Congratulations, you have laid the foundation for your agricultural enterprise (see previous blog) and formally stepped into the world of farming. You are starting into your first season or, like us, maybe you have been doing things on a small scale and want to step into the commercial marketplace. Stage 1 typically lasts about three…  Read More →

First, some background: I grew up on a conventional hay, corn and soybean farm in western Iowa and moved to Rochester, Minn., for work after getting a mechanical engineering degree from Iowa State University. I like engineering, but after a few years of working in an office environment, I was feeling the urge to get…  Read More →

Cover crops and soil health are hot topics now. My Albert Lea Seed House catalog now offers not only the old standards like clovers and rye, but also specialized multi-species “cocktails,” daikon type radishes brand named “tillage radish,” transplants from drier locales like cowpea, and pollinator- friendly species like phacelia. If you are like me…  Read More →

An Indiana initiative has made the state a national leader in getting continuous living cover established on crop acres. Can it change the way farmers view soil? Michael Werling is, literally, a card-carrying connoisseur of soil health. “I call it, ‘My ticket to a farm tour,’ ” says the northeastern Indiana crop producer, showing off…  Read More →

The Minnesota HealthCare Financing Task Force is meeting today to vote on recommendations by the work groups, which will then be sent on to the state Legislature. I am especially concerned about the much-needed recommendation to increase MinnesotaCare eligibility from 200 percent (current level) to 275 percent of the federal poverty level, which is the…  Read More →

The Star Tribune reported last week on the problems MNsure is having with the re-enrollment process for thousands of people on Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare. More specifically, a number of the Land Stewardship Project’s farmer-members received health plan disenrollment notices and healthcare closing notices despite turning in enrollment paperwork on time. These notices were received…  Read More →

Last month in a special report, the Star Tribune newspaper revealed how much water pollution from agriculture is costing taxpayers. At $125 million in 2014 alone, the price of industrialized, monocrop agriculture is significant and only likely to grow. In north-central Minnesota, we have an opportunity during the next few weeks to prevent some of…  Read More →

There is no way to make something that is so wrong right. From the start (altering irreplaceable bluffs and habitat that have existed for thousands of years) to the final product produced (oil), frac sand mining is wrong. The problems of dust, noise, transportation, destruction of natural resources, public health and safety are only the…  Read More →

There are lots of reminders out there that we have a long ways to go before building soil health becomes a mainstay of our food and farming system. Some reminders are subtle, while others are about as blunt as a baseball bat to the head. A reminder of the latter variety is featured in the…  Read More →

“Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.” — Wendell Berry The line above from Wendell Berry’s poem, “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front,” has stuck with me since I heard it many years ago. For me, its staying power comes from Berry’s ability to both reassure and challenge us in a single simple…  Read More →