Central Minnesota Political

  Last year, on a vote of 119 to one, the New Zealand legislature   passed legislation committing to carbon neutrality by 2050. The bill, known as The Zero Carbon bill, creates a framework for getting to zero. "We have to start moving beyond targets. We have to start moving beyond aspiration. We have to start moving beyond statements of hope and deliver signs of action. That is what this government is doing and proudly so,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. Part of that frame work involves reducing agricultural emissions.  A study, released in October of 2020, reports that a significant portion of New Zealand agriculture is either nearly carbon neutral or, possibly, carbon neutral. The study, led by Dr Bradley Case at Auckland University of Technology, estimates the woody vegetation on New Zealand sheep and beef farms is offsetting between 63 percent and 118 percent of their on-farm agricultural emissions. These findings also demonstrate that the Green House G...

  While the Leader of the Free World goes golfing, Americans are dying in ever greater numbers. While the embarrassed Leader of the Minnesota Republicans, Senator Gazelka, whines about being outed for trying to cover up his COVID diagnosis, Minnesotans are dying in even greater numbers. And, at a business in Browerville, inspired by these two foolish and dangerous men, a dog-eared sign on the door says that masks are required. But inside, neither customers nor staff are wearing masks. It’s not much different in Long Prairie where burly young male customers enter and linger, maskless, while the staff wears masks. Senator Gazelka was embarrassed in part because he appeared to be hiding not only his COVID diagnosis but that of several other Republican senators who he is supposed to be the boss of. Further more, he was trying to cover up the fact that the Republican senators, along with 100 or so largely maskless friends and family, had a victory bash following the election. They...

Properly managed regenerative grazing of beef cattle can result in more carbon stored in the soil than the cattle release into the environment, according to a Life Cycle Assessment Commissioned by General Mills and conducted by researchers at Quantis International. The study was conducted in 2017 at White Oaks Pastures in Bluffton Georgia.  White Oak Pastures regeneratively grazes cattle, sheep, and poultry on three thousand acres of land in southwest Georgia. They call their methods radical traditional farming.   The  White Oak study points out that conventionally raised beef justifiably has a bad reputation because of its large carbon footprint. However, the net carbon dioxide emissions at White Oak was a negative 3.5 kilograms of carbon dioxide per kilogram of fresh meat produced. This compares to thirty-three kilograms of carbon dioxide emitted per kilogram of meat produced in conventional U.S. beef production. White Oak Pasture’s grazing system, which integrates catt...

  Some of us on the MN350 Food Solutions Group have been discussing a Minneapolis Star Tribune article from last month announcing that Cargill was going to promote regenerative agriculture on a large school. A couple of other article were circulated as part of the discussion. All of them referred to growing food as “ag” rather than agriculture. I objected, saying we should not take the culture out of agriculture if we wanted a truly regenerative agriculture. One member of the group reminded me generative agriculture was part of indigenous cultures agriculture prior to European colonization. Here is my response to her and, following that, further thoughts about taking the culture out of agriculture.  Thanks Margaret. This is such a huge subject, isn’t it! Yah, I think the culture of agriculture from indigenous people’s perspective is mighty important. But of course there are many indigenous cultures. I once had a conversation about growing potatoes with a Honduran peasa...

  My friend Rafael will likely be deported this week. He’s in the Kandiohi County jail waiting for a seat on the jet Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses to deport people to Mexico. Imagine that! A jet load of people, of Minnesotans, deported to Ciudad Juarez each week. I use “Minnesotans” intentionally. If all the people of that plane are like Rafael they are Minnesotans. Rafael is a good auto mechanic who was liked by his customers. He’s president of the local Catholic Knights of Columbus group. He’s father to six kids who are US citizens. He likes riding bicycle in the summer and, like the rest of us, makes the best of winter.  But winter will be different this year because he’ll be back in Agua Gorda in the state of Michoacan. He hasn’t been there, where he was born, for twenty some years. It’s tough to leave Agua Gorda. It sticks to you. A few years back his sister’s brother-in-law was kidnapped at a gas station in broad day light in Agua Gorda. They found his bod...

This letter from Bernie Sanders lays out a worst case scenario.  Dear Tim, Donald Trump is a pathological liar. According to documented reports he has told more than 20,000 lies and distortions since he has been president. This is, obviously, deeply disturbing behavior for anyone who is president of the United States. But what is even more disturbing is that Trump is now using his lies and misinformation to sow confusion and chaos in the election process and undermine American democracy. In other words, he does not intend to accept the results of the election if he loses and leave office voluntarily. This is not just a "constitutional crisis." This is a threat to everything this country stands for. In order to be effective in combating Trump's attempt to sabotage the November election, it is important that you, and everyone you know, recognize the warning signs as to what he and his Republican allies are doing. For months now Trump has been signaling that he may not accep...

A recent mailing from Bernie Sanders gave some contest to what a fake President Donald Trump is. Part of Sander's message is below: O ur job this week is to expose Donald Trump for the fraud and pathological liar that we all know him to be. This is a president, Donald Trump, who said he was going to provide health care to everyone, yet tried to throw 32 million people off of health care and continues, to this day, to try and accomplish that goal. Today, millions fewer Americans have health insurance than when Trump came into office. This is a president, who in his last campaign said that he was a different type of Republican who would make no cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, but introduced budgets that slash all three. This is a president who said he was going to stand up for working families and who promised to pass tax reform legislation designed to help the middle class, yet 83 percent of his tax benefits go to the top 1 percent. This is a president who promised t...