Proposed Dairy in Morris Would Become Minnesota’s Largest Feedlot

(3/16/26) The Minnesota Star Tribune reports on a proposal to create the largest livestock operation in Minnesota. Highlights:

• Riverview LLP, the state’s largest milk producer, has applied for permits to build the single largest dairy and feedlot in the state’s history by expanding one of its operations near Morris in Stevens County to more than twice its size.
• The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is reviewing Riverview’s plans for the dairy, which would milk a total of 18,855 cows. That‘s more than 60 times the size of the average Minnesota dairy, which had fewer than 280 cows in 2025.
• Because of concerns over the facility’s impact on small and medium-sized dairy farms, the rural economy, and water quality, the Land Stewardship Project has called for Riverview to complete an environmental impact statement (EIS) before a permit is granted by the MPCA.
• “Riverview continues to expand and expand at a rate that is just eliminating all the other dairies,” said James Kanne, a lifelong dairy farmer from Renville County. “You can’t tell me that these large feedlots are not overloading the land with manure when they’re spreading. Because all that manure has to go somewhere.”

The public has until April 9 to submit comments on the “West River Dairy Expansion.” For details on how to submit comments, check out LSP’s latest action alert.

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In an Era of Mega-Farms, These Schools Still Serve (Some) Locally Grown Food

(3/16/26) The Sentient describes how one school district in west-central Minnesota is bucking the trend of consolidated agriculture dominating the food system by sourcing food from local farms. Highlights:

• Jeanine Bowman, the food service director for Morris Schools, says she is now sourcing 10–15% of students’s food from local farms. Her local purchasing “exploded” when she was awarded a grant funded by the USDA and administered by Minnesota in 2023, she says.
• Bowman works directly with nine producers and farms in west-central Minnesota and, through other distributors, an additional 12 local producers. The kids notice the difference in quality. Kitchen staffers tell Bowman that less food is wasted on days when they serve local foods, and she’s seen an increase in the number of kids eating breakfast at school as well.
• An analysis conducted by the Land Stewardship Project and other groups found that school food procurers across west-central Minnesota are interested in purchasing more local foods, but barriers remain. A key challenge is maintaining the staff necessary to locate and prepare fresh foods, which take more hours of labor to cook.

Check out LSP’s recent Ear to the Ground podcast interview with Jeanine Bowman. 

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Should Every State Have Its Own Farm Bill?

(3/19/26) Because of the holdup in Congress, federal investment in farm programs beyond standard commodity payments and crop insurance has become less reliable. Under the Trump administration, the USDA has also proven willing to cancel contracts with farmers enrolled in programs funded by the federal Farm Bill. As a result, reports Civil Eats, several states are considering putting in place their own agricultural policies to help fill the gaps. Highlights:

• The Pennsylvania Farm Bill, which was signed into law in 2019, is the first state-level omnibus bill dedicated to investments in agriculture. It provides farm to school grants, business development for farms looking to produce higher-value products, and farm workforce development. It has been continually funded with bipartisan support — and it could serve as a model for other states as the federal Farm Bill remains stalled, two-and-a-half years behind schedule.
• Russell Redding, Pennsylvania’s secretary of state agriculture, estimated that 16 states have reached out to him about using the Pennsylvania Farm Bill as a model. Connecticut passed its version of a farm bill in July 2025, and Maryland is considering putting together a larger package of investments in agriculture.
• Minnesota legislators have created their own version of a canceled federal program that paid for food banks to buy from small farms nearby. The Minnesota Legislature also created a farm to school program to enable more schools to buy produce and meats from nearby farms. It started with $500,000 in funding the first year. Last year, despite a tighter budget, lawmakers working across the aisle increased the funding to nearly $2.5 million.

During LSP’s recent Family Farm Breakfast and Lobby Day, members talked to lawmakers about the importance of supporting various ag-related initiatives connected to farm to institution marketing, soil health, clean water, land access, fair markets, and sustainable livestock production. Details are here.

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‘We’ve seen this before’: Bird Flu Again Hits Wisconsin Poultry Farms

(3/6/26) Two large-scale commercial poultry farms in southeastern Wisconsin have been hit with avian influenza, each with roughly 1.5 million birds that will be culled, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. Highlights:

• In Wisconsin’s Jefferson County, which has had a total of six avian flu cases in the last four years, one of the farms that is currently responding to an outbreak was also hit by the virus in 2025.
• Jefferson County health director Elizabeth McGeary said responding to the outbreak last year and overseeing the safe culling and disposal of infected birds put a strain on county and local resources. It also impacted nearby residents and created potential public health and environmental concerns. “The response scale was huge,” she said. “There were millions of birds. There were a lot of different transport volumes and issues. The composting footprint was really enormous, and it required substantial local government time and coordination.
• McGeary said county leaders especially want to see better groundwater monitoring around the sites where bodies of culled infected birds are being composted. “Rural communities rely on private wells, and this large-scale composting and disposal really increases our population to potentially be at risk for contaminated water,” she told WPR, adding that requiring farms to identify possible compost locations before an outbreak could also help protect public health.

An LSP white paper argues that key questions need to be answered about the role industrialized poultry operations play in propagating highly pathogenic avian influenza. “Big Bird. Big Problem: How the Poultry Industry is Turning the Avian Flu Pandemic into a Source of Profit at Taxpayer’s Expense While Decimating Our Farm & Food System” is available here.

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Economize by Reducing N rate, According to U

(3/19/26) Historically high price ratios between the price of nitrogen and the price of corn should prompt farmers to calculate how they can reduce fertilizer applications in 2026, reports the Minnesota Corn Growers Association. Highlights:

• In recent years, the ratio of nitrogen fertilizer price to corn price has been approximately 0.10, which is the equivalent of 40 cents per pound for nitrogen and $4 per bushel for corn. Currently that ratio is running as high as 80 cents per pound of nitrogen, with corn still at $4 dollars a bushel — a 0.20 ratio.
• The University of Minnesota conducts rate research regularly that shows how the yield grows dramatically through the initial increases in nitrogen rate, but, starting at around 120 pounds per acre, the yield increase slows. And as the rate goes higher the curve flattens, until the increase in bushels pays less than the extra nitrogen needed to get them, according to Brad Carlson, a fertilizer expert with U of M Extension. Finding the point at which additional nitrogen fertilizer no longer increases yield at a level that pays for itself can save farmers money, he says.

For information on how to build the kind of healthy soil that is less reliant on commercial fertilizer, check out LSP’s Soil Health web page. LSP’s latest Myth Buster on nitrogen fertilizer is 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-nitrogen pollution. You can listen to the podcasts here and here.

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High Herbicide-use Counties Often have Higher-Than-Average Late-Stage Cancer Rates

(3/20/26) Seventy-one percent of counties that spray the most glyphosate have late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma incidence rates above the national average, reports Investigate Midwest. Highlights:

• The analysis, which was conducted by Food and Water Watch, looked at the top 20% of counties for glyphosate use and found that most were in the Upper Midwest. Nearly three out of four of those counties had late-stage cancer rates higher than the national average.
• Last month, Investigate Midwest, in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s StoryReach U. S. Fellowship, published an investigation that found 60% of the top 500 counties for pesticide use had overall cancer rates above the national average.
• President Trump recently 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.

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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Coalition Tells U.S. Trade Representative: Bring Back Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling

(3/13/26) A coalition of 38 organizations sent a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative urging him to act on mandatory country-of-origin labeling (MCOOL) for beef during the ongoing U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) negotiations, according to Morning Ag Clips. Highlights:

• The coalition, led by the National Family Farm Coalition, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, the Western Organization of Resource Councils, and the Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment, highlighted the consumer demand for transparency that MCOOL would bring to the marketplace. The groups, many of whom represent independent farmers nationally and regionally, also emphasized the need for MCOOL to create more competitive markets for U.S. producers so that they can secure a fairer price.
• “Mandatory COOL facilitates fair competition by providing accurate information in the marketplace,” says the letter. “With mandatory COOL, U.S. producers can communicate their products’ attributes, including being produced under U.S. rules for safety, quality and environmental impact. And consumers can make informed decisions based on their priorities, like supporting U.S. producers or reducing food miles. Without mandatory COOL, the market is operating with incomplete information.”
• The letter argues that the USMCA review process, due by this summer, presents an important opportunity to negotiate a new solution to prior challenges to MCOOL.

The Land Stewardship Project was a signatory to the letter calling for MCOOL. You can read the letter here. 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.

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