Blog

LSP Promotes CSP at a Critical Time

This week, the Land Stewardship Project is reaching out to farmers across Minnesota and Wisconsin with an important message: now is the time to sign-up for a program that rewards you for practices that produce positive conservation benefits on the land. The deadline for enrolling in the current Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) round of contracts…  Read More

LSP Stands With Bde Maka Ska

The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) stands with the renaming of Minneapolis’ largest lake “Bde Maka Ska” and other decisions to strengthen visibility and truth telling for the indigenous peoples who have been systematically erased from Minnesota history and places. LSP stands with our state leaders taking legislative action to ensure the lake’s rightful name is…  Read More

Farm to School at the Legislature: Good News & Bad News

During the 2019 session of the Minnesota Legislature, the Land Stewardship Project has been working with a large stakeholder group to push for “Farm to School” provisions to be included in the final Agriculture Finance Bill. What we are asking for is a very clear prescriptive grant program to reimburse schools and early care centers…  Read More

MN Supreme Court Hearing on Frac Sand Ban to be held April 10

In our democracy, it is up to us as organized people to use our power to make sure our governments and institutions best serve people and the land. Nearly two-and-a-half years ago, the people of Winona County won an historic victory when the County Board of Commissioners voted to pass a ban on any new…  Read More

Gabe Brown’s Rags-to-Regeneration Story

In 2012, I had the great fortune to get a tip about a group of farmers, scientists and government soil conservationists who had teamed up in south-central North Dakota to take a holistic approach to making the land more resilient. By focusing intensively on building soil health utilizing a combination of practices—no-till, managed rotational grazing,…  Read More

Time for Action on Nitrate Pollution in our Groundwater

The Minnesota Environmental Quality Board (EQB) is holding a public meeting in Red Wing at the St. James Hotel on Monday, March 25, at 5 p.m., to discuss the value of a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) on nitrate pollution in the karst area of southeastern Minnesota. (RSVP here.) Two million dollars is proposed in…  Read More

LSP Supports Positive Direction of Walz Administration on Healthcare Budget

The Land Stewardship Project works for solutions to the healthcare crisis in rural Minnesota because we know that lack of affordable, high-quality care is a major barrier to having thriving rural communities with more farmers on the land. We are pleased to see that Governor Tim Walz and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan’s proposed Budget for…  Read More

‘Caring for the Land’ with Cover Crops, the Roller-Crimper & Spring CC Seeding

I “care for” 50 acres of certified organic cropland east of Caledonia in southeastern Minnesota. Although small in acreage, I am intent upon building back my soil using alternative farming practices like roller-crimping winter rye and spring-seeding rye before soybeans. I’d like to share some insights I’ve gathered while figuring out how to implement these…  Read More

Making Diversity Pay its Own Way

NOTE: During a pair of Land Stewardship Project workshops Jan. 29 and 30, Dawn and Grant Breitkreutz will be discussing how they are using no-till row cropping, managed rotational grazing and diversified cover cropping to build soil health profitably on their southwestern Minnesota farm. For more background on the Breitkreutzes, check out this LSP blog…  Read More