Blog

Don’t Let Racists Speak for Rural Residents

As rural Land Stewardship Project organizing committee members and staff, we feel compelled to respond to recent incidents of racial tension in the broader community of Minnesota’s Winona County, where we live and work. Following this summer’s racist killings in the church in Charleston, South Carolina, and the subsequent removal of the Confederate flag from…  Read More

Expanding My Knowledge in Healthcare

Being a senior physician at Mayo Clinic in Rochester for several decades, I thought I knew quite a bit about healthcare and how it is paid for, but I’ve come to realize that my viewpoint was limited. There is always a lot new to learn. My wife and I discovered the Land Stewardship Project many…  Read More

Unaffordable Health Insurance Major Problem for Farmers

My name is Curt Tvedt and I am a farmer near Byron, Minn. I am currently farming 200 acres, 120 of which are part of the original homestead that my great-grandfather settled in 1854. I retired from dairy farming 10 years ago, and I currently raise hay and soybeans, as well as do bale wrapping…  Read More

Why Winona County Should Ban Frac Sand Mining & Operations

NOTE: The Land Stewardship Project is leading a campaign in Minnesota’s Winona County to pass a ban on any new frac sand mining, processing or transportation operations. Wiscoy Township resident Cherie Hales, Homer Township resident Lynnea Pfohl, and Saratoga Township resident Vince Ready are all members of LSP’s Winona County Organizing Committee. They compiled this…  Read More

Champions of the Land Ethic

When I heard that Land Stewardship Project board member Loretta Jaus was being recognized by the White House this week as a “Champion of Change for Sustainable and Climate-Smart Agriculture,” I couldn’t think of a more deserving recipient. From the first time almost a decade ago that I visited the western Minnesota dairy operation she…  Read More

Back to the Future: A Productive Rural Minnesota Requires Healthy Minnesotans

My husband and I are self-employed. We raise and finish grass-fed beef, produce broilers on pasture and non-GMO feed, and are licensed to sell these meats frozen to consumers through stores and farmers’ markets in southeastern Minnesota. My husband and I also build cabinets out of our on-farm shop and do all kinds of custom…  Read More

Turning Up the Heat on McDonald’s

On Oct. 6, at lunchtime, I stood on the sidewalk outside a McDonald’s restaurant in St. Paul, Minn., facing the busy traffic on University Avenue with a colorful sign that said “Stop the Drift.” I was with a group of other supporters of the Toxic Taters Coalition: students, parents and community members who made time…  Read More

Sustainability Means Handing it Down

A Minnesota Dairy Farm Transitions from One Family to the Next Atop the river-bluffs near the southeastern Minnesota community of La Crescent, the 90-plus Ayrshires of Enchanted Meadows Organic Farm munch on fescue, clovers, plantain and other greenery on a recent summer day. Then, on schedule, they’re led from pasture to barn. Recently, after 10…  Read More

Healthcare Must Focus on People, Not Just Insurance

Being aware that the fourth meeting of the Minnesota Health Care Financing Task Force is taking place today reminded me of the troubling story of Debra Barnhardt, who testified at the August meeting of the Task Force. She spoke about the difficulty of dealing with chronic health issues with and without insurance. The reality is…  Read More

A Citizen’s Perspective on 1st Health Care Financing Task Force Meeting

On Aug. 7, I attended the first meeting of the Health Care Financing Task Force as a member of the Land Stewardship Project Healthcare Steering Committee. There were two other LSP members in attendance, along with many members from Take Action Minnesota and its partner organizations, including ISAIAH and the Minnesota Nurses Association. Although there…  Read More