After Nitrate Lawsuit, Minnesota Opens Farm Fertilizer Rule for Public Comment

(2/18/26) The Star Tribune reports that the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is seeking public comment on its 2019 groundwater protection rule, a standard that governs how and when fertilizer is applied. Highlights:

•  It’s the first step in the MDA’s review of the standard per a Ramsey County District Court judge’s ruling last fall in a lawsuit by environmental groups holding Minnesota to its 2024 promise to address nitrates in southeastern Minnesota waterways.
• About 90% of the nitrate pollution in southeastern Minnesota’s water comes from fertilizers spread on croplands, a state study found in 2013.
•  Ongoing research links adverse health effects to drinking water with even lower levels of nitrate than the current 10-milligram per liter Environmental Protection Agency health standard. Associated health theats include colorectal cancer, thyroid disease, and neural tube defects.

The public has until March 12 to comment on the Minnesota Groundwater Protection Rule. Details on how to comment are here. LSP’s Ear to the Ground podcast recently featured a two-part interview where three “poster boys” for farm conservation describe why it’s time for the ag industry, commodity groups, and government to step up and take responsibility for water quality, specifically nitrate pollution. You can listen to the podcasts here and here. For more on the nitrate pollution issue in southeastern Minnesota, check out this LSP blog.

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Trump Order Seeks to Protect Weedkiller at Center of Barrage of Lawsuits

(2/19/26) The Guardian reports that President Trump has signed an executive order protecting production of glyphosate-based herbicides, such as Roundup, which some studies have linked to cancer and which are the subject of widespread litigation in the United States. Highlights:

• The President’s order seeks to provide legal “immunity” for makers of the herbicides and protects domestic production of phosphorus, which is used in making glyphosate and other agricultural chemicals.
• Neither the executive order nor the fact sheet the White House put out accompanying the order discloses that glyphosate-based herbicides have been linked to an array of cancers and other health problems in multiple independent research studies and by cancer experts with the World Health Organization (WHO).
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was appointed by Trump as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and who heads a “Make America Healthy Again” commission set up by the White House, has a long history of criticizing glyphosate and its maker over the health harms tied to the herbicide. Both Trump and Kennedy had pledged to address health concerns related to glyphosate and other pesticides.
• In response to questions about the executive order, Kennedy issued a statement saying that the order “puts America first where it matters most — our defense readiness and our food supply.”

Glyphosate and the Roundup Ready weed control system have long been promoted by the chemical industry and regulators as safe alternatives to other herbicides. Back in 2011, LSP posted a five-part Ear to the Ground podcast series featuring agricultural scientist Don Huber’s research questioning the benign nature of glyphosate when it comes to issues like soil health. 

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Pesticide Use and Cancer Risk Rise Together Across America’s Heartland

(2/18/26) Investigate Midwest has published an analysis showing counties with the heaviest use of pesticides also have the highest cancer rates. Highlights:

• Most of the 500 counties with the highest pesticide use per square mile are located in the Midwest. Sixty percent of those counties also had cancer rates higher than the national average of 460 cases per 100,000 people, according to an analysis of data from both the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Cancer Institute. The Midwestern states of Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, and Missouri — leading corn-growing states — had the highest rates, while rates were also high in California and Florida, high fruit-growing states.
• In Iowa, a state with heavy pesticide use — 53 million pounds last year — and the nation’s second-highest cancer rate, doctors and health officials have been sounding an alarm for years. The state also has high levels of fertilizer-derived nitrate in its water, which has been associated with increased cancer risk.
• Cancer is a complex disease and can be caused by numerous environmental and genetic factors. Some links have been clear — such as smoking and lung cancer — while other forms can be impossible to trace back to an original cause. But scientific research linking pesticides with certain types of cancers has been growing.
• “The cancer specialist said, very directly, (my) cancer is a result of being exposed to chemicals,” Bill Billings, a resident of the southwestern Iowa community of Red Oak, told Investigate Midwest. “In my records, it literally says that I have cancer as a result of exposure to Roundup and agrochemicals.”
• Two states — North Dakota and Georgia — recently passed laws limiting their residents’ ability to sue pesticide companies, and at least a dozen other states will consider similar laws in coming months.

Check out LSP’s Soil Health web page for information on farming practices that can help reduce a reliance on pesticides.

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Farming Without a Farm Bill

(2/14/26) With a new Farm Bill years overdue, policy experts are saying the U.S. could be entering a “post-Farm Bill” era that leaves behind critical programs like conservation and agriculture research that benefit farmers, reports Offrange. Highlights:

•  The U.S. House Agriculture Committee released a proposed Farm Bill on Feb. 13, but experts warn getting it passed through the Senate will be difficult because of bipartisan fractures in food and farming politics.
• The Farm Bill has long been touted as one of the few pieces of legislation that consistently garners support from both sides of the political aisle, but fissures in the farming and nutrition coalition started to appear as early as 2013. That was the year the House proposed a split Farm Bill — one bill containing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding, the other containing farm policy. This would have been a major change to the Farm Bill, which has funded SNAP since 1973. Melding farm and nutrition policy into one bill was intended to get both Republicans and Democrats to work together on the Farm Bill.
• Lacking a comprehensive Farm Bill, recently ag and nutrition policy has instead been wrapped into budget reconciliation bills that bypass the Senate’s filibuster rules. One of the most pivotal examples of this was the 2025 “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which slashed SNAP’s budget by 20% while doubling funding to subsidy programs for commodities like soybeans, wheat, and corn. The House Ag Committee’s recently proposed Farm Bill largely promises more of the same. On top of SNAP cuts, critics say it could strip state and local governments of the ability to pass agriculture policies.
• While nutrition and farm subsidies have become major flashpoints during the Farm Bill debates, they make up just two of the Farm Bill’s 12 titles, which include research, conservation, forestry, and rural development. The programs under those other 10 titles are what get neglected, said Mike Lavender, policy director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC).
• If the new Farm Bill does not pass, experts warn agricultural policy could be left to the whims of whichever party controls the White House, particularly if the House and Senate majorities remain as slim as they have for the past several election cycles.

Earlier this month, LSP staff and farmer-members traveled to Washington, D.C., to talk to policymakers about the need for ag policy that benefits small and medium-sized farmers, the land, and rural economies. Details on that fly-in are here.

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Birds Aren’t Just Declining. They’re Declining Faster, a New Study Finds.

(2/26/26) Birds in the United States are not only declining, but they are declining faster, especially in areas with intensive agriculture, according to The New York Times. Overall drops in bird populations, measured from 1987 to 2021, were sharpest in warm and warming areas, suggesting that climate change may play a role. Highlights:

• The study, published in the journal Science, shows only correlation with intensive agriculture and temperature, not causation. It does not factor in other circumstances that may be affecting birds along migratory routes or while they are overwintering.
• When a research team analyzed and mapped the rates of decline, hot spots of acceleration lit up in California, the Midwest, and the Mid-Atlantic region.
• “We were quite surprised to see those patterns,” said François Leroy, a postdoctoral macroecology researcher at Ohio State University and the study’s lead author. The research team decided to add further analysis, using statistical modeling to look for associations. Among 20 metrics, they looked at fertilizer use, pesticide use, and area of cropland. “What we found is that any metric of agricultural intensity was always the best predictor of acceleration of the decline,” Leroy said.
• In 2023, a study on European birds found that agricultural intensification, in particular pesticides and fertilizer use, was the main driver for most population declines, especially in birds that ate invertebrates such as insects.

LSP’s Ear to the Ground podcast has recently featured interviews with farmers who are utilizing managed rotational grazing of livestock and other methods to make their land more bird-friendly. This page includes the latest episode related to this issue, as well as links to previous bird-centric podcasts.

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Beef Processors Under Fire as Prices Soar

(2/25/26) The Food & Environment Reporting Network describes how the beef industry’s so-called “Big Four” — Tyson, Cargill, JBS, and National Beef — are facing charges from numerous quarters that they are engaging in illegal activity to manipulate the meat market. Highlights:

• A class action lawsuit brought in 2019 by a coalition of cattle ranchers and feedlot owners, led by Ranchers-Cattlemen Legal Action Fund (R-CALF), claimed that the Big Four were engaged in an illegal scheme of “price-fixing, market manipulation, and unfair practices,” carried out by constricting production, including plant closures, to drive down the price of cattle for slaughter and drive up the price of processed beef by creating artificial scarcity. In response to what they allege is years of price-gouging and collusion, many of the Big Four’s business partners have filed lawsuits — including grocery store chains Kroger and Aldi, big-box stores Target and BJ’s Wholesale Club, food distributors including Sysco and Sodexo, and burger giant McDonald’s.
• The Big Four control 85% of the industry, and their profit margins are at their highest levels in years as consumer prices soar. Tyson announced in 2025 that its profits were up 6.5% over the previous year.
• One lawsuit alleges the packers came up with a system where the heads of operations at all of the Big Four were in direct communication to temporarily halt buying and slaughtering if cattle prices got too high. Because the packers control so much of the market, even a temporary reduction of kills immediately depressed market prices. When those prices hit an agreed-upon level, the lawsuit alleges, packers simultaneously resumed buying.
• President Tump has directed the Department of Justice to investigate the role giant meatpacking companies are playing in driving up the price of beef to record levels.

In episode 389 of LSP’s Ear to the Ground podcast, Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Odette talks about why it’s important for farmers and other rural residents to document and report possible examples of unfair marketing practices and antitrust violations. Check out this LSP blog on an innovative initiative to help expand access to more localized, decentralized meat processing in Minnesota.

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Comment Period Opens for Riverview’s Planned Minnesota Dairy Expansion

(2/23/26) Agweek describes a proposal by Riverview Dairy to more than double one of its operations in western Minnesota. Highlights:

• The operation, which is located outside Morris in Stevens County, currently has about 7,800 dairy cattle. The expansion plan seeks to increase the herd by 11,000 head, for a total capacity of 18,855.
• Riverview has a dozen farms in Minnesota and they range in size from roughly 2,500 to 12,000 head of cattle, according to Agweek. Riverview is also working on construction of massive dairies in North Dakota and South Dakota.
• The expanded Stevens County dairy would add five covered liquid manure storage basins, increasing manure capacity from 102 million gallons to 250 million gallons. When finished, the expanded dairy would require 13,200 acres of land for manure application. To supply water for the operation, pumping from an off-site well will be limited to 226 million gallons per year.
• Riverview also has massive operations in Arizona, where its use of water has sparked controversy. Inside Climate News recently reported that Riverview came to an agreement with the Arizona Attorney General where the company will reduce its groundwater usage in the state by fallowing 2,000 acres of land and maintaining “best practices” to conserve water. The company also agreed to pay $11 million to residents affected by the company’s overpumping.
• During a recent 12-month period, Minnesota, the nation’s sixth-largest dairy producing state, saw 146 dairy farms go out of business, a 7% drop. Meanwhile, mega-dairies with tens of thousands of cows now control more market share than ever, according to industry reports.

This unprecedented dairy project is under environmental review by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, which says it will use an environmental assessment worksheet, written comments, permit applications, and other relevant information to decide if an environmental impact statement should be ordered. The public has until March 12 to submit comments on the MPCA’s environmental assessment worksheet. Watch LSP’s Action Alerts page early next week for details on this project and how to submit comments.

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