Farm Horizons Farm Horizons 2/16 | Page 28

Farm Horizons • Feb. 8, 2016 • Page 28 Farmers want improved water quality too By Noah Hultgren Governor Mark Dayton recently called for a statewide water quality summit to take place in February 2016. Since agriculture is likely to be a focus of the summit, I’d like to take this opportunity to highlight a few of the farmer-driven efforts to improve our state’s water quality, and share what I hope to see take place at the summit from a farmer’s perspective. I’ll be the first to admit that, as farmers, we haven’t done a very good job talking about our conservation efforts. That needs to change. Today’s consumers not only care about where their food comes from, they care about the practices used by the farmers who grow it. On a personal level, I use several common cons