R.D. Offutt's pine-to-potatoes project is just plain dangerous. The project will convert 42 square miles of pine forest purchased by Offutt from Potlatch Corporation into agricultural fields. Those who spend time in the area noticed the recent change as the trees are disappearing and irrigated cropland is popping up. I was brought to tears when the forest I grew up in was converted this spring, less than a half mile from our Nevis cabin.
This marginal land was never meant to be cropland, the soil is sand. Offutt claims this is beneficial by allowing them to farm potatoes every five years, not four, which "is sustainable" and that they're responsible by using 10 percent less chemicals.
I don't buy it.
Ten percent less chemical on tracts of new land is not using less chemical and the four years where other crops are grown still require chemicals to grow. This is neither sustainable nor responsible but makes sense for Offutt from a profit standpoint; forest land is cheap compared to land that's suitable for farming. This will come at a great cost to Minnesotans, to the residents who must drill new wells as Offutt sucks the water table dry, to public health as chemicals seep through the soil and threaten the water of the region and 1.5 million people in the Twin Cities, to the lakes in the area, to the anglers, to the deer and grouse habitat, the hunters, to the property owners as their prized lakefront property values fall, to the already struggling local economies who will lose resorts, gas stations, bait shops, etc., for French fries.
For these reasons and those we have yet to see, this project is dangerous to the Minnesota way of life and is intolerable. A corporation's profits should not outweigh the costs to the people.
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Bradley Wenner
Moorhead
