AGRI program shares efforts to advance state’s ag industries

When Owatonna’s public schools decided they wanted to serve students more locally-grown food, the Agricultural Growth, Research and Innovation Program was there to help.

AGRI provided a $50,000 grant that helped the school system replace a walk-in cooler and freezer, tripling the space available to source and store more local foods.

Hanna Barnstable, a New Market Development Grant recipient, testifies Feb. 14 before the House Agriculture Finance Committee during a report on the Agricultural Growth Research and innovation program. Photo by Andrew VonBank

Owatonna’s success story was one of several the House Agriculture Finance Committee heard Tuesday during a presentation on the AGRI program and a report on the results it achieved during Fiscal Year 2016.

Started in 2009, the AGRI program works to advance Minnesota’s agriculture and renewable energy industries.

In FY2016, it awarded $8 million to farmers, ag businesses and schools through the grants and cost-share programs. Those funds resulted in $51 million in non-state investment, leveraging $6.40 for every $1 in state money given, according to the report.

Paul Hugunin, an interim director with the Department of Agriculture, which oversees AGRI, told the committee that spurring private investment is one of the program’s goals. He said that although AGRI may only contribute 10 to 25 percent of the total cost, those funds are often the difference between a project getting off the ground or going nowhere.

*It does make a big difference,” Hugunin said.

Hanna Barnstable learned first-hand the difference AGRI can make as she grew her company, Seven Sundays, from a business doing $200,000 in sales a few years ago to one that now sells between $3 million and $4 million annually.

As a maker of muesli cereal and bars, Seven Sundays needed help expanding its distribution and was able to make a big connection with Target at a tradeshow thanks to money that AGRI provided.

“I would not have been there without those funds,” Barnstable said.