Minnesota Department Of Agriculture

Minnesota Department of Agriculture, a state government entity headquartered in St. Paul, operates as a prime recipient on federal grants and cooperates with federal agencies on contracts and grants spanning food safety inspections, animal health surveillance, pest detection and eradication, pesticide enforcement, and agricultural marketing and nutrition programs. The agency acts almost exclusively as a prime recipient (96% of awards); it operates as a sub-recipient on roughly 4% of its federal footprint, primarily on grants from the Gypsy Moth Slow The Spread Foundation, the University of Minnesota, and state partners like the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

The agency's customer base is concentrated in USDA programs and FDA oversight. The Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) anchors the portfolio with 187 awards; USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service and Food and Nutrition Service account for 58 and 53 awards respectively; and the Food and Drug Administration holds 25 awards carrying $15.8 million in combined potential value. These five customer agencies account for 69% of award volume and 91% of combined potential value. The FDA work centers on definitive contracts for human food inspections and animal feed inspections in Minnesota. Two concrete examples are a $842,953.89 firm fixed-price human food inspection contract awarded September 12, 2023, extending through March 29, 2027, and a $1,014,257.67 animal food inspection contract awarded September 8, 2021, under sole-source procurement, also running through March 29, 2027.

APHIS funding dominates in grant volume and breadth. The agency receives recurring cooperative agreements under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care program (CFDA 10.025) for bundled pest and pathogen surveys at up to 85 sites concentrated near urban centers, Lymantria dispar (spongy moth) detection and delimit surveys, corn and soybean commodity surveys, nursery and Christmas tree farm early detection surveys, and outreach coordination. Recent APHIS awards include a $2.04 million emergency cooperative agreement (October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026) for highly pathogenic avian influenza response operations, encompassing quarantine issuance, disease surveillance, biosecurity monitoring, and environmental sampling; a $272,159.52 cooperative agreement (February 12, 2025 to February 11, 2026) for statewide testing of Grade A commercial dairies for HPAI; and a $1.76 million FDA cooperative agreement (September 25, 2025 to June 30, 2030) for laboratory flexible funding supporting microbiology and chemistry testing for human and animal food products, food defense, and method development. The agency also holds FDA cooperative agreements for manufactured food regulatory program standards maintenance, rapid response team operations, and produce safety program enhancement under the nationally integrated food safety system framework.

The agency's grant footprint extends across USDA nutrition programs, environmental stewardship, and agricultural development. It administers formula grants and project grants from the USDA Food and Nutrition Service for the WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program, Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program, and farm-to-school initiatives directing local food purchases from historically underserved farmers. The agency received a $3.994 million cooperative agreement (October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026) under CFDA 10.475 to operate Minnesota's meat and poultry inspection program. Agricultural Marketing Service awards include block grants for specialty crop competitiveness (recent examples: $1,416,909.03 and $1,493,003.21 covering three-year periods) and cooperatives for market news service and poultry and shell egg grading. The Natural Resources Conservation Service has awarded cooperatives for soil and water conservation, domestic fertilizer production, and farmers market expansion. The EPA Region 5 Performance Partnership Grants program provides annual cooperative agreement funding for pesticide regulatory enforcement and compliance assistance. The agency also holds research and capacity-building agreements with FDA (CFDA 93.103) on laboratory food safety testing and animal food regulatory program standards.

Activity has remained consistent in recent years at 27–36 awards annually, with 2024 marking the highest volume at 36 awards. The 2026 total is low (four awards as of mid-July) because the source snapshot reflects only awards placed through mid-July. Twenty-two awards carrying $1.9 million in combined potential value complete within the next twenty-four months, representing recompete opportunity for contractors supporting the agency's federal missions. Recent sub-award activity positions the agency as a sub-recipient under APHIS funding routed through the Gypsy Moth Slow The Spread Foundation for spongy moth eradication and trap-and-treat activities, under the Regents of the University of Minnesota for rural suicide prevention programming, and under the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant implementation targeting agricultural equipment electrification and greenhouse gas emission reduction in farming practices.