The agriculture policy and finance bill failed to make it out of the Minnesota House Agriculture Committee. Co-Chair Paul Anderson remains hopeful the bill can be completed before the session ends in less than a month. “There are always possibilities to bring these bills back again; I just talked with leadership on Thursday, and we’re negotiating,” said Anderson. “Really, the non-starter for our caucus is Paraquat. We don’t want to have a ban on Paraquad in the bill. The bill is pretty good with the other things in it. It just depends on how serious the DFL is on trying to push through this ban.” The Republicans and Democrats are holding firm to their positions on the Paraquat issue. Anderson doesn’t want Minnesota to be the first state in the nation to ban this weedkiller. “I’ve done some research on this, and so far, there are 13 states that have had legislation introduced pertaining to banning Paraquat. Interestingly, it has passed in none of those states. I don’t want to be the first state, you know, a powerful ag state like Minnesota, to take away a chemical that the farmers use to a certain degree and use it wisely.” Listen to the interview.
