Plan for Largest Dairy in Minnesota History Raises Water and Pollution Concerns

(4/1/26) Sentient reports on Riverview’s expansion proposal that would crate the largest dairy CAFO in Minnesota. Highlights:

• The expansion would more than double the capacity of an existing Riverview LLP dairy facility near Morris, Minn., from 7,855 to 18,855 cows.
• Riverview’s expansion would more than double its liquid manure storage capacity at this location, from 102 million gallons to 250 million gallons.
• Minnesota has lost more than two-thirds of its small-scale dairy farms over the past 25 years. Riverview now owns almost one-third of the state’s dairy herd.
• The Land Stewardship Project is calling on the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to order an environmental impact statement for the proposal.

The public has until May 7 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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Farm Experiment in Southern Minnesota Shows Promise for Cleaner Groundwater

(4/6/26) A trial being conducted on eight farms in southeastern Minnesota shows that farmers can reduce applications of nitrogen without threatening yields, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. Highlights:

• Early results from the study, which is being coordinated by the Rice County Soil and Water Conservation District, shows cutting about 20 pounds of nitrogen per acre did not decrease yields for five out of the eight farms.
• If the farms find similar results over the next two years, the trial could prove beneficial for farmers and environmentalists alike — farmers could save money growing crops using a different nitrogen formula, while less farm runoff would make its way into waterways already degraded by nitrate pollution.
• The trial revolves around soil sampling based on the Haney Test, which goes a step further than traditional testing by measuring how much carbon and nitrogen are already present in the soil. Using the test, farmers can determine the amount of existing nitrogen in the ground to figure out how much fertilizer to buy and apply during planting season, reducing the overall amount of nitrogen applied to the soil.

Check out LSP’s Ear to the Ground podcast featuring soil scientist Liz Haney. The LSP blog, “Nitrate’s Season of Reckoning,” describes how farming practices based on building soil health could help southeastern Minnesota deal with its water pollution problems.

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Poll: Most Iowa Voters Consider Water Quality a ‘Very Serious Issue’

(2/18/26) Nearly three fourths of Iowa voters say that state’s rising cancer rate is a very serious issue and nearly three out of five say that water quality and water pollution also is a serious matter, according to a poll reported on by the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Highlights:

• A majority of Iowa survey respondents — about 58% — said that water quality and water pollution is a serious issue. The poll also found that 82% of voters surveyed would be more likely to vote for a political candidate who makes protecting clean water and curbing water contamination from industrial agriculture in Iowa a priority. “And this is not a partisan thing,” said Jefrey Pollock, founding partner and president of Global Strategy Group, which conducted the poll for the Food & Water Action organization. “Seventy-two percent of Republicans think it; 86 percent of independents and 92 percent of Democrats” also want it.
• The poll also found that 79% of Iowa voters say they would support introducing mandatory requirements for industrial agriculture across the state to curb pollution.
• One of the biggest sources of Iowa’s ongoing water quality issues is tied to nitrate in agricultural runoff.
• In August, over a dozen researchers from across the state published the Central Iowa Source Water Resource Assessment, which determined that about 80% of the total contribution of nitrogen to the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers’ watersheds comes from agricultural land.
• Global Strategy surveyed 600 registered voters between Jan. 28 and Feb. 1, mostly by phone but also over text message and online surveys. The margin of error was plus or minus 4%.

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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Farmers Plan to Use Federal Bridge Payments Mainly to Reduce Debt

(3/24/26) Investigate Midwest reports that nearly half of American farmers plan to use federal assistance to pay down debt rather than invest in their operations. Highlights:

• Purdue University and the CME Group, which conduct a monthly poll of about 400 farmers, asked farmers how they expect to use payments from the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program, which is providing $11 billion in one-time payments to row crop producers facing trade disruptions and rising production costs. According to the federal government, the program is intended to address “market disruptions, elevated input costs, persistent inflation, and market losses.”
• Nearly half of the farmers polled said they would use the money to pay off debt, while more than a quarter said they would use it to improve working capital. Smaller shares said they would invest in machinery or cover family living expenses.
• In the third quarter of 2025, agricultural credit conditions in the Seventh Federal Reserve District — Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin — showed loan demand rising compared with the previous year, while loan repayment conditions remained weak.

LSP board member and southwestern Minnesota farmer Laurie Driessen wrote a blog describing how current federal ag policy and the trade war are harming small and medium-sized farmers. In February, 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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Trump Made Meatpacking Investigation a Campaign Promise but Antitrust Staff has been Gutted

(3/31/26) Investigate Midwest reports that although President Trump directed the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the nation’s largest meatpacking companies for possible collusion and price-fixing, his administration has slashed budgets and staffing for the offices responsible for antitrust work. Highlights:

• Meat companies have lobbied and donated millions of dollars to elected officials and presidential candidates for decades, carving out their business interests at the highest levels of government, from Trump’s JBS connection to Bill Clinton’s home-state affinity for Tyson Foods.
• During the first Trump administration, the USDA erased a slew of proposals and rule changes to protect poultry and pork producers from deceptive contracts. Since Trump took office again last year, the Packers and Stockyards Division has seen a 22% decrease in its annual budget, from $31 million to $24 million.
• The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Enforcement office is also at a low for staffing, which could affect the newly launched investigation into meatpacking companies, as well as other industries, including airlines, technologies, and healthcare. The DOJ antitrust office has seen a 20% decrease in staff levels during Trump’s second term.
• Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins quietly dismantled a federal-state antitrust partnership in September 2025, according to the investigative policy newsroom The Capital Forum. The program, launched in 2023, included $15 million to support state-led investigations into  consolidation across the food supply chain.

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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USDA Cancels $300M Grant Program, Affecting Projects for Underserved Minnesota Farmers

(3/30/26) Minnesota Public Radio reports that the USDA has cancelled most funds for a grant program designed to help underserved farmers access land, markets, and capital. Highlights:

• The Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program awarded about $300 million to 50 projects across the country in five-year contracts starting in 2023. There were three projects active in Minnesota aimed at helping Latino, Indigenous, and BIPOC farmers. All have lost funding, effective March 26.
• According to cancellation letters shared with MPR, the USDA stated awards under the program had engaged in “diversity, equity and inclusion” practices that it deemed discriminatory. It also claimed most of the awards did little to improve land access.
• The Minnesota-based Latino Economic Development Center had been awarded $2.5 million to be spread over five years. Throughout the year, when the team asked the USDA questions for clarification on how to properly use the grant, communication about the guidelines was often vague, said Aaron Blyth, LEDC’s agricultural program director. “Our program was really built very clearly around helping farmers in Minnesota gain access to land and we were really excited about doing that,” he told KARE 11. “We would have been happy to show we were compliant with all of our reporting, all of our financial records.”
• LEDC was also in the process of getting contracts with their sub-awardees, the Land Stewardship Project and The Good Acre. But Blyth said with uncertainty surrounding the program, they could not sign those contracts.

Check out LSP’s Accessing Farmland resource page. Episode 369 of our Ear to the Ground podcast features a discussion with Ka Zoua Berry about the challenges emerging farmers face when it comes to accessing farmland.

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Reports of Greater Minnesota’s Demise Were Greatly Exaggerated, Though Demographic Challenges Remain

(4/7/26) MinnPost reports on how an analysis of census data shows an “interesting trend of growth” in Greater Minnesota, which runs counter to previous trends. Highlights:

• The Center for Rural Policy and Development, in its annual State of Rural Minnesota report, found only 19 of 80 counties in Greater Minnesota lost population from 2020 to 2024. It was a marked decrease from 46 net-loss counties from 2010 to 2019. Combined, the counties had an average growth rate of 1.5% in the 2020s, a reversal from a -0.5% average decline in the 2010s.
• Most counties with larger population centers in Greater Minnesota had continued gains from 2010 to 2024. These places and their hub cities include Olmsted (Rochester), Stearns (Saint Cloud), Clay (Moorhead), and Blue Earth (Mankato).
• The report noted population increases in counties considered recreational, notably the central lakes area of Minnesota, and counties with high percentages of non-white residents. Southwest Minnesota’s Nobles and Watonwan counties, two counties with the highest percentage of Hispanic, Black, or Indigenous residents, were part of broad growth in southern Minnesota counties.
• However, population increases were not consistent throughout the state. Several counties in northwestern Minnesota, for example, saw population declines so far in the 2020s.

One way LSP is working with its allies to bolster rural economic development is to build community-based food systems. For more on the Western Minnesota Food Forum we helped put on in Morris, Minn., recently, click here.

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