Soil Health Specialists Sound the Alarm on Continuing Soil Erosion

(5/9/25) Despite a “Wake-up Call” warning issued a decade ago, wind erosion has continued to significantly damage soil health in North Dakota, according to Agweek. Highlights:

• Ten years after NDSU soil health expert Dave Franzen issued a report called “Wake-up Call” that highlighted high levels of wind erosion he was seeing in the state, a follow-up study —“Wake-up Call 2″ — found that soil health is still under serious threat. “Suspended soil is the real soil loss, estimated at about 10 times what you see in the ditch. It lands in the Atlantic Ocean or Ohio or Pennsylvania, or New York, or London. It is lost forever,” Franzen wrote.
• Both of the “Wake-up Calls” referred to a 2014 study in which researchers visited the exact locations of several soils characterized by the Soil Conservation Service — now called the Natural Resources Conservation Service — in 1960. One soil in Walsh County had 35 inches above the “C” horizon in 1960 and 15 inches in 2014, a loss of 19 inches in slightly more than 50 years.
• To reduce erosion levels and build soil health, conservation experts recommend greater adaption of no-till and cover cropping, as well as a diversified production system based on integrating livestock into grazing systems.

Check out LSP’s Soil Builder’s web page for information on building healthy soil profitably and keeping it in place. On June 25, LSP will be co-hosting a “Returning Cattle to the Land” field day in southeastern Minnesota. Details are here.

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Xcel Lets Loose a Small Army of Hungry Sheep to Keep its Solar Farm in Order

(5/31/25) The Minnesota Star Tribune describes how Excel Energy is utilizing sheep to maintain vegetation at the Sherco solar array in Clear Lake, Minn. Highlights:

• Xcel expects to use as many as 2,500 sheep to graze pollinator and wildlife friendly plants at the Sherco site. The sheep are provided by MNL, a company based in Otsego, Minn., focused on ecological restoration.
• Sherco solar will be one of the largest restored prairies in the Upper Midwest once fully built. The solar array will stretch over about 5,000 acres and will be able to generate enough power for roughly 150,000 homes when the sun is shining. Restored prairie systems must be maintained via regular disturbance such as grazing.
• Some rural communities have expressed concerns that solar arrays are taking agricultural land out of production. Grazing beneath solar panels is part of a trend called “agrivoltaics,” which combines farming and energy production.  “It doesn’t solve everyone’s problems … but it absolutely mitigates some of the concerns and people get interested in it,” said Brian Ross, vice president of renewable energy at the Great Plains Institute.

Check out LSP’s profile of a pair of Farmer Beginnings graduates who are grazing sheep beneath solar arrays.

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Impact of Farm to School Programs in Minnesota

(6/5/25) A new analysis from University of Minnesota Extension and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy outlines the impact farm to school initiatives have had in the state the past few years, reports Morning Ag Clips. Highlights:

• For every dollar spent on farm to school in Minnesota, an additional 94 cents is generated in economic activity.
• Schools purchased 63% of Minnesota farm products directly from producers, with the remainder from food hubs and traditional wholesalers.
• Despite being often associated with specialty crops, farm to school sourcing in Minnesota tilted heavily to proteins, which accounted for 48% of all spending by grantees. Ground beef was by far the most commonly sourced farm product.

During the 2024 session of the Minnesota Legislature, LSP worked with its allies to garner support for the state’s Farm to School Program. See our legislative wrap-up blog for details.

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(6/4/25) In recently released budget documents, the Trump administration has proposed a nearly $7 billion reduction in USDA funding for 2026. Almost $1.2 billion of those cuts would come from the department’s primary farmer-facing agencies, reports Successful Farming. Highlights:

• Funding for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) would drop $784 million — from $896 million to $112 million. Conservation operations funds within NRCS would decrease the most, with savings coming mainly from eliminating discretionary funds for conservation technical assistance, which refers to USDA employees who help farmers do things like plant cover crops and install fencing, according to Civil Eats.
• The budget request would decrease discretionary programs within the Farm Service Agency by $372 million, from $1,606 million to $1,234 million.
• The funding request for the Risk Management Agency for 2026 is $67 million, down from the 2025 enacted amount of $73 million.

To get a sense of how critical NRCS programs are to supporting farm conservation practices, check out our “A Sense of Where You Are” blog series. LSP supports passage of the federal Agriculture Resilience Act — a farmer-centered policy that incentivizes and supports the work family farmers are doing to build soil health, improve water quality, build robust and resilient businesses, and feed our communities. Check out the action alert on this legislation here. For more on LSP’s federal policy work, click here.

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‘We Take Last Place’: North Dakota Residents Fight Industrial Dairy Threat to Land and Legacy

(6/2/25) The Daily Yonder describes how farmers and other rural residents in southeastern North Dakota’s Richland County are concerned that a 12,500-head operation being built by Riverview Dairy will drive small farmers out of business and harm the environment. Highlights:

• In 2023, North Dakota enacted House Bill 1371, which significantly alters the state’s longstanding corporate farming restrictions. This legislation permits corporations and limited liability companies to own or lease farmland specifically for livestock operations.
• North Dakota’s agricultural laws offer little protection for rural residents when it comes to massive CAFOs. There are no requirements to monitor private wells, no guarantees to replace contaminated water, and no contingency plans if local aquifers run dry.
• Local residents are working with the Dakota Resource Council to organize, attend ag task force meetings, and demand stronger water protections.

Riverview is based out of western Minnesota’s Stevens County, and operates several large dairy CAFOs in the area. In August 2014 the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Citizens’ Board voted to require an Environmental Impact Statement for an 8,850-cow dairy Riverview was proposing at the time. A year later, Riverview officials were successful in pressuring the Minnesota Legislature to eliminate the 48-year-old Citizens’ Board. You can read more about that action and its repercussions in LSP’s blog.

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Minnesota Honored to Host 40th Anniversary Farm Aid

(6/2/25) Agweek reports the the 40th Farm Aid concert will be held in Minneapolis on Sept. 20. Highlights:

• Over 39 years, Farm Aid has raised more than $85 million to help family farmers through its benefit concerts.
• The 2025 concert will feature Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, Margo Price, Billy Strings, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Waxahatchee, Trampled by Turtles, Jesse Welles, and others. In addition to the music, Farm Aid will have its signature Homegrown Village, where festivalgoers can explore interactive exhibits and activities related to farming, soil health, and community-based food.
• Farm Aid is partnering with ag organizations in the state to put on the 2025 concert, which will be held at the University of Minnesota’s Huntington Bank Stadium.

The Land Stewardship Project is among the organizations that are partnering with Farm Aid for the September event. Watch our website for details as they are developed. More information on Farm Aid is available here.

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MFU Launches New Meat Packing Plant

(6/6/25) Minnesota Farmers Union has officially broken ground on a state-of-the-art, USDA-compliant meat processing facility in Staples, Minn. Highlights:

• The more than 8,000-square-foot facility will process primarily beef and pork, employ up to 15 people when fully operational, and partner with Central Lakes College and Ridgewater College to provide training and internship opportunities for students studying meat processing and butchery.
• A tentative opening date is January 2026.

LSP has been working with the Minnesota Farmers Union and other allies to expand the local meat processing infrastructure in Minnesota in a way that it supports the reintegrating of livestock onto the land. An LSP blog describes how Tom Nuessmeier and Paul Sobocinski, farmers and former LSP organizers, are working on an initiative to “break the meat processing bottleneck.”

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