New funds for Minnesota's up and coming farmers seeks to give smaller farmsteads and food businesses a boost.
U.S. Senators Tina Smith (DFL) and Amy Klobuchar (DFL) announced earlier this week that more federal dollars would be invested into the The Farmland Access Hub that pairs land-seeking farmers with farmland owners hoping to transfer their land.
Jan Joannides is the Executive Director of Renewing the Countryside, a nonprofit representing independent farmers. She says the investment will help them further their mission.
"We provide assistance with them being ready to access farmland because it's not just, you just look on the real estate listings and buy it," Joannides explains. "There are steps you need to take, you need to have to figure out how to finance it. And we also have this network of navigators that are across Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa who really provide that one-on-one kind of coaching."
Nearly $750,000 in federal funding will be used to expand the existing program. Joannides says the money will help them gather resources for new farmers in in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa.
"Providing an opportunity to people who want to grow, grow food, and farm, and be part of that tradition," she says. "And you know, and feed their communities."