ARLINGTON, MN — If you spend time at county fairs, township meetings, or cooperative annual meetings across Sibley, McLeod, and Carver counties, you quickly notice something about Minnesota farmers: we don't talk in partisan soundbites. We talk about real, tangible realities.

We talk about whether the next generation can afford to take over the milking herd or buy their first 80 acres. We talk about whether our weight-restricted bridges and township roads can handle modern grain wagons during fall harvest. We talk about soil health, buffer strips, and how to manage erratic weather without bureaucratic red tape. And we talk about what our rural landscape will look like thirty years from now if prime agricultural soils are paved over or permanently displaced.

That is why I pay close attention when the Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation surfaces its annual priority issues. Developed through a true grassroots process where local members raise concerns, debate solutions, and shape policy from the county level up, these priorities reflect the kitchen-table conversations happening across District 17B every single day:

  1. Family Farm Legacy
  2. Rural Economic Vitality
  3. Environmental Stewardship
  4. Energy & Farmland Preservation

As a fifth-generation dairy farmer working the same land my great-great-grandparents broke ground on in 1886, these four issues aren't just bullet points on a legislative agenda — they are the bedrock of why I am running for the Minnesota House of Representatives.

"When farmers meet at the grassroots level, they aren't looking for partisan culture wars. They are looking for common-sense state policy that respects our heritage, defends independent producers, and ensures the next generation can build a thriving life right here in rural Minnesota." — Ben Wieman

1. Family Farm Legacy: Passing Land and Opportunity Forward

The Minnesota Farm Bureau defines this priority simply: “Ensuring policies and resources support farm families in passing land, knowledge, and opportunity from one generation to the next.”

There is no challenge more urgent across rural Minnesota today. Across our district, the average age of a principal farm operator is nearly 58. Thousands of multi-generational operations will change hands over the coming decade. If the state doesn't have the right tools in place, those acres won't pass to beginning farm families — they will be snapped up by out-of-state investment funds, corporate agribusiness conglomerates, and absentee speculators.

In St. Paul, I will fight to:

  • Expand and protect the Minnesota Beginning Farmer Tax Credit, making it financially advantageous for retiring farmers to transfer land and machinery to young, independent producers.
  • Provide robust succession planning resources, mediation tools, and legal assistance so farm transfers don't fracture family operations during probate or generational handoffs.
  • Crack down on corporate monopoly power in seeds, fertilizer, and equipment, ensuring independent family farmers have competitive bargaining power in the marketplace.

2. Rural Economic Vitality: Strong Farms Require Strong Towns

Farming cannot thrive in an economic vacuum. When local main streets empty out, when small-town grocery stores shutter, or when township roads and culverts wash out without state repair funding, family farms feel the impact immediately.

Farm Bureau’s focus on “advancing initiatives that grow rural businesses, improve infrastructure, and empower local communities” goes hand-in-hand with my core belief that rural Minnesota deserves its fair share of state investment.

In District 17B, rural economic vitality means:

  • Modernizing farm-to-market transportation: Investing state gas-tax and infrastructure revenues directly into county roads, township culverts, and posted bridges so heavy milk trucks, tractors, and combines can navigate harvest safely.
  • Finishing the job on universal high-speed broadband: Ensuring precision agriculture, GPS variable-rate applicators, and farm management software work seamlessly in every corner of Sibley, McLeod, and Carver counties.
  • Expanding regional processing capacity: Supporting local meat lockers, dairy processing cooperatives, and value-added agricultural grants that keep food dollars circulating in our local economy rather than being shipped out of state.

3. Environmental Stewardship: Science-Based and Producer-Led

Nobody cares more about clean water and fertile topsoil than the farm families whose livelihoods and children drink from those wells and farm those fields. But too often, environmental policy in St. Paul is dictated from the top down by people who have never walked a furrow or milked a cow at 5:00 a.m.

The Farm Bureau’s priority calls for “supporting science-based land and livestock conservation practices that protect natural resources while keeping farms productive and sustainable.”

I couldn't agree more. Effective conservation must be:

  • Incentive-based, not punitive: Expanding voluntary programs like the Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program (MAWQCP) that partner with and reward producers for implementing soil health practices, cover crops, and rotational grazing.
  • Science-grounded: Relying on agronomic data tailored to our specific southern Minnesota soil types, drainage requirements, and climatic realities.
  • Supportive of livestock agriculture: Defending our dairy, beef, hog, and poultry producers from unworkable regulatory hurdles while providing predictable, long-term conservation cost-share funding through our local Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs).

4. Energy & Farmland Preservation: Protecting Our Prime Ag Soils

Minnesota is making significant investments in renewable energy, and farmers have long contributed to clean energy through biofuels, wind leases, and on-farm solar. But as large-scale energy projects accelerate across southern Minnesota, a vital question must be answered: How do we safeguard our most productive, irreplaceable farmland?

Farm Bureau’s priority is clear and necessary: “Balancing renewable energy policies with the long-term protection of Minnesota’s agricultural lands.”

We must never sacrifice the food security of future generations for uncoordinated energy siting. In the legislature, I will champion:

  • Strict statutory protections for prime agricultural soils: Directing large-scale renewable generation and transmission corridors toward brownfields, commercial rooftops, and marginal lands first.
  • Defending local township and county control: Ensuring township supervisors and county commissioners retain decisive zoning authority and public hearing requirements over energy project siting.
  • Mandatory decommissioning bonds and topsoil preservation standards: Requiring renewable energy operators to post full decommissioning bonds and adhere to rigorous agricultural soil mitigation standards, ensuring leased land can be returned to active, productive farming.
  • Incentivizing dual-use agrivoltaics: Encouraging solar installations designed for compatible livestock grazing and pollinator habitat so land remains in productive agricultural use.

Putting the 'F' Back in DFL

The Democratic-Farmer-Labor party has the word Farmer right in its name. For far too long, folks in rural Minnesota have felt that politicians in the Twin Cities take agriculture for granted.

My campaign slogan, “Let’s Put the ‘F’ Back in DFL,” is a promise. It means bringing five generations of dirt-under-the-fingernails dairy farming experience to the State Capitol. It means listening to the grassroots priorities of Minnesota’s farm organizations, our township supervisors, and our rural neighbors.

When we protect our family farm legacy, revitalize our rural economies, lead with science-based stewardship, and preserve our prime soils, we don't just protect farming — we secure the future of all of Minnesota.

To learn more about Ben Wieman’s platform for House District 17B, visit our Priorities Page or join the campaign on our Take Action Page.