck says the farming industry had little time to review the 18 month pollinator study before Dayton issued the executive order. However, no action was taken following Tuesday’s hearing.