Not quite corn kings

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Corn doesn’t make for a sexy campaign topic. When was the last time you heard Chris Matthews or Sean Hannity go toe-to-toe with a guest on co-op dividends or ethanol subsidies?

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OPINION | American Crystal and conflicting public policy meet

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The four-month lockout of 1,300 employees at American Crystal Sugar Co. highlights bigger problems potentially threatening the border economies of Minnesota and North Dakota.While western North Dakota’s oil boom presents a state flush with cash, economic disparities have been exported to the Fargo-Moorhead region. That’s why it’s critical this lockout ends, and a sense of stability is restored to the Red River Valley’s labor market.Over the weekend Governor Mark Dayton met with both sides and urged they return to the bargaining table.“It’s every bit as bad on the North Dakota side,” said Wayne Ingersoll, a Clay County commissioner from Moorhead. Minnesota workers do have some income from unemployment benefits to keep families together that are not available in North Dakota, he said.News accounts from the Fargo Forum newspaper and WDAY-TV highlight part of the two-state problem. American Crystal’s locked out workers say employers on either side of the river are reluctant to hire, suspecting that some agreement will be reached and the workers will go back to American Crystal.Moorhead also serves as a microcosm for national, state and local policy contradictions, especially when it comes to conservative policy undermining public investments.For instance, Moorhead has been buying homes and helping move homes away from flood prone areas along the Red River. Continue Reading

What Main Streets have over Wall Street

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Far from America’s money center, community-based, farmer-owned and consumer-owned cooperative businesses in Minnesota are helping create jobs and wealth, and investing in their communities.That became apparent in an event advisory sent by Frank McDowell, general manager of New Vision Co-op, a southwestern Minnesota regional agricultural co-op now based at Brewster.“There is a lot of strength coming from agriculture for the last three years or so, and it is good for the whole economy,” McDowell said.The co-op is “retiring” (paying back) about $4 million in equity to original members who formed New Vision in 1998, a merger of two large co-ops in the area.About 3,000 farmers in southwest Minnesota and nearby border areas of Iowa and South Dakota will receive these checks. “Our local merchants will be glad to see this money show up on ‘Main Street’,” McDowell said.Such actions are expected as companies, of any ownership structure, prepare for the future and positions themselves to cope with changing market conditions and business opportunities.In contrast, critics of big stock corporations and high-finance note that corporations now have about $3 trillion stashed away, not being reinvested in the economy. While this stunts job growth and further holds back economic progress, other critics warn that when corporations start “investing,” much of it will likely be in merger and acquisition (M&A) activity that won’t necessarily grow the economy or put people back to work.More often than not, M&A activity creates “redundancies” and “synergies,” said Gerardo Espinoza, executive director of the Local Enterprise Assistance Fund (LEAF) at Brookline, Massachusetts, in a recent interview. They usually lead to layoffs and more unemployment and further weakening of the economy.That is a danger for America down the road. But that isn’t the case with New Vision Co-op and a new merger partner, the Wilmont-Adrian ag co-op that merged into New Vision on September 1, or other co-ops based in Minnesota.Back on Wall Street, another danger is the debt being acquired by U.S. companies, according to AP business writer Bernard Condon. Continue Reading

OPINION | Minnesota gains from imported talent

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Patricia Tetteh and her husband Victor Lartey provide valuable services for people in the Rochester area and for patients at the Mayo Clinic. In doing so, they shatter myths about immigrants and refugees and show the American Dream is still alive in Minnesota.Originally from Ghana in West Africa, these Rochester area residents have come to Minnesota chasing opportunities. They moved to southern Minnesota from Tennessee when Patricia found opportunities at the huge IBM complex in Rochester.Six years ago, Tetteh opened Northgate Hair Salon at Rochester when she and other Rochester area women were commiserating over the lack of hair and skin products and services for black and mixed race residents. She now operates that business with her daughter Peace Tetteh.“We had a lot of people driving up to the Twin Cities because we couldn’t get what we needed here,” said Sherri Hyatte, a family friend and business advisor for Tenneh and Lartey who has worked with Olmsted County to help other immigrants and refugees get started in Rochester.At the beginning of this year, Victor Lartey opened a subsidiary business, Northgate Hair & Wigs. These hair products serve people across racial lines, he said, and have become especially important for people battling cancer and other health problems at Mayo Clinic hospitals.That is a serious service for people in the Rochester area and visitors to area hospitals. Continue Reading

Made in Minnesota 2011: Fertile ground for minority opportunity

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Long before corn and soybeans dominated Minnesota’s countryside, its fertile land provided a way of living for newly arrived Scandinavians, Irish and Germans in small-scale farming. More than 150 years later, more small growers are using the land again as an income stream.Download full report (pdf) View online at ScribdMinnesota 2020’s latest report, Made in Minnesota 2011: Fertile Ground for Minority Opportunity, estimates that farmers’ markets contribute a net economic impact of $64 million to the state’s economy. Community supported agriculture (CSAs) contribute $10.5 million.The report also shows that more recently, Minnesota’s Scandinavians have been joined by Hmong, Somali and Hispanic people. While small-scale farming and Minnesota’s larger food processing industry provides many new immigrants workforce entry, entrepreneurial opportunities are growing for these populations away from fields and factories. Some have set up retail shops, selling food and clothing.As a result of this activity and population growth, Minnesota’s ethnic and immigrant communities contribute more than $12 billion to the state’s overall business activity.Minnesota is home to more than 11,000 Asian-owned firms, which generate $2.4 billion in revenue and employ nearly 17,500 workers, according to Concordia University’s Bruce Corrie, whose research MN2020’s report cites. Continue Reading