For immediate release
August 4, 2010

For more information contact:

Brad Finstad, Executive Director, (507) 934-7700

NEWS RELEASE
Center for Rural Policy and Development to Introduce Latest Issue of Rural Minnesota Journal at Farmfest 2010
“What the Next Governor Needs to Know About Rural Minnesota” to also be topic of forum at 29th annual farmer gathering

ST. PETER, Minn. —The Center for Rural Policy and Development will unveil the next issue of its award winning Rural Minnesota Journal at the 29th annual Farmfest, to be held August 3-5 at the Gilfillan Estate near Morton in Redwood County.

The focus of the latest issue of the publication—“What the Next Governor Needs to Know About Rural Minnesota”—will also be discussed in a Farmfest forum moderated by Brad Finstad, executive director of the Center for Rural Policy and Development. The forum will take place in the “Big Tent” on Thursday, August 5 from 10:30 to 11:50 a.m.

Forum panelists will include Gene Hugoson, Minnesota Commissioner of Agriculture; King Banaian, an economics professor at St. Cloud State University; Jim Miller, executive director of the League of Minnesota Cities; and Lee Warne, executive director of the Minnesota Rural Education Association.

The Center for Rural Policy and Development will have a table display at Farmfest in the AURI tent, lot # 612, across the aisle from the “Big Tent.”

Farmfest draws more than 550 local and leading companies in the farming industry to demonstrate their products and services to more than 40,000 attendees. More information about Farmfest, include driving directions, is available online at http://www.farmshows.com/ffst/index.po.

The Center for Rural Policy and Development, based in Saint Peter, Minn., is a private, not-for-profit policy research organization dedicated to benefiting Minnesota by providing its policymakers with an unbiased evaluation of issues from a rural perspective.