Tester Encourages Local and Organic

On Febuary 19, I attended the discussion and presentation by Sen. Jon Tester at MSU’s Procrastinator Theater detailing local agriculture. In attendance were more than 100 people from the Bozeman community and MSU staff and faculty, including MSU President Waded Cruzado.

Tester focused his discussion and the question and answer period on the growing interest and economic importance of local agriculture. Many of the questions from the audience focused on how to make local agriculture more competitive with large scale agribusiness. Tester conveyed the importance of enabling local foods to make their way into schools systems through out the state.

There was also concern from the audience that commodity crops are too heavily subsidized, hence making the competition for local agriculture even more difficult. Other issues discussed were processing facilities for and the challenges of distributing local foods.

I asked him (without mentioning I was on the Co-op Board or Staff): How can we, as concerned citizens, and he as our governmental representative, protect and encourage sustainable and “organic” farming here in Montana especially in light of the increase in GMO crops, particularly wheat, alfalfa and sugar beets?

Tester responded that the first thing we could do was to shop at the Community Food Co-op!

He also stated that it was very important to contact our three state representatives (links listed below) and relay our concerns and ideas to them. Believe it or not, Tester noted, they do listen and that e-mail was the best way to do this.

Tester also encouraged representatives of MSU’s faculty and staff to build their research and curriculum around finding ways to incorporate local agriculture into both our region and Montana’s economy. He praised the new Masters level “Sustainable Food Systems” program being offered at MSU.

I see Senator Testers’ visit to Bozeman and his presentation as further evidence of the growing economic interest and demand for local agricultural products.

Contact Info

Congressman Denny Rehberg
Senator Max Baucus
Senator Jon Tester