In St. Paul, the House and Senate agriculture bills consider the groundwater problems in southeastern Minnesota. The House version allows the Agricultural Fertilizer Research and Education Council to sunset and divert the funds for the groundwater issue. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Aric Putnam said the Senate bill renews AFREC for ten years and makes no changes to the program. “We’ve got people working together to figure out how to solve problems,” explained Putnam. “People don’t talk enough about that enough with AFREC. It’s farmers talking to farmers talking to researchers sorting what they want to do together and to me that’s almost as important as where the funds go.” Putnam said Governor Walz supports the Senate language dealing with AFREC.
