Minnesota Oat Farmers Hope For Miracle Ending to Comeback Story

(Adobe Stock via Minnesota News Connection)

(By Mike Moen. Minnesota News Connection) – The global trade war has put Midwestern soybean farmers in a bind, as they currently do not have an export partner and soybeans are not the only crop facing obstacles.

Some regional farmers are behind an “oat revival,” and in search of market solutions. Oats were once a commodity staple in Minnesota before farmers shifted toward other row crops like corn and soybeans. In the southeastern part of the state, roughly 60 farmers have formed what’s known as the “Oat Mafia” to diversify what they grow and sell, and improve their soil health.

Shea-Lynn Ramthun, a farmer and soil health organizer for the Land Stewardship Project, is among them and said there is strength in numbers.

“To go to the bargaining table and say, ‘We have not just a thousand bushels of oats, but we have 600,000 bushels of oats that we would like to sell,'” Ramthun explained. “Now we start to have a little bit more power.”