Ten percent of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s $400 million budget comes from the federal government. Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen testified before the Senate Agriculture Committee and outlined the interaction between the federal government and his Department. Federal funds also impact state programs dealing with food safety and inspection, regional conservation programs, and grants to build out small-to-medium sized meat processing plants. Wolf depredation is also a potential worry. “There’s issues with the USDA Fish and Wildlife Service being able to hire or bring on the trappers for wolf trapping so that’ll be a real concern as we get into spring calving,” said Petersen. “They are not permanent employees; those are contracted employees and we’ll be working with our federal delegation to make it known as Minnesota has more wolves than the rest of the United States put together.”
