This is a time of real uncertainty for agriculture in Minnesota.

Crop prices are fluctuating, the cost of fuel and fertilizer remains high, and tariffs and global trade uncertainty are adding another layer of pressure on farmers trying to make a profit.

As spring planting season begins, farmers need to make some big decisions — facing a lot of unknowns.

For many families, farming is not just tied to income, but to identity, tradition, and generations of work. So when things feel unstable, the impact goes far beyond the farm.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks about how Minnesota farmers are managing the challenges.

Guests:

• Thom Petersen is the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Before being appointed commissioner, he was the director of government relations for the Minnesota Farmers Union. He has spent most of his life working for a horse and farm business.
• Megan Horsager is a farmer in Chippewa County. She works on Stevens farms with her family, where they raise sugar beets, corn, soybeans, alfalfa and silage.

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What’s it like to be married for 34 years to someone who wrote a book called “What Happy Couples Do.”

That’s the lucky situation in which Brian Bruess finds himself.

He is president of the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University and the first president to lead both schools. His wife, Carol Bruess, is nationally known for her research on relationships and communication and is the schools’ scholar-in-residence for relationships and dialogue.

MPR News host Angela Davis continues her Power Pairs series talking with Carol and Brian about how they’ve supported each other in marriage, careers and creating community on campus.

Guests:

• Brian J. Bruess is the president of the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University outside of St. Cloud, Minn. He started in July of 2022 and is the first person to serve as the joint president for both schools. He was previously president of St. Norbert College in eastern Wisconsin. Before that he worked for over two decades in administration at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minn.
• Carol Bruess is scholar in residence for relationships and dialogue at the College of St. Benedict and Saint John’s University and professor emerita of communication and family study at the University of St. Thomas. She researches, speaks and writes about how to create healthy relationships. She’s the author of five books, including “What Happy Couples Do,” and “Family Communication in the Age of Digital and Social Media.”

Do you know a Power Pair?

“Power Pairs” is a series featuring prominent Minnesotans in a close relationship. You may know of them separately but they reveal a new side of themselves when they sit down together. Listen to past interviews here and submit your idea for a future Power Pair here.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.    

When federal agents surged into Minnesota in January, communities didn’t just face a legal issue. They faced a moral one.

Faith leaders showed up. Churches became distribution hubs for food and diapers. Nonprofits organized ride shares and distributed rent money. Clergy mobilized to protest, sing, champion and, in some cases, face arrest. “Our faith compels us,” was the common refrain.

“Operation Metro Surge” is over now. But churches, mosques, synagogues and faith-based nonprofits say their work is just ramping up.

A group of faith leaders joined MPR News host Angela Davis for a North Star Journey Live event at our studios in downtown St. Paul on Thursday, March 26, to talk about what they experienced on the front lines of the immigration enforcement surge and how their faith both compelled and comforted them. They also shared gifts from their own faith traditions to help Minnesotans process our collective moral injury.

Guests:

• JaNaé Bates Imari is a minister and the co-executive director of ISAIAH, a multi-racial, multi-faith, nonpartisan coalition of faith communities in Minnesota.
• Rev. Hierald Osorto is senior pastor of St. Paul's-San Pablo Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, a multicultural, multilingual, inclusive Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) congregation.
• Rabbi Arielle Lekach Rosenberg is lead rabbi at Shir Tikvah Synagogue, a reform congregation in south Minneapolis.
• Imam Mowlid Ali serves as an imam and youth counselor at Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in Minneapolis.

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