Thousand Cankers Disease of Walnut
A formal exterior quarantine for thousand cankers disease of walnut (TCD) was
No. If you were eligible for an exemption under the Produce Safety Rule in 2024, your farm does not qualify for the mini-grant funding category of farms that were confirmed to be fully covered and subject to routine inspection in 2024.
Please contact the Produce Safety Program to verify you have previously filled out a Grower Questionnaire. You also have the option to newly complete the 2025 Grower Questionnaire at the time of your application.
We understand the inconvenience of having to submit similar information in multiple places. However, in order to maintain data privacy, we are asking you to submit your mini-grant application separately from your Grower Questionnaire. If we used the data from your questionnaire response for the mini-grant application, all of your questionnaire data could become public.
Eligible Expenses
A wash station may be considered an eligible expense if it is portable. Permanent fixtures are not eligible for reimbursement under this grant.
No, stainless steel tables and shelving are not eligible expenses under the current mini grant.
No. Permanent fixtures, or repairs to permanent fixtures, are not eligible for reimbursement under this grant.
No, renting or buying a porta potty is not an eligible expense. All expenses must fit under the following categories in order to be eligible:
- Water testing for generic E. coli
- Market containers
- Supplies to build or purchase a portable handwashing station
- Supplies to build or purchase a portable produce washing station
- Sanitizer used for wash water and food contact surfaces
- Waxed boxes
- Harvest totes
- Carts and pull wagons
No, expenses associated with the cost of receiving a USDA GAP audit are not eligible expenses for the mini-grant. There are alternative funding sources that may assist with that type of expense, however. The MDA offers a Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Good Handling Practices (GHP) Certification Cost-Share Program. The USDA’s Food Safety Certification for Specialty Crops Program may also be an option.
What is Farm Business Management?
Provided by state technical colleges, individual instructors, and non-profit o
Common Name: Non-native Phragmites
Firewood for Consumers
February 25, 2025
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s (MDA) Make it Minnesota Program is hosting 10 Minnesota brands at the upcoming Natural Products Expo West (Expo West) tradeshow.
Expo West is one of four national business-to-business (B2B) tradeshows where MDA will gather local brands in “Minnesota Pavilions” in 2025 – an approach that allows for cost savings and cooperative promotion and event execution. Other Minnesota Pavilion events include Winter Fancy Food Show (Las Vegas in January), National Restaurant Association/Taste of the States (Chicago in May), and Sweets and Snacks Expo (Indianapolis in May). Space remains available for any interested food and beverage brands in Minnesota Pavilions at the latter two events.
The following Minnesota Brands will be exhibiting as part of “Team Minnesota” in the Minnesota Pavilion at Expo West 2025:
- Bim Bam Boo
- Field Theory Foods
- Flackers
- Huxley
- JonnyPops
- Peace Coffee
- Maazah
- Seven Sundays
- Toom
- Wildly Organic
The annual Expo West event is focused on organic, natural, and conscious consumer packaged goods (CPG) products. It attracts around 3,000 exhibiting companies and as many as 70,000 industry attendees, and brings together buyers and sellers and other supply chain entities from across the national and international CPG and retail ecosystem with great representation from Minnesota.
The Minnesota Pavilion at Expo West will be located on the sprawling Anaheim Convention Center campus in the North Hall, Level 200. The pavilion is also supported by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development’s (DEED) Small Business and Innovation Office, along with the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI), Haberman, GreaterMSP, and Naturally Minnesota.
“We’re very pleased to work together with the MDA and other partners to support these businesses at Expo West and show the world that Minnesota has a vibrant ecosystem and innovators that create world-class products,” said Neela Mollgaard, DEED’s Office of Small Business and Innovation Executive Director.
“Our aim is to give Minnesota food, beverage, and pet food companies a competitive advantage,” explained MDA Assistant Commissioner Patrice Bailey. “We’re happy to work with some of these companies for more than a decade at this show and watch them grow into national and international brands.”
Bloomington-based breakfast cereal company Seven Sundays has been participating in the Minnesota Pavilion at Expo West since its inception in 2013, and JonnyPops, a fast-growing Elk River frozen pops producer, has participated since 2016. Both brands now boast a national and international retail distribution footprint, validating the difficult dream of many food entrepreneurs and the strategy behind state support at these events.
Tradeshows are taxing for small companies, but they can also be rewarding in terms of sales and relationship-building.
Seven Sunday’s Co-founder Hannah Barnstable said she can’t wait for Expo West 2025. “It’s been so much fun being a part of Team Minnesota, working with the MDA and other Minnesota brands at Expo West over the years,” added Barnstable. “The MDA’s support makes it more manageable, more effective, and our company has definitely benefitted from being there for the past 12 years.”
Make it Minnesota Program Manager Brian Erickson said, “The event has become as much a meaningful gathering for the natural foods ecosystem as it is a place for buyers and sellers to meet.”
Naturally Minnesota and the MDA will again host the sixth-annual Minnesota Mingle at Expo West for pre-registered attendees on Wednesday, March 5, from 5-7 p.m. PST on the Katella Terrace, adjacent to the Minnesota Pavilion. At the reception, relationships will be forged and solidified, and AURI will present a prize of complimentary AURI services to one lucky Minnesota brand.
“We love being a resource for Minnesota’s homegrown businesses and finding novel ways to support them, such as AURI’s Virtual Assistant, AVA,” says Jason Robinson, AURI’s food business development director.
More than 250 guests are expected, including founders, industry leaders, investors, retailers, and more.
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Media Contact
Allen Sommerfeld, MDA Communications
651-201-6185
Allen.Sommerfeld@state.mn.us
