Tim Penny looks at past, present, future
The luncheon was hosted by the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce’s agriculture committee.
Guest speaker Tim Penny, president and CEO for Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation, spoke about the past, present and future of agriculture in Minnesota.
Farm families in this state, Penny said, always plan ahead and have to see trends in agriculture, see the opportunity for exporting markets and find new opportunities for their crops.
“To me, family agriculture is an industry that isn’t just about getting up in the morning and working in the field or working in the barn,” Penny said. “It’s a career that requires you to have an awful lot of faith in the future.”
It’s that faith in the future that makes communities in rural Minnesota poised to take flight in the coming years with the advent of new technologies.
As Penny looks to the future, he said he sees enormous opportunities for economic growth in rural Minnesota tied to the backbone of agriculture.
“I think the future of rural Minnesota has a lot to do with rural Minnesota’s past,” he said.
Before Minnesota became a state, people were settling this part of the country and farming. Penny said his great-great-grandfather was one of the first settlers west of Freeborn, on the edge of Penny Lake.
“We were part of this westward expansion,” he said. “We and others broke the prairie and made it farmland.”
Growth in this part of the country was based on agriculture for many years, Penny said, and when the railroad came that focus grew.
“It was all about expansion, expansion, expansion,” he said. “This is now. There’s no more new land to break.”
The agricultural sector, once focusing on farmers’ production, is now researching crops and new usage of crops. That research of new uses spawned farm cooperatives, Penny said, so farmers can have more control of the market and benefit financially. Coops now are seeking new uses for their products.
“Look at all the coop ethanol plants in Minnesota,” he said. “Farmers themselves have taken charge of that agenda here in our state.”
Farm programs now are in a different place, too, Penny said. No longer can they manipulate the market by paying farmers not to plant, driving up the price and creating more demand. Programs now provide a floor and subsidies when prices aren’t going so well, he said.
But through the various changes in the farming and agricultural industries, “one thing has remained constant,” Penny said.
“We do feed the world in so many ways,” he said. “We still play that role. We still support the local economy.
“But I think we’re simply on the cutting edge of a whole new area of growth for agriculture,” Penny continued.
New discoveries in the use of agricultural products are leading the industry in a new direction. From corn-based plastic to biofuels, Penny said there is significant growth in creating new goods needed in society.
“This is an exciting venture for us because of what that can mean,” he said.
Creating one biojob — the term Penny used to refer to any jobs relating to new biological industries, such as ethanol plants — can create six other jobs in the community and on average pays 165 percent more than the typical American job, according to Penny.
And Freeborn County is on the verge of this revolution.
“I think we’re poised to create an awful lot more ag-related or bio-related businesses in this area,” he said.
The new initiatives with energy and product-usage is driving agriculture forward.
“All of that comes right back down to our rural communities and family farmers,” Penny said, adding he sees great potential for the future of agriculture as the base for many possibilities.
“I want to believe in the potential in this part of the state to be bigger, better, brighter than ever before,” he said.
Ron Jacobsen, a farmer in rural Freeborn, said he agreed with what Penny had to say about the future of agriculture.
“Research and policy is going to be the backbone of how we achieve the things we’re going to do,” he said.
Farm Family of the Year
The Farm Family of the Year was announced Tuesday at the Agricultural Luncheon and featured in that day’s edition of the Albert Lea Tribune. Paul and Karen Hansen, with their four children, were honored to receive the award. Many other former Farm Families of the Year were recognized, dating back to the early 1980s.
Honored for their involvement in the community and their environmental conscious, Paul accepted the award.
“Hopefully we’re just an average family in the community,” he said.
Nearly 250 people attended the luncheon and heard Penny speak.
“It was really refreshing to hear an optimistic note at a time when our economic news is not,” Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Randy Kehr said.
