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Morris-Based Mega-Dairy Coming Closer to Reality with Key Regulatory Ruling

(6/7/26) The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) will not require an environmental impact statement for an expansion that would create the largest dairy CAFO in Minnesota, reports the Minnesota Reformer. Highlights:

• Riverview wants to expand a dairy facility it has in western Minnesota’s Stevens County from 8,000 to nearly 19,000 cows.
•  The MPCA received nearly 1,400 public comments on Riverview Dairy’s feedlot permit and environmental assessment worksheet, a requirement for all feedlot permits that assesses a proposal’s potential for significant environmental impact. (It’s considered less rigorous than an environmental impact statement.) The agency also held a public meeting in Morris in late April that was attended by an estimated 450 people.
• The project would add a new barn and three new liquid manure storage areas to the existing facility in Morris. The company was issued its MPCA feedlot permit on June 23 and is waiting for a water appropriation permit and local zoning permits. The project is estimated to take 16 to 24 months to complete.
•  An EIS “is exactly the tool needed to answer the serious questions people have raised about water use, manure management, groundwater protection, public health, and the future of family-scale dairy farming in western Minnesota,” said Sean Carroll, LSP’s policy director.

Check out LSP’s press release responding to the MPCA’s decision not to require an EIS for the West River Dairy proposal. LSP’s white paper on why consolidation in the dairy industry is bad news for the land, farmers, and rural communities is here.

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A Water Crisis Has The ‘Poster Boys’ of Iowa Farming Ready to Talk Regulation

(6/7/26) Inside Climate News reports on how a group of farmers calling themselves The Lobe Rangers are undertaking a campaign to highlight the enormous gap between the conservation goals outlined in Iowa’s strategy for nutrient loss and the actual adoption of conservation practices on cropland. Highlights:

• Matthew Bormann, Zack Smith, and James Hepp all produce row crops in northern Iowa. As award-winning farmers and former county Farm Bureau board members, they’ve set themselves apart for using social media, online videos, and media interviews to call out commodity groups, politicians, and government regulators for creating an environment where extensive contamination of Corn Belt drinking water by pollutants such as nitrogen fertilizer is being accepted as the status quo.
•  In 2013, Iowa unveiled its Nutrient Reduction Strategy as a set of guidelines to stem the flow of chemicals from farmland into waterways and public drinking water sources. Since its inception, as in most agricultural states such as Minnesota, the strategy has relied strictly on voluntary farm conservation efforts. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and state Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig doubled down on those incentives in a legislative package revealed in early May, which includes an additional $52 million to expand on-farm conservation in central Iowa and $100 million for public water treatment infrastructure.
•  Critics, including The Lobe Rangers, say the voluntary approach has done little to improve Iowa’s water quality. They regularly post videos criticizing inaction on water quality issues and showing how the soil-friendly practices they utilize on their farms can keep pollutants out of rivers and groundwater.
• Many of the organizations that have historically drawn attention to Iowa’s clean water crisis are “left-leaning groups” that get discounted because of their political bent or advocacy history, Smith said. “And that’s really unfortunate, because it doesn’t mean their ideas aren’t good,” he added.

You can check out LSP’s Ear to the Ground podcast interview with The Lobe Rangers here. You can read our blog on them here.

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War Hangs Over American Farmers as Fertilizer Prices Rise

(6/16/26) The New York Times reports on how the war on Iran continues to disrupt shipments of fertilizer ingredients, resulting in major negative impacts on U.S. farmers. Highlights:

• Fertilizer prices reached record highs in 2022, when the war in Ukraine and the lingering supply chain disruptions from the pandemic drove up prices. However, American farmers were better equipped to absorb the costs then because they earned more for their crops. At the time, farmers received between $7 and $8 for each bushel of corn and $15 to $17 for a bushel of soybeans. Today, corn prices are around $4.50 per bushel and soybeans $11.50 per bushel. Prices for both crops have fallen since the Iran war began, and with fertilizer costs going up, farmers are making less money.

• Even as the U.S. and Iran have reportedly reached a preliminary agreement to end the war that has roiled the region since March, it would take months for ship traffic and supply chains to return to normal, and years for destroyed energy and fertilizer infrastructure to be rebuilt. A full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz will eventually cause fertilizer prices to fall, but they will remain above their prewar levels for years to come, said Shawn Arita, an agricultural economist at North Dakota State University.
• Nick Paulson, an agricultural economist at the University of Illinois, said actions the Trump administration is considering, such as not renewing a trade deal with Canada, would drastically reduce the supply of some fertilizers.
• At least 34 lawsuits have been filed by farmers against fertilizer companies, including Mosaic and CF Industries, in the last few months, broadly accusing them of conspiring to reduce competition.

LSP is launching a “Rethink Nitrogen”campaign to build a farmer-led, public movement to show the power of nitrogen-reducing practices and create the political momentum needed to pass strong nutrient reduction policies during Minnesota’s 2027 legislative session. For details, check out our Healthy Soil, Clean Water web page.

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The Real Reason Farmers Aren’t Adapting to Climate Change

(6/11/26) In a guest post on the Swine Republic Substack, Iowa farmer Wendy Johnson describes how the federally subsidized crop insurance program is making insurance provider’s wealthy and encouraging consolidation in agriculture, all while reducing the ability of soil to be resilient in the face of climate change. Highlights:

• A component of crop insurance, something called “Average Production History,” also known as APH, plays a key role in forcing farmers to plant nothing but corn and soybeans, resulting in a reduction in the kind of diverse rotations that can build soil health, sequester carbon, and increase economic security.
• Johnson recommends numerous reforms to the crop insurance program, including tying the size of payments to the use of risk-reducing practices rather than APH. Under such a system, farmers could qualify for higher payments by reducing their risk of crop loss with practices like longer crop rotations, cover crops, reduced tillage, and planting perennials. She also suggests guaranteeing a baseline market for diverse crops by stipulating that at least 15% of SNAP funds be used for locally produced foods.
• “Finally, we need to help farmers and businesses build the processing facilities necessary to bring these crops to market by providing tax credits and grants for new diversified agriculture infrastructure,” writes Johnson.

Check out this LSP blog on why crop insurance needs to be reformed. Wendy Johnson was featured on episode 366 of LSP’s Ear to the Ground podcast. For more on practices that can help build the kind of soil health that creates more resilient, climate-friendly farms, see LSP’s Soil Builders’ web page.

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Colin Cureton, Who Led Forever Green’s Commercialization Push, Dies at 41

(6/24/26) Colin Cureton, who played a major role in helping to commercialize and scale up the use of soil-friendly crops in recent years, died suddenly after a sudden health emergency, Agweek reports. Highlights:

• Cureton joined the University of Minnesota’s Forever Green Initiative in 2019 as one of its first two dedicated employees and built what became a seven-person commercialization team, working to move perennial and winter annual crops — Kernza, hybrid hazelnuts, camelina, pennycress, and others — from research plots into farmer fields and commercial markets.
• Cureton’s work at Forever Green spanned strategy, farmer adoption, market development, fundraising and partnership building. He developed the initiative’s EECO farmer adoption program, which has enrolled over 5,000 acres and supported over 75 growers. He also helped form a coalition that resulted in the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s Developing Markets for Continuous Living Cover Crops program, which has distributed $2 million in grants to enterprises building supply chains for perennial crops.
• “He could thread needles and sew partnerships together,” said Diane Christofore, executive director of the Regenerative Agriculture Alliance. “He planted seeds everywhere he went and never wasted time doing it.”

Episode 367 of LSP’s Ear to the Ground podcast features an interview where Colin Cureton talks about his work to expand market opportunities for farmers raising alternative crops like Kernza.

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Southeast Minnesota Grazier Turns Cattle Pastures into Grassland Bird Habitat

(6/24/26) Agweek reports on how southeastern Minnesota farmer John Meyer has seen an explosion in bird life on his farm since he converted it from row crops to managed rotational grazing of perennial pastures. Highlights:

• Meyer converted his operation from full-tillage row crop production starting around 2012. His farm now runs roughly 400 head of cattle annually across pastures seeded to a diverse mix of grasses, legumes, and pollinator species.
•  The turnaround in bird activity came quickly after the shift, Meyer said. An Audubon count at the farm last year tallied 43 grassland species in about 90 minutes.
•  Krysten Zummo, a grassland ecologist with the National Audubon Society working in the Driftless Region, said that result reflects what research shows about adaptive rotational grazing. Moving cattle through pastures on a managed schedule creates distinct grass heights simultaneously. Different bird species require short, mid-height, and tall grass heights.

Episode 391 of LSP’s Ear to the Ground podcast features a discussion of how one Wisconsin farmer has converted corn-soybean ground into grazing pastures that support grassland songbirds. John Meyer has long been passionate about using regenerative practices to build soil health. You can listen to him talk about his early experimentation with cover cropping on a 2018 Ear to the Ground podcast.

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Supreme Court Ruling Blocks Thousands of Lawsuits Against the Maker of Roundup Weedkiller

(6/25/26) The Supreme Court has sided with the maker of Roundup weedkiller in a ruling expected to block thousands of lawsuits alleging it failed to warn people the product could cause cancer, reports the Associated Press. Highlights:

•  The case came before the justices after a tidal wave of litigation that included some multibillion-dollar verdicts against Bayer, a German agrochemical manufacturer that acquired Roundup’s original producer, Monsanto, in 2018.
• There is still fierce debate about whether Roundup’s key ingredient, glyphosate, causes cancer. The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified the chemical as “probably carcinogenic” in 2015. The Environmental Protection Agency has determined that it’s not likely to cause cancer in humans when used as directed. A science historian recently investigated how a paper fraudulently ghostwritten by Monsanto scientists became highly influential in the debate over whether glyphosate poses health risks to humans.
• The Supreme Court’s decision is a victory for President Donald Trump’s administration, which argued in support of Bayer. But it provoked outrage from allies in the “Make American Healthy Again” movement who want to rein in pesticide use.
• Though focused on Roundup, the ruling could affect similar health claims against other pesticide products.

LSP signed onto FarmSTAND’s amicus brief outlining why farmers and farmworkers would not benefit from dismissing Roundup-related lawsuit against Bayer. Check it out here.

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Comment: Senate Farm Bill Draft Offers Untapped Potential

(6/24/26) The National Sustainable Agriculture’s blog discusses the shortcomings of the recently released draft of the U.S. Senate’s Farm Bill. Highlights:

• “The Senate discussion draft offers minimal improvements and fails to respond to states’ requests to delay SNAP cost share requirements, all but eliminating a viable path on the Senate floor,” writes NSAC. “Ultimately, the proposal falls well short of tapping its full potential – and in doing so doubles down on a food and farming system that simply isn’t working.”
• NSAC is calling for a farm safety net that improves access to risk management tools for farms of all shapes and sizes. The coalition is also pushing for access to on-farm conservation programs for all farmers, and support for diversified farming systems that work in concert with natural resources.
• NSAC opposes the recently released U.S. House version of a new Farm Bill. NSAC expressed disappointment with that proposed legislation’s lack of support for climate and conservation initiatives, local food systems, and a safety net for small and beginning farmers. The proposed bill also does not address recent massive loss of many USDA staffers.

LSP is a member-organization of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. Earlier this year, LSP members and staff traveled to Washington, D.C., to call for federal ag policy that supports efforts to make farming economically viable, agronomically resilient, and sustainable in the long term.  

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