One provision in the Minnesota House Environmental and Natural Resources budget bill would prohibit the growing of corn on public lands. During Tuesday’s hearing, State Representative Steven Jacob said there is overwhelming opposition to this language and asked Chairman Rick Hansen where this proposal originated. “That came from me,” was the response. “It did not come from a lobbyist; it did not come from a group; it came from me and looking over 20 years of testimony and discussion on this. Corn requires fertilizer, this is public property owned by all of us and can be planted to something other than corn.” Representative Jacob argued against this language. “It’s beneficial to wildlife, beneficial to the DNR, beneficial to the farmers; seems like a win-win-win. If this goes through it’s going to be very detrimental to the farms in the area for crop depredation from deer.”
