Sep. 24—EYOTA, Minn. — U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar stopped by a farm southwest of Eyota on Wednesday to hear concerns from the Pagel family, who operate a dairy, soybean and oat farm in Olmsted County.
“We had a great visit to Pagel Farm, and I got to meet practically every member of the family and get a good sense of their life here,” said Klobuchar, who is in the middle of a 13-county rural economy tour to talk about agriculture and rural issues that affect Minnesotans.
Klobuchar, a Democrat, is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.
The senator talked with members of the Pagel family about everything from “fitbits” for cows and other dairy farm technology to the need for more rural child care and how the family has transitioned to an emerging local market for food-grade oats.
The Pagels will contribute to a new oat processing facility to be opened in Albert Lea.
Jeff Pagel, a member of the family, told Klobuchar how access to child care impacts the families but also their ability to work both on and off the farm.
“We have areas where there is just not enough child care,” Klobuchar said. “We’ve got to be really creative, incentivizing day care and incentivizing things for our housing in our rural areas and understanding that one size doesn’t fit all.”
While praising Minnesota farmers for their ingenuity and the diversity of crops raised across the state — everything from traditional crops and commodities such as corn, soybeans and dairy to sugar beets, turkey and oats — she also expressed concern for the “headwinds” farmers face.
One, she noted, was having enough workers to help farms operate. Klobuchar said she hoped the Trump administration would work to fix the visa issue that has hurt the farm labor market.
Other headwinds include increased input costs and crop prices, much of which, she said, was impacted by the uncertain and often-changing tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on countries that trade with the U.S.
“This year we have good crop coming in, but the prices of the crops — especially corn or soybeans have been down,” Klobuchar said. “The tariffs have not been helping. I’ll be honest, I’m not a big fan of the tariffs, and we can debate tariffs another day, but I am not a big fan of these tariffs. They have dried up some of these markets for corn and soybeans.”
Klobuchar said the U.S. Supreme Court is set to make a decision about the legality of the Trump tariff policy. She added that she sees a bipartisan effort in Congress to take back tariff-making powers by Congress instead of letting the administration set those policies on a whim.
What farmers need, she said, is consistency in markets, and tariffs that have been changed “more than 100 times” don’t allow for consistency.
“I am going back to Washington next week to continue to advocate for our small farmers,” Klobuchar said.
Hurdles that farmers face have brought on a five-year high in farm bankruptcies nationwide. After the recent Farm Aid concert, she said, she received calls and texts from national media who were surprised that this problem “from the ’80s” was back.
“We don’t want that to continue. So I’ll do all I can to work with Democrats, Republicans, independents, you name it to stand up for our family farmers,” the senator added.
Klobuchar said she’s hopeful Congress will bring forward and pass a new farm bill in the next few months. She hopes it addresses some of the reductions in SNAP — the federal food air program for families — as well as implementing year-round E15 gasoline at the pumps.
Dan Glessing, president of Minnesota Farm Bureau, said the U.S. has become a net agriculture importer over the last three years.
“That’s definitely not where we want to be,” Glessing said.
He added that having Klobuchar visit farms is “critically important” for farmers.
“If you have somebody on the Ag Committee who doesn’t know what a farm is and there only for self-serving purposes, that’s a problem,” he said. “I think it’s critically important that she does get out, she talks to people, not just in certain circles but talks to everybody. The fact that she talks to farmers and ranchers is what you want for a person in that position.”