Travis “Bull” Johnson
My slogan, “Raise Cattle and Not Taxes,” emphasizes the importance of providing individuals the freedom to generate and retain their earnings without the government asserting a claim to a portion of it. That is the root of my campaign–to set you up for success without creating unnecessary governmental barriers that only benefit the few.
Please join me in returning Minnesota, and our country to its roots. Let’s truly put the power back into the hands of the people.
Signature Issues
I have two issues that will be of high priority to me if elected.
Click on each to read more.
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This is difficult, as it’s a case of actually growing government or, at minimum, shifting assets. The kids in our state’s Foster system are innocent victims–they did not ask for what happened to them, they did not do it to themselves, and where they are is due to no fault of their own. This is probably one of the few situations where I think almost every tax payer would agree that collectively, we need to help and protect these kids; help them move on to a better life.
My family adopted our youngest daughter as a teenager from within the Minnesota State Foster care system. Minnesota Foster care system.
It was important for us to help a child who may have already given up on their chance at finding their forever family. While navigating the system, what we discovered was heart breaking. We found a system with broken parts, we found foster parents and personal care assistants who would sabotage an adoption because it would hurt them financially, we found adoption teams who would pass up a good fit for a child because it was not a perfect fit, and they’d choose to leave a child in the system over moving them to a forever home, simply based on race. Our daughter (this is told with her permission), was told one day before we met her that her new parents are coming to get her for a meeting the next day. This was after it had been decided 6-8 weeks before that it would happen. She was 16 at the time and had no say in the process, and no time to mentally prepare.
We are also licensed foster care providers and have served as an emergency placement home for kids. During the approximately 6-8 weeks we had children in our care and acted as their guardians, there was no effort by the county to actually place the children with us officially so that we could provide basic care in an emergency. We could not bring them to the doctor, pick them up from school, or meet with teachers if they had issues. There was no financial support, we simply took them into our home, yet we didn’t have the ability to act on the kids’ behalf and in their best interests. The system is broken.
We also hear stories from the other end of the spectrum–kids being taken away from the parents with no real due process, with activist doctors reporting child abuse when it does not exist, then refusing to acknowledge it when they are proven wrong and CPS refusing to return kids after the mistake without a long, drawn out legal process that is very expensive for the parents who did nothing wrong. We hear of rubber-stamping judges who are not family court judges (MN does not have family court judges) that just go with what every CPS says without actually looking into the situation. This is not how our nation’s children she be treated. Here is one example, https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=375596104990987&id=100076218014610&mibextid=Nif5oz
This is one of the signature issues I would like to address if elected. At the very least, we need to establish a family court system in Minnesota, whose only function is to oversee these situations.
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This is an issue with many components. It builds on what I call a farmer’s bill of rights, though it also has a lot to do with consumer rights as well. Maybe we should call it a right to support local producers bill of rights, because that’s more accurate.
You as a consumer have a right to buy what you like, from who you like as long as they are willing to sell it to you and all pertinent information is disclosed (i.e. if they are selling you raw milk, it has to be labeled as such).
As a producers, you have a right to sell to whomever you choose as long as you fairly represent your product (properly labeled, including any relevant warnings). To qualify, you have to be the producer, not a wholesaler.
As a producer, you have a right to advertise your products to the public. Currently producers are not allowed to advertise you sell raw milk, but you are allowed to sell it).
If your product does not cross state lines or involve interstate banking or wholesale, the federal government (i.e. USDA, Department of Commerce) should not have a say in it. It is a state’s right to manage intrastate commerce. Local sales are a local issue, not a federal one.
What does this mean in the real world? If a farmer wants to sell raw milk or raw milk products in his local community, they should be able to not only sell it, but advertise it. As long as the seller is up front about it you, the consumer, should be allowed to purchase it through cash or trade if you can come to an agreement.
If you know someone who raises cattle, you should be able to approach them and say, “I’d like to buy 20lbs of ground beef from you.” As long as the seller discloses where the meat was processed (and you can check the place out yourself) they should be able to sell it to you. The seller can be held financially and criminally responsible if they fail to follow proper, common sense food safety procedures (i.e. proper storage). It is also the responsibility of the buyer to ensure they purchase from those they trust.
Producers in an area should be able to ban together to set standards and enforce them with local certification so people will have confidence in the product, it does not have to fall to government.
We need to encourage small ag production, including cottage food producers. This will allow us to diversity our food production and ensure availability of products. Tyson just entered into a partnership with an insect protein producer, how long do you think you will be able to get chicken from them if they figure they can make more money on crickets that taste like chicken?
To me, this comes down to one principle–liberty, and the freedom to provide for your family without government interference as long as you are not hurting or cheating anyone.
My Stance on Agriculture
In District 1B, farm policies are, for good reason, of great concern to voters. As a farmer and rancher myself, I am confident that my positions will resonate with the farming community in Minnesota. This is a topic near and dear to my heart.
Stop the War on Ag. There are some in the legislature, primarily from the progressive wing, who have labeled farming and feeding the world as a danger to the climate. They push agendas and restrictions that farmers, particularly smaller farmers, cannot adhere to. This results in them losing their farms, leaving only large corporate farming operations.
Stop the War on Energy. Educating the urban population is key. Farming is run primarily on diesel, fertilizer comes from natural gas, our crops are dried with propane, and barns are heated by gas. Inflating the prices on energy greatly reduces a farmer’s ability to feed the world. Electric farm equipment is expensive and not currently suitable for our needs. Stopping to charge a battery is not practical, nor sustainable.
Stop the War on the Small Producer. Regulations and government-encouraged consolidation has made the small producer an endangered species. Not unlike the protections put in place to allow endangered wildlife to regain its footing and re-establish, small producers need the same. We accomplish this not by propping up small producers financially, but by getting out of the way of them doing what they do best. We remove barriers to markets, we allow raw milk sales and advertising, we allow cottage food producers to use the postal system for deliveries, we work with retiring farmers to limit capital gain loses if they break up their holdings to sell to small ag producers.
I believe that less government is better government. How should the government intervene? Help to increase markets, making a secure place for smaller and specialty farms. We need a more diverse ag economy to support resilient vendor and co-op communities.
I raise belted Galloway cattle, goats, and pasture-raised hogs. While not the future of BIG ag, I have a market, as do other small farmers. Food diversity needs to be encouraged. Family farms have been shrinking. The giant processors and commodity giants can’t be our only voice and our only option.
