Ask a farmer: What are you curious to know about farming or life on the farm?
Updated 5:15 p.m. | Posted 10:32 a.m.
Trade tensions are sure to be a hot topic at the annual Farmfest gathering near Redwood Falls this week.
On Tuesday, Gov. Tim Walz headed to the giant expo for Minnesota farmers and others tied to agriculture. The DFL governor said he wants farmers to know his administration is taking steps to ease their financial worries as a tariff battle with China persists.
Walz intends to use FarmFest to get a better pulse of the challenges facing Minnesota’s ag sector.
“We’re going to try to do our best to make sure we normalize the relations at a state-to-state level but with the understanding that trade policy comes through the executive branch through the president,” Walz said.
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
On the first day of FarmFest, Walz told an audience that he wants the state's two dozen state agencies to work together in order to meet the needs of rural Minnesota.
“We’re asking the questions that you all should be asking: Are there smarter, better ways that we can align things that deliver the services that people need to make sure we’re doing what we’re supposed to do?” said Walz, ahead of a panel discussion that featured commissioners or deputy commissioners from 10 state departments from agriculture to transportation.
Walz is in the planning stages for a likely trade trip in September to Japan in connection with the Midwest Governors Association.
It’s also been a soggy planting season.
Meanwhile, this year’s FarmFest is expected to gain a higher level of attraction because U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, is schedule to make an appearance.
Share your question about farming with MPR News and we will track down an answer for the most interesting ones.