Report: Cancer Rates Rising Among Young People in the Corn Belt

(10/29/25) The Minnesota Reformer reports on an analysis conducted by The Washington Post showing that the six states that lead in corn production — Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, and Kansas — have seen higher rates of cancer among young people than other states over the past decade. Highlights:

•  The six Corn Belt states have cancer rates 5% higher than the overall population, both among young adults and across all ages. Overall, cancer rates in the U.S. are declining.
• Young adults in those Corn Belt states have especially higher rates of kidney and skin cancers. The skin cancer risk for young adults in the Corn Belt states is 35% higher for men and 66% higher for women than those in other states.
•  Certain agrochemicals, including pesticides and herbicides, have been linked to increased cancer rates. There’s also some evidence that nitrates, which can seep into drinking water from crop fields, are linked to some forms of cancer.

Check out LSP’s blog, “Nitrate’s Season of Reckoning.” 

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Research Brief: Economics of Crop & Livestock Integration

(10/23/25) Dakota News Network describes a four-state study showing that farms which integrate livestock and crops had a higher net return on a per-acre basis than their crop-only counterparts. Highlights:

• Extension professionals collected 2024 financial data from 11 livestock integrated farms across four states — Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin. These farms had an average size of 964 acres, with 32% in crops, 16% in hay, and 52% in pasture. The data was entered into FINPACK financial software from the University of Minnesota’s Center for Farm Financial Management. The subset of crop-only farms for this study included 601 farms across three states — Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin — with each managing between 501-1,000 acres of cropland.
• Livestock integrated farms had more income and fewer expenses than crop-only farms. The per-acre net return for the farms that combined crops and livestock was $128, compared to $8 per acre for the farms that specialized in raising crops.

The Land Stewardship Letter recently profiled a farm in northeastern Iowa that’s successfully integrated crops and livestock.

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American Farmers Welcome China’s Promise to Buy Soybeans but the Deal Doesn’t Solve Everything

(10/30/25) The Associated Press reports that American farmers welcomed the recent announcement that China has promised to buy some of their soybeans, but they cautioned this won’t solve all their problems as they continue to deal with soaring prices for fertilizer, tractors, repair parts, and seeds. Highlights:

• The Chinese promise to buy at least 25 million metric tons of soybeans annually for the next three years will bring their purchases back in line with where they were at before President Donald Trump launched his trade war with China in the spring. But the 12 million metric tons that China plans to buy between now and January is only about half the typical annual volume.
• China is the world’s largest buyer of soybeans. It had been consistently buying about one quarter of the American crop in recent years. China bought more than $12.5 billion worth of the nearly $24.5 billion worth of U.S. soybeans that were exported last year.
• Last year, Brazilian beans accounted for more than 70% of China’s imports, while the U.S. share fell to 21%, World Bank data shows. Argentina and other South American countries also are selling more to China.

If you are a farmer, LSP would like to know how tariffs and current trade policies are impacting you. Let us know by taking our survey. It will only take a couple of minutes, but your answers will help us understand the effect the trade war is having on farmers in our area. All answers will be kept strictly confidential. 

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Dream of Buying a Small Farm in Wisconsin? New Legislation Aims to Make the Process Easier

(10/24/25) Wisconsin Watch describes proposed legislation in Wisconsin that would create a “farmland link” program to assist farmers with transferring property. Central to that effort, the bill instructs the state Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection to build and maintain a website where farm owners could post land for sale or rent, and beginning farmers could inquire about the opportunities they’re looking for, including the chance to be mentored by an experienced farmer before taking the reins. Highlights:

• Nationally, nearly 70% of all farmland is expected to change hands in the next 20 years, whether through inheritance or sale, according to the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
• To fund their retirement, today’s farmers will often weigh whether to rent or sell their land to larger agricultural operations, real estate developers, energy companies, or even private equity firms. Meanwhile, a new generation of aspiring farmers is struggling to get started. Many didn’t grow up on farms and don’t have the land they need. In surveys, beginning farmers nationwide say their biggest challenge is finding affordable farmland.
• Farmers Les Macare and Els Dobrick found their farm in western Wisconsin via the Farmland Clearinghouse, which the Land Stewardship Project administers. “People have a lot of connection to land and to what they’re doing on farms and so are very good stewards and caretakers of their land, and they’re wanting to make sure that the next generation also has that same sort of value and vision around stewardship,” said Karen Stettler, who works on farm transition issues for LSP.

Are you looking for farmland, or do you have farmland you’d like to pass on to a beginning farmer? Check out LSP’s Farmland Clearinghouse here. LSP’s 2026 Farm Transition Planning Course is set to convene this winter. Details are here.

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Erosion From Ravines Threatens Lake Pepin — and Wisconsin Communities That Depend On It

(10/28/25) The Mississippi River’s Lake Pepin faces major threats from erosion, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Highlights:

• Massive amounts of sediment are eroding from stream banks, bluffs and agricultural fields upstream and settling in the lake. Parts of it have become so shallow that boat travel is impossible, leaving some communities cut off. The upper one-third of the lake could be unusable for recreation by the end of this century.
• Sediment erosion has increased tenfold since before European settlement of the area. Each year, a sediment load as big as a 32-story building spanning a full city block enters the lake. At this rate, the entire lake could be filled in less than 350 years. A large majority of that sediment comes from the Minnesota River basin, which covers nearly 15,000 square miles, including many areas that are heavily farmed. There are thousands of ravines that cut through the slopes on the sides of the river, sending sediment from the farmed landscape quickly downstream.
• The Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance, a nonprofit organization working to improve the health of the lake, has launched an investigation into how erosion can be controlled in ravines and gullies.

For information on building soil resiliency profitably, check out LSP’s Soil Builders’ web page. Our ongoing Ear Dirt podcast series features conversations on cover cropping, no-till, managed rotational grazing, fungi, and just about anything else that builds soil health.

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Federal Judges Order Administration to Pay SNAP Benefits, But What’s Next Remains Unclear

(10/31/25) Two federal judges ordered the Trump administration to use emergency funding to provide SNAP benefits for the 42 million people who rely on the program to feed their families, according to National Public Radio. Highlights:

• The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, helps 1 in 8 U.S. residents, who get an average of $186 a month.
• Investigate Midwest recently reported that while the national food insecurity rate has dropped slightly over the past decade, farming-dependent counties have seen an 11.7% increase.
• It is not yet clear how the two court orders would impact the flow of benefits, which are set to run out Nov. 1 as a result of the federal government shutdown.
• One judge said the USDA must use emergency funds to keep SNAP going. She also said other money is legally available, but left the decision of how much benefits to distribute up to the Trump administration.

Check out LSP’s Myth Buster on the role SNAP plays in rural food security. See our recent action alert on how you can tell Congress to support the “Local Farmers Feeding Our Community” Act.

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New Study Explores ‘Legacy Effects’ of Soil Microbes on Plants Across Kansas

(10/30/25) Nature Microbiology includes a report on a study that is looking at how bacteria and fungi and other organisms living in the soil can have important effects on carbon sequestration, nutrient movement, and the legacy effects on plants. Highlights:

• “We got interested in this because other researchers, for years, have been describing this type of ecological memory of soil microbes having some way to remember from their ancestors’ past,” said Maggie Wagner, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Kansas and associate scientist at the Kansas Biological Survey and Center for Ecological Research. “It has a lot of important implications for how we can grow plants, including things like corn and wheat. Precipitation itself has a big influence on how plants grow, but also the memory of the microbes living in those soils could also play a role.”
• Even after many thousands of bacterial generations, the memory of drought was still detectable in soil that was studied. Scientists have found the microbial legacy effect was much stronger with plants like gamagrass that were native to a certain locale than plants that were from elsewhere, such as corn, and were planted for agricultural reasons.

Want to know more about how to build biology in the soil? Check out LSP’s Soil Microbiology web page.

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