Photo by Deb Gau Ben Walker served a scoop of ice cream for Linda Kruse during the Lyon County DFL pie social Sunday. Area Democrats met for conversation and refreshments before opening the party’s annual convention.

MARSHALL — Farming was one of the key topics of discussion at the Lyon County DFL convention this weekend. Speakers from both the Minnesota DFL Rural Caucus and the Congressional District 7 DFL urged county residents to support using more surplus funding for Minnesota agriculture.

“Part of what we’re advocating for our local governments is, the ag bill is only $48 million right now,” said Jennifer Cronin, chairwoman of the CD7 DFL. “We have, what, an $18 billion surplus? One-half of one percent has been allocated to the agriculture bill. And that is already leading to cuts throughout the state of Minnesota in ag programs.”

The Lyon County DFL held its county convention and annual pie social in Marshall on Sunday afternoon. County conventions are a time when local political parties elect officers, as well as delegates to state committees and conventions.

At Sunday’s convention, Anita Gaul was re-elected chairperson of the Lyon County DFL. Dyna Sluyter was re-elected vice chairperson; Deb Maki was re-elected as outreach officer; Craig Maki was re-elected as secretary; and Tim Buysse was re-elected as treasurer.

Lyon County Democrats also heard from Cronin and Theresa Keaveny, chairperson of the DFL Rural Caucus.

“We’re a new caucus, relatively speaking,” Keaveny said. “Our goal is to uplift the voice of rural Minnesotans within the DFL party, but also to speak about what the DFL does for farmers, for communities, for workers in Greater Minnesota.”

Keaveny and Cronin said state agriculture funding was one of the topics the DFL was encouraging members to speak out on.

“Jennifer mentioned the ag budget, and she was referring when she said $48 million — the Department of Agriculture originally proposed $100 million. Now this, by the way, is above base budget. It’s not the entire budget, it’s just the surplus,” Keaveny said. “So the Ag Department, in the governor’s budget, was kind of targeted at $100 million. Groups that I’m involved with actually had proposals taking it up to $110 million. They came in at $48 million.”

Keaveny said there was also a “quirk” in the ag budget that could affect grant programs from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

“There’s a quirk in the ag budgets– $35 million is needed to ensure that all of the various grant programs that are operated through the Department of Ag under AGRI are funded in the out years,” Keaveny said. “That is one reason why this is a contentious budget. Speaker (Melissa) Hortman has said, ‘I’m looking for that funding, so that it doesn’t have to come out of the ag budget, or so that the ag budget can be increased to cover that $35 million.’ So she’s recognizing that it’s inadequate, what’s being proposed.”

“We’re asking everyone to start calling and talking to our DFL legislators and saying, ‘I’m a rural Democrat. What you’re doing is impacting me,'” Cronin said.

“We’re trying to make the point that this isn’t just one group. This is food producers, commodity group producers, people who are involved in food systems work, emerging farmers, beginning farmers,” Keaveny said. “We need to do better with the surplus that we have.”

Cronin also encouraged Democrats from greater Minnesota to join caucuses.

“There are too many of them, with the exception of the Rural Caucus, that are Twin Cities-centric, and they need to start hearing from us out here,” she said.

Sunday’s meeting wasn’t all business. Area Democrats also gathered for conversation and refreshments at the Lyon County DFL pie social.

“This is the third year we’ve done it,” said Lisa Haney, who led the planning for the pie social. The Lyon County DFL’s first pie social was held in the fall, but after the COVID pandemic the event was switched to the spring. Volunteers signed up to bring a variety of pie flavors to Sunday’s event.

This year’s county DFL convention had a relatively short agenda, Gaul said.

“We recently changed to an odd-year convention,” she said. That way, newly elected party officials wouldn’t have to learn their jobs while also preparing for general elections. “It’s more to not have the intensity of an election year.”