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Searched for: emily fagan and hannah breckbill

From Crisis to Community

A Shared Threat Prompts a Shared Vision for a New Farm As the land auction progressed, it looked like the parcel was on its way to exchanging hands at a decent price. But the landowner grew increasingly anxious about the guy who was likely to get the highest bid—he was a well-known owner of large-scale…  Read More

Land Access Farm Tour Sept. 29 at Humble Hands Harvest in Decorah

DECORAH, Iowa — A farm tour on creative ways to get access to farmland will be held Sunday, Sept. 29, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., at Humble Hands Harvest in Decorah (2741 Hidden Falls Road). This Land Stewardship Project (LSP) event is free but RSVPs are required. To reserve a spot or for more…  Read More

Farm Beginnings Profile: A Raw Deal on Farmland

Using Farm Beginnings & Soil Health to Push Marginal Land Beyond Expectations

There are upsides to launching a farm on raw, open land: no broken-down outbuildings or junk piles to deal with, the ability to truly start anew from the soil up. Then…there’s the other side of the fence, so to speak. “I decided to move the sheep before they move themselves,” says Hannah Bernhardt with a…  Read More

Emily Minge

Emily Minge began working in LSP’s Policy Department in January 2018 as the coordinator for the Family Farm Breakfast at the Capitol. Following the breakfast, she stayed on staff through the summer of 2018 to support the department’s work fighting the proposed Catalpa factory farm in southeastern Minnesota’s Fillmore County. She then left for the…  Read More

Talking Through Tough Choices

Transforming a Wish List into a Viable Farming Operation

There’s a bit of a disagreement over how many enterprises were originally on a certain wish list when Hannah Frank and Justin Thomas were considering launching a farm. “Didn’t we have, like, 40 different enterprises on our goal sheet?” Thomas asks Frank on an overcast day in July while the couple stands next to a…  Read More

A Sense of Where You Are: First Things First

Part 8 in a Series

Note: This is the 8th installment in the 12-part “A Sense of Where You Are” series.  So, here’s a chicken or egg situation to ponder: when launching a farming operation, when should you approach the local NRCS office about applying for funding to set up infrastructure such as a high tunnel or a rotational grazing system?…  Read More

2023 Minnesota Legislative Session Wrap-Up 

Historic Wins for Sustainable & Regenerative Ag, Small & Mid-sized Farmers & Rural Communities 

During the recently concluded session of the Minnesota Legislature, Land Stewardship Project members and partners worked to win record investments in sustainable and regenerative agriculture, small and mid-sized farmers, and rural communities after decades of underfunding. We won a MinnesotaCare Public Option, as well as historic investments in the Emerging Farmers Office at the Minnesota…  Read More

A Beginning Farmer Legacy

Returning to the Classroom a Quarter Century Later

2025-2026 Farm Beginnings Class LSP is now accepting applications for its 2025-2026 Farm Beginnings class session. For details, click here. ♦ ♦ ♦ In a sense, when the brothers Andy and Ben Klein enrolled in the Land Stewardship Project’s Farm Beginnings course in 2023, it was a return engagement for at least one of them.…  Read More

Bite-by-Bite: Building Community Food Assets

Mapping a rural region’s “community food assets” reveals isolated islands of opportunity in a sea of corn and soybeans. LSP’s Scott DeMuth says now is the time to connect the dots and create a new relationship between farmers, eaters, and the places they live in. “You know, when I talk about rural economic development, from…  Read More