The Governor signed the Agriculture Finance Omnibus Bill last Friday and while the press release talks about how it is good for energy and the environment (and some of it is), it neglects to mention that he line-item vetoed two funding items supported by Clean Energy Minnesota (CEM) to encourage better fuel sources for ethanol.

The Governor axed a $1 million allocation that would have created a loan program to purchase equipment for farmers who are growing native, perennial plants for energy or seed.

He also cut out a $350,000 allocation to Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture that would have been for farm-scale research of planting a mixture of prairie or perennial plants for the purposes of energy production.  As you likely know, U of M research has demonstrated that planting a variety of prairie plants together dramatically increases the tons of biomass available per acre for energy production (not to mention reduces runoff of pollution into our rivers).  Farm-scale research is needed to figure out some of the details and the allocation would have helped Minnesota be positioned to more quickly develop a better system of ethanol.  The Govern is paraphrased as saying that there are similar programs currently funded in other spending bills (though so far no one has been able to identify a parallel program in another bill to me).

These line-item vetoes, the only two from the bill, total $1.35 million out of the $170 million total package.    There are some good things that received funding (bill text here), but after the disappointing work of the conference committee that removed most of the CEM supported biofuels provisions, these vetoes seem to be one last kick in the pants.

The recent news that a chemical used in plastics and fertilizer has made its way into our food system probably suppressed more appetites than a screening of Supersize Me. The U.S. House Agriculture Committee is convening a hearing May 9 on this issue. No doubt there will be a lot of Congressional kitchen clatter come Wednesday about the need for more accountability and regulation in our food industry (full implementation of country of origin labeling would be a start). That’s good. But this hearing also offers a prime opportunity to get at the heart of the matter by addressing the need for a locally-based food and farming economy. It turns out the chances that at least the topic of local food systems will be brought up May 9 are pretty good. You see, the Chair of the Ag Committee, Minnesota’s own Collin Peterson, recently hosted the Home Grown Economy Conference—a major meeting on local food systems. This contamination scare offers a chance to put what was learned at that meeting into action. (more…)

Two of Minnesota’s notable polar explorers have been getting some more national attention lately. 

Ann Bancroft did some Q & A with Grist.

Will Steger had a write-up in Outside Magazine’s April issue. Apparently there may be a movie of his current polar expedition.  You of course can keep track of his progress at the Global Warming 101 website.

Money is all the talk of the capitol this week.  John Tuma has this report on spending for the environment:

Life is as tedious as a twice told tale vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.
William Shakespeare, “King John”, Act 3 Scene 4
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With all apologies for the delay, here are some quick updates from the capitol and a few other tidbits.

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