In 2019, the Legislature directed the Department of Agriculture to write a report on "emerging farmers" in five priority areas: women, veterans, persons with disabilities, American Indian or Alaskan Native, and members of communities of color. The Department held listening sessions throughout the state as they gathered information for their report, and the definition of "emerging farmer" expanded throughout the listening sessions.
The working group's final report defines "emerging farmers" as "both those individuals who are entirely new to farming as well as those individuals who have been farming for generations but were outside the scope of traditional state and Federal agricultural support programs."
The report made many recommendations, among them that an emerging farmers task force be created to "provide guidance to the Commissioner of Agriculture on developing programs and initiatives that support emerging farmers."
In 2020, the Legislature formally established the working group in law (see Laws of Minnesota 2020, chap. 89, art. 4, sec. 2 and Minn. Stat. 17.055).