Land Stewardship Project

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Federal Policy

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Organizing from the grassroots level to the halls of Congress, the Land Stewardship Project has played a national role in winning important policy changes like the Conservation Stewardship Program and the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program. Congressional Farm Bills have a dramatic impact on the land and our communities.

U.S. farm policy still heavily favors land-damaging agricultural systems based on factory farming and monocultural cropping. Farm policy also subsidizes with public funds the concentration of land ownership and control in increasingly fewer hands. Major change is needed.

Click Here to Get Involved with Federal Policy Reform

Check Out Our Latest Action Alerts

A New Farm Bill*

In August 2022, LSP launched its Farm Bill Platform at Legvold Farms in Northfield, Minn. The platform is based on the following values:

  • Use public resources for public good.
  • Invest in people to build local communities vital for economic resilience.
  • Uphold the interdependence of urban and rural communities.
  • Acknowledge and address the history and legacy of inequities in the food system.
  • Value land stewardship and regional food systems.
  • Reward crop diversity and soil health as essential for our future.
  • Recognize the contributions of and institute protections for food system workers, including farm and meat processing workers.
  • Acknowledge that farmers are on the front lines of the climate crisis, and this challenge demands bold solutions.

Click here to read the platform, stay up-to-date on the latest action alerts, and hear from member leaders.

* The current Farm Bill was due to expire in fall 2023. However, Congress has extended the current law until September 30, 2024.

Land Stewardship Letter: A View From the Farm Bill Field

This Land Stewardship Letter article describes various ways LSP members are making their voices heard when it comes to crafting a new Farm Bill.

Land Stewardship Letter: the 2023 Farm Bill

Debate over the content of the next Farm Bill has already begun, and LSP members are in the thick of it. Check out this Land Stewardship Letter article on the Farm Bill process and why you should care about what this legislation eventually looks like.

Land Stewardship Letter: Conservation's Contradictions

Traditionally, the Farm Bill has promoted monocultural, industrialized systems of farming that aren’t good for the land, let alone farmers, as well as the rural communities they live in. However, there are elements of current federal ag policy that have a sound foundation when it comes to promoting the kind of farming that’s good for the landscape. The Land Stewardship Letter examines how some of these programs are implemented on one farm and where there’s room for improvement.

LSP on "Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home & Abroad"

This is a key moment to win federal investment in climate-smart agriculture. President Joe Biden has issued the “Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.” It directs Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to collect input from stakeholders on how best to use USDA programs to promote climate-smart agricultural practices.

Here are the comments LSP submitted to the administration:

• In order to address the scale of the climate crisis, USDA must improve and greatly expand existing conservation programs to increase access to farmers and ranchers. It should prioritize practices that provide the most climate benefit, like incorporating cover crops, perennial crops, and managed grazing of perennial pasture. Farmers will be essential to responding to climate change, particularly through a greater emphasis on building soil health. The stacking benefits of soil health practices create climate resilience by increasing organic matter, improving soil fertility, reducing erosion, and improving water quality and infiltration.

• Factory farms are a cause of climate change, and they should not be considered part of the solution. The way that animals are raised plays a major role in their impact on climate. Factory farms require huge quantities of industrial feed, water, chemical inputs, and energy, and they manage manure in a way that increases greenhouse gas emissions. We need a dramatic transition in how we raise animals for food that is centered on getting more small to mid-scale farmers on the land using sustainable systems such as managed rotational grazing, which can build healthy soils and sequester carbon.

• USDA should spend public money on public programs that have a track record of success, not on propping up the fossil fuel industry. Private carbon markets benefit big agribusiness and let polluters off the hook for their emissions. Agriculture offset markets already don’t work for most farmers — they don’t pay farmers fairly and they are tightly controlled by a handful of big companies that dominate the market. Smaller scale farmers, including Black and Indigenous farmers who have faced systemic discrimination at the hands of USDA, are not well served by this model. Neither is the climate. Farmers and ranchers should be invested in as stewards of the land, not as a carbon sink for big business. The fossil fuel industry needs to reduce its own emissions, and smaller scale farmers and farmers of color must be prioritized in USDA climate policy.

• Climate policy for agriculture must ensure a fair price for farmers and a fair wage for workers. USDA needs to manage over-production, invest in climate-friendly systems of production that protect water and air quality in rural communities, and create new rural-based and owned economic opportunities that keep wealth local and out of the hands of big corporations. It must support the next generation of farmers and food system workers and their right to make a fair living.

• Local control and ownership must be an essential part of climate policy for agriculture, so the rural landscape is protected and historic patterns of exploitation and wealth extraction are not repeated. Small to mid-scale farmers and ranchers must be at the center of climate policy for agriculture. A farming system that sustains our family farms and gets more emerging farmers on the land is best suited to revitalize rural communities, produce a healthy and sustainable food supply, and respond to climate change.

For more information, contact federal policy organizer Jessica Kochick via e-mail or at 612-400-6349.

Federal Policy Resources

• Find Your U.S. Senators & U.S. Representatives

• Building Sustainable Farms, Ranches and Communities: 86-page resource full of one- to two-page informative overviews of the many federal programs available for farmers, entrepreneurs, conservationists, nonprofits and other stakeholders in the sustainable agriculture community. (October 2014)

• Farm Crisis Resources

Related Posts

  • Tell Your Representatives: We Want a Farm Bill for All, Not a Tax Break for the Wealthiest

    July 2, 2025

    The Land Stewardship Project and our allies have been loud and clear for years: we need strong agricultural legislation that invests in programs that nourish people, protect…

    Action Alerts
    Congress, federal farm policy
    Tell Your Representatives: We Want a Farm Bill for All, Not a Tax Break for the Wealthiest
  • Tell Congress to Support the Agriculture Resilience Act

    April 23, 2025
    Action Alerts
    Agriculture Resilience Act, climate change, federal farm policy, regenerative agriculture, soil health
    Tell Congress to Support the Agriculture Resilience Act
  • Tell Congress Farmers are being Harmed by Federal Funding Freeze

    February 19, 2025

    As you know, farmers across the country are facing critical challenges as the federal funding freeze continues to impact essential agricultural programs. Although farmers were…

    Action Alerts
    conservation funding, CSP, EQIP, Farm Bill, federal policy, funding freeze, USDA
    Tell Congress Farmers are being Harmed by Federal Funding Freeze

Contact

Laura Schreiber, LSP government relations director, e-mail, 612-207-4693

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Upcoming Events

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September 2025

Wednesday September 17

9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Grazing for Invasive Species Management in Oak Savannas
Wednesday September 17
9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Grazing for Invasive Species Management in Oak Savannas
Myre-Big Island State Park, 19499 780th Ave, Albert Lea, MN 56007, USA

For details on this workshop, click here.

12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Extending the Grazing Season with Cover Crops & Native Grasses
Wednesday September 17
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Extending the Grazing Season with Cover Crops & Native Grasses
Bluffton Resort & Bar, 2619 W Ravine Rd, Decorah, IA 52101, USA

This Ducks Unlimited workshop will feature a discussion of how livestock producers can utilize cover crops and native grasses to extend the grazing season. Featured speakers include Adam Janke, who will discuss Iowa State University’s research on CRP grazing, and Brian Dougherty of Understanding AG, who will discuss the economics of grazing cover crops. There will also be a presentation on Ducks Unlimited’s Advancing Markets for Producers Partnership. 
 
For details, see this flier. or call Ducks Unlimited’s Liam Bonk at 612-483-3577. To register, click here.

Thursday September 18

5:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Minnesota Women in Conservation: Conservation Land Walk in Dawson
Thursday September 18
5:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Minnesota Women in Conservation: Conservation Land Walk in Dawson
Dawson, MN

During this Minnesota Women in Conservation event, participants will walk around a “homestead” farm site — exploring areas and goals the landowner hopes to improve in the future, including pollinator habitat, perennial plantings, wind breaks, privacy/noise screens, water quality improvements, well sealing, and compost placements. Participants will hear feedback and recommendations from a conservation professional on potential programs that could assist the landowner in achieving those goals. 
 
This is a FREE event, but you must RSVP here to get the address. For more information and to RSVP, click here.

Saturday September 20

All Day
Farm Aid
Saturday September 20
Farm Aid
Huntington Bank Stadium, 420 23rd Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA

 Farm Aid is heading to Minnesota for the first time for its 40th anniversary festival on Saturday, Sept. 20, at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. The event will launch a year-long celebration of four decades of impactful advocacy, historic cultural moments and unforgettable music.

Farm Aid 40 — a full day of music, family farmers, HOMEGROWN food and agricultural experiences — will feature performances by Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young (and the Chrome Hearts), John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews (with Tim Reynolds), and Margo Price, as well as Billy Strings, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Trampled by Turtles, Waxahatchee, Eric Burton of Black Pumas, Jesse Welles, Madeline Edwards and more artists to be announced.

For details, click here.

Monday September 22

9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Twin Cities Urban Farm Bus Tour
Monday September 22
9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Twin Cities Urban Farm Bus Tour
Leatherdale Equine Center, 1801 Dudley Ave, St Paul, MN 55108, USA

Join University of Minnesota Extension, Hennepin County, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service on Monday, Sept. 22, for a bus tour of urban farms. We’ll discuss the challenges of city growing, including compaction, contamination, soil health, water management, and more. And we’ll learn about how growers are using soil health practices to mitigate these challenges. Stops will include: 

  • The St. Thomas research gardens, where researchers have been studying different methods for maintaining fertility in urban garden beds for 8+ years, and learning about how these different approaches impact soil health and water quality
  • Our Roots Community Garden, where gardeners have implemented a variety of soil health practices to remediate a brownfield contaminated site into a lush garden with healthy soil and plants. Gardeners here are also working to establish a micro forest at the site
  • Urban Roots farm at Rivoli Bluff. The team at Urban Roots has worked for years to establish a thriving farm at a former street sweeping site. They’ve tried many different practices to address compaction, replace invasive species with native plants to mitigate erosion, and to grow vegetables for their community. 

This is the first tour in a three part soil health bus tour series. Participants can sign up for just one, two, or all three tours. Register at https://z.umn.edu/vegetablebustours. The cost is $15 (flat fee, covers 1, 2, or 3 tours). There are more details in the attached flyer.

View Full Calendar

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