By Ashley Stewart

Owatonna People’s Press

BLOOMING PRAIRIE — Questions about the Minnesota State Legislature’s recent buffer bill and the state’s water quality filled the majority of a legislative listening session during the Southern Minnesota Land Use Expo Monday afternoon near Blooming Prairie.

But the discussion, which consisted of dialogue between area legislators, state officials and attendees, also raised questions about the future of agriculture in Steele County and the state regarding the youth.

“I’m not that old, but I’m in my middle ages now and I’m really concerned about the future of our youth getting into ag,” said Angie Knish of Mower County. “I heard a lot about water quality and it’s all been hashed out, so I’m going to go in a different direction.

Knish asked legislators to continue to fund ag education and continue to educate the public about what farmers are doing in the state.

“I’m concerned about the ability of our youth to get into farming,” Knish said. “It’s going to be expensive. Unless they have someone backing them, it’s going to be very difficult to get them into ag.

“I think that these people, who are involved in this, need to get more credit for what they are doing.”

Similar concerns were raised earlier by Jim O’Connor of Steele County, who asked Sen. Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin, what assurances he could give young people wishing to pursue agriculture.

“One of the best days we have at the Capitol is when those FFA students come because you know the future is so bright with all these talented people, but we’ve known for a long time that we have a real shortage of ag educators at our local high schools,” said Sparks, whose district includes Blooming Prairie. “We made some major investments to address that this last legislative session.”

He added that often times ag programs are the first to get cut in school districts.

“It’s terrible,” said Sparks.

But he said if both the “country kids” and the “city kids” can get excited about the opportunities in agriculture, “the sky is really the limit.”

“We know they’re our future, and we certainly need some young kids involved,” Sparks said.

Sen. Vicki Jensen, DFL-Owatonna, also expressed the importance of offering opportunities to educate youth about agriculture.

“I think in order to provide some assurances for younger people to get involved, legislators need to understand the outcomes of the policies we pass are having in rural communities in general and understanding the outcome isn’t necessarily what we want,” she said.

Jensen said she authored a bill last session to provide grant dollars to schools to fund ag instructors to teach year round.

“Schools don’t have funding to pay them, and they don’t provide the experience of doing work,” she said.

Jensen and Sparks said they’d continue to advocate for agriculture in southern Minnesota in the state in the coming sessions.

Rep. Dave Bly, DFL-Northfield, Sen. David Senjem, R-Rochester, Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Dave Fredrickson, and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Assistant Commissioner Rebecca Flood were also part of the panel discussion about agriculture and water.

The listening session was only one part of the expo, which was hosted by the Steele County Farm Bureau and the Steele County Farmers Union, at the Rodney Krell farm on U.S. Highway 218, two miles north of Blooming Prairie.

There were also field demonstrations on various types of liquid and solid manure application equipment as well as various types of conversation equipment.