Anne Schechinger

Totally unrelated:

Did you know almost 100% of corn planted is pre-treated with neonicotinoid insecticides?

Did you know neonicotinoid seed treatments aren't regulated by the federal pesticide law?

Did you know most studies (even from ag schools!) show little yield benefit from neonic treatments?

Gas prices jump 16 cents overnight in Minnesota and are still heading up Unrest in the Middle East and spring travel are leading to price surge of 10 to 25 cents a gallon in the next week or two. Some analysts say a gallon could hit $4.

Week one and Trump’s war is hitting pocket books.

www.startribune.com/us-iran-conf...

Syngenta stopping global paraquat production doesn’t end need for states to enact bans WASHINGTON – The Environmental Working Group welcomes Syngenta’s announcement today

There are over 750 companies that sell paraquat globally. Syngenta ending their production of paraquat likely won't mean much for how much is used in the U.S. Paraquat exposure increases the risk of developing Parkinson's disease by 64%. www.ewg.org/news-insight...

Farmers Increasingly Rejecting Data Center Bids For Land - Farm Policy News The tech industry’s relentless push for data centers is colliding with farmers who see the projects as a threat to their way of life. Despite being offered sums that often dwarf the land’s recent valu...

This is absolutely wild. Some farmers are getting offers over $120,000 an acre to sell their land to data center developers. Just for comparison, Iowa State says average price for an acre of farmland in Iowa is around $11,500. farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/2026/03/farm...

The latest on ICE in Minnesota Live updates on ICE enforcement in Minnesota, with the latest developments and links to deeper reporting as events unfold.

New reporting shows that we are still going to have 407 ICE agents in Minnesota in March. Much above the 150 agents that Homan claimed in his announcement a few weeks ago. Immigrants here are still terrified to leave their homes every day. www.mprnews.org/live-updates

Government penalizes businesses over 6 deaths at Colorado dairy Federal workplace safety regulators have penalized three businesses over their failure to protect six Colorado dairy workers who were killed by exposure to highly toxic hydrogen sulfide gas after a ma...

"The hazards of confined spaces on farms and dairies are a well-known and persistent cause of death in agriculture across the U.S. — often from exposure to odorless and colorless noxious gases, or due to asphyxiation in closed spaces where oxygen has been depleted" apnews.com/article/colo...

The MN Dept of Ag is requesting comments by March 12 on if our Groundwater Protection Rule is adequately protecting water from nitrate. @ewgofficial.bsky.social knows the rule is not adequate, so we will be submitting comments. I invite others to comment as well! www.mda.state.mn.us/groundwater-...

Just one of the MANY recent papers that connect low dose exposure to Glyphosate and to a higher risk of developing cancer.

Glyphosate-based herbicide as a potential risk factor for breast cancer - ScienceDirect share.google/H6v0d587sELT...

Digesters Were Sold as a Climate Fix. Now the USDA Is Hitting Pause. A 90-day pause due to “loan delinquency” may signal that the viability of anaerobic digesters is being scrutinized at the federal level.

I don't think anyone is doing better journalism on Midwest agriculture than @ninaelkadi.com.

Her latest, on biodigesters: sold as “climate-smart,” but subsidize factory farm expansion, pollute rural water, and address only ~11% of ag emissions.

cornbeltconfidential.substack.com/p/digesters-...

An infographic from Our World in Data titled "Global land use for food production" uses a series of stacked horizontal bar charts to visualize the distribution of Earth's surface and the disproportionate land requirements of livestock. The first bar shows Earth's surface is 71% ocean and 29% land (141 million km²); the land surface is then broken down into 76% habitable land, 10% glaciers, and 14% barren land. Of the habitable land, 45% (48 million km²) is used for agriculture, while 38% is forests and 13% is shrubland. The agricultural land bar reveals a major disparity: 80% (38 million km²) is dedicated to livestock (meat, dairy, and textiles) including grazing land and cropland for feed, while only 16% is used for crops for direct human consumption and 4% for non-food crops. Finally, two smaller bars at the bottom contrast this land use with nutritional output, showing that while livestock uses 80% of agricultural land, it only provides 17% of global calories and 38% of global protein, whereas plant-based foods provide 83% of calories and 62% of protein.

80% of agricultural land is used for livestock (and textiles), yet this huge land use provides only 17% of our calories and 38% of our protein.

16% of the land used for crops provides 83% of our calories and 62% of our protein. It's past time we rethink what we eat.

Trump Signs Order Protecting Glyphosate, Phosphorus Production - Farm Policy News Invoking the Defense Production Act, President Donald Trump on Wednesday designated glyphosate-based herbicides and elemental phosphorus as critical to national defense and ordered Agriculture Secreta...

Pretty sure this administration has no idea where phosphorus actually comes from. You can't just create new phosphate rock mines... Think they should have read Dan Egan's book 'The Devil's Element' first. farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/2026/02/trum...

What a great story!
It shows that biodigesters are super subsidy-dependent, and that they may cause consolidation and so negate their alleged GHG benefits, while increasing other types of pollution. Once again, here’s a big ag tech fix that doesn’t fix anything instead of eating less meat and dairy.

Farm Bill 2026: Thompson targets Prop 12, skips E15 provision House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn Thompson releases Farm Bill 2026 text targeting California Prop 12 but excluding year-round E15 sales.

Congressmen from a party that claims to care about states' rights attempts to make a voter-approved state law illegal. www.farmprogress.com/farm-policy/...

Breaking News: The Trump administration repealed the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human life and well being, meaning that the EPA can no longer regulate them. nyti.ms/4rSszQu

AG Keith Ellison: "The surge is contributing to violent crime. Two of the three homicides committed in Minneapolis in 2026 have come at the hands of federal immigration agents."

USDA’s new Regenerative Agriculture Initiative: A step forward or greenwashing? In late 2025, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), along with the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the launch of a Regenerative Agriculture Pilot Pr...

This is spot on, from @michaelhapp.bsky.social. "NRCS needs to demonstrate that the RAI will meaningfully increase the implementation of regenerative practices rather than package existing policy in a way that merely sounds like progress." www.iatp.org/new-regenera...

A chart showing the number of farm bankruptcies by year between 2016 and 2025.

The Farm Bureau's own chart shows that the number of farm bankruptcies in 2025 was much lower than in 2016-2020. The chart also shows that many more farms went bankrupt during the first Trump Admin compared to the Biden Admin.

Farm Bankruptcies Continued to Climb in 2025 U.S. farm bankruptcies rose to 315 in 2025, up 46% year over year, as declining farm income, rising debt, and higher costs strain farmers and increase the risk of more farm closures.

The Farm Bureau says that farm bankruptcies "increased 46% in 2025." This may seem like a huge increase, but the actual number is 315 farm bankruptcies across the whole year. Given that we have 1.88 million farms in the U.S., 315 farms filing for bankruptcy is a tiny %. www.fb.org/market-intel...

Trump signs executive order quadrupling beef imports from Argentina President Trump signed an executive order Friday that increases the amount of beef imported into the U.S. from Argentina.

"The National Cattlemen's Beef Association said it 'cannot stand behind the President while he undercuts the future of family farmers and ranchers by importing Argentinian beef in an attempt to influence prices.'"

Agricultural exceptionalism manifests itself in many ways in the US. Amping up the “poor farmer” narrative is consistently one of them. Ignoring logic is another: this is the president the farm lobby wanted, and his policy* approach was clear.

*I really hesitate to call any of this mess “policy”.

Farm Income to Fall in 2026 Despite Hefty Gov't Payments - Farm Policy News In a sign of growing stress for U.S. farmers, the Agriculture Department forecast on Thursday that U.S. net farm income would fall 0.7% this year, despite near-record government payments that are expe...

A lot of comments this week about how bad farm income will be this year, when USDA's numbers show that farm income will go down... (checks notes) 0.7% in 2026. Still above the 20-year average and a less than 1% decrease vs 2025 farm income. Sky falling? farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/2026/02/farm...

Ag Leaders Warn of Risk of 'Widespread Collapse of American Agriculture' - Farm Policy News A bipartisan group of former leaders of America's major agricultural commodity associations and biofuels organizations, farmer leaders, and former senior USDA officials sent congressional ag leaders a...

I have a lot of thoughts about this, but surprising to see this many 'ag leaders,' including commodity groups, actually being publicly critical of Trump Admin policies. farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/2026/02/ag-l...

Opinion | Welcome to the Resistance, Public School Parents

This piece does a really good job describing the fear that parents and kids are feeling every day in the Twin Cities. Constant worry that anytime we leave the house we could encounter ICE, and that kids will be traumatized witnessing the violence. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/o...

It was great talking with @byng.bsky.social for this @sentientmedia.org piece. Sales of antibiotics for use in livestock went up almost 16% between 2023 and 2024, which was the largest increase in many years. And no one seems to be able to explain why.

It was a good experience giving a presentation at the Great Northern Winter Festival in Minneapolis this weekend. I spoke about agriculture's greenhouse gas emissions and the conservation practices that can reduce emissions during the festival's Climate Solutions Series. thegreatnorthernfestival.com

Next time someone asks you about energy and land use, maybe remind them that the ~35 million acres that currently grow corn for ethanol in the US could produce ~15 PWh per year of electricity from solar photovoltaics. That's ~3.5 times more than *total annual generation from all US power plants*.

I'm an American farmer — empty USDA offices means fewer family farms Conservation programs like Environmental Quality Incentives Program face delivery challenges as USDA loses thousands of employees, forcing farmers to wait longer.

He "applauds Trump and Rollins," but writes an entire op-ed about how their policies are bad for farmers. www.foxnews.com/opinion/im-a...

please remember that no matter how many “ICE is losing in MN” articles you read today, there is still a very real, urgent, ongoing crisis in Minnesota.

people need food and they need rent money. that has not changed.

Chris Jones Campaigns to Clean Up Iowa’s Water KEY POINTS The race for Iowa agriculture secretary focuses on clean water and farm-related pollution. Iowa author and clean water activist Chris Jones is running as a Democrat. Industrial agriculture ...

www.circleofblue.org/2026/opinion...

They are using ICE's occupation of Minnesota to distract us from other terrible decisions they are making about our state.