White Minnesota farmer claims win after bias suit that spurred changes dismissed

A white farmer from northern Minnesota is claiming victory after the dismissal of his federal discrimination lawsuit that spurred the legislature to change the eligibility language for a state grant program meant for diverse farmers.

Lance Nistler, a farmer from Beltrami County, sued Gov. Tim Walz and state ag commissioner Thom Petersen earlier this year over eligibility criteria for the Down Payment Assistance Grant. That state fund offers money to farmers via a lottery to purchase farmland and other property.

Nistler, who Pacific Legal Foundation represented, argued in his complaint the law’s eligibility — prioritizing funding for applicants who were young, people of color, urban or identified as LGBTQ — discriminated against him as a white man.

Before the case could reach trial, however, the state law changed.

At the end of May, Walz signed the agriculture omnibus spending bill that, among other changes, removed reference to “emerging farmers” in the grant program. Going forward, the program will target farmers who earn under $100,000 in gross income as well as growers of hemp, cannabis and other specialty crops, such as fruits and vegetables.

In a statement, Nistler’s attorney, Andrew Quinio, said the changes amounted to a victory for his client.

“Thanks to the courage of a small farmer, equality before the law has been restored in Minnesota,” Quinio said.

The federal judge overseeing the case, Judge Eric C. Tostrud, dismissed the case on Thursday, citing the change in the grant program.

On Friday, Sen. Aric Putnam, DFL-St. Cloud, who chairs the agriculture committee, noted the lawsuit certainly constituted one of the reasons for the tweak in language to the eligibility. But, he added, the new language — including dropping the income threshold from $250,000 in gross income — revealed the legislature’s intent to further refine the program toward helping usher in a new generation of farmers.

“[The new language is] much more focused on material conditions. It’s more focused on market access,” Putnam said, “which will still, by and large, reach the same population we were trying to reach before.”

State lawmakers had set up the down payment assistance grant program to give diverse farmers a leg up in an expensive industry, where buying land and equipment can be incredibly challenging for smaller growers.

According to the latest USDA Census of Agriculture, more than 63% of Minnesota farms reported making less than $100,000 between sales and government payments in 2022. The same survey reported that of the 114,000 farmers in Minnesota, fewer than 1,000 are people of color.

Funwi Tita, president of the Minnesota African Immigrant Farmers Association, said he was gob-smacked to read a white farmer had sued the state about the grant’s eligibility. He likened the state’s program to providing water to someone who was thirsty.

“We are fighting over resources here,” Tita said. “We are mitigating a problem that is so obvious. Ninety-nine percent of land is owned by a specific demographic, and they’re the same ones who are suing?”

In a statement, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture — the agency overseeing the program funded for $1 million annually in 2024 and 2025 — noted down payment assistance grants have helped “dozens” of Minnesota farmers, and the department will continue to award grants to “make farmers’ dreams of owning their own land a reality.”

According to court records, Nistler had initially won the ninth grant lottery spot in the summer of 2023. But his application fell from consideration after it failed to meet the previous eligibility criteria.