Land Stewardship Letter

The Land Stewardship Letter is the official publication of the Land Stewardship Project, a private, nonprofit organization.

Subscription Information

Members of the Land Stewardship Project receive a hard copy of this newsletter as a benefit. Annual membership dues are $35. Address all membership inquiries to Clara Sanders via e-mail or at 612-400-6340. Click here for detailed information on becoming a member of LSP today.

Inquiries

Address all inquiries pertaining to the editorial content of the Land Stewardship Letter to Brian DeVore, 4917 Nokomis Avenue South, Minneapolis MN 55417; phone: 612-816-9342, e-mail.

Printed Copies

Some paper versions of Land Stewardship Letter back issues are available at no cost. For more information on ordering back issues, call 612-816-9342 or e-mail Brian DeVore.

Online Format

Issues of the Land Stewardship Letter can be downloaded in pdf format. We also have recent issues available in an online readable format.

**Recent issues of the Land Stewardship Letter:**

No. 2, 2022, Land Stewardship Letter

Songs for the Soil ♦ 2023 Farm Bill Platform ♦ Minnesota Food & Farm Campaign ♦ Ending the Extractive Economy ♦ Meat Processing Bottleneck ♦ CSA Farm Sign-up ♦ From Dubai to the Driftless ♦ Solar Powered Land Access ♦ Regenerative Rental Relationships ♦ Field Days: A Season of Knowledge Transfer ♦ Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Big Questions ♦ The Seed Keeper ♦ Return of the Twin Cities Picnic ♦ High Impact Gifts

No. 1, 2022, Land Stewardship Letter

LSP’s New Executive Director ♦ Lorraine Redig’s Words of Wisdom ♦ The 2023 Farm Bill ♦ 2022 Legislative Update ♦ Land Stewardship Action Fund ♦ Tiny Milk Enterprise ♦ Incubating Immigrants ♦ Creeping Crawlers in the Dark of Night ♦ Johnson-Su Bioreactors ♦ In Search of Water & the Fungus Among Us ♦ Tell Us an LSP Story

No. 2, 2021, Land Stewardship Letter

A Season of Field Days ♦ Dave Serfling’s Policy Breakthrough ♦ Manure Methane’s False Promise ♦ Minnesota Legislative Preview ♦ Drought Assistance ♦ The Unpalatability of Food Concentration ♦ A CAFO Stymied ♦ Soil Health’s Wonder Field ♦ Journeyperson Paces a Farm ♦ A Commons Approach to Land Access ♦ Building Community Food Webs ♦ CSA Directory ♦ A Revamped Website

No. 1, 2021, Land Stewardship Letter

LSP Leadership Change ♦ 2 Decades of Farm Beginnings ♦ A Few Words for Water ♦ Raw Deal on Farmland ♦ Seeing Whiteness in the Food System ♦ Reawakening Native Farming’s Heritage ♦ Hybrid Rye Takes on an Evolutionary Monster ♦ Meditations with Cows

No. 3, 2020, Land Stewardship Letter

Sustainable Vs. Regenerative ♦ Dennis Johnson’s Deep-Rooted Legacy ♦ Fake Meat’s False Promise ♦ Farmers Speak Out on Soil & Climate ♦ Rural Justice Video Series ♦ Letting Livestock do the Soil Health Work ♦ Grazing Photo Contest ♦ Soil Health Music Videos ♦ LSP Soil Health Reports ♦ Farm Beginnings: An Enigma in Corn Country ♦ 2021 CSA Farm Directory

No. 2, 2020, Land Stewardship Letter

Rural Stress ♦ Big Meat’s Big Lie ♦ Legislative Wrap-up ♦ Organizing & Social Change Cohort ♦ Shocks to the System ♦ Lack of Local Meat Processing ♦ Racism is Not Sustainable ♦ A Caver-Farmer’s Report from the Underground ♦ Farm Transition Power Team ♦ SILT’s Removal of the Spectre of Speculation ♦ Farm Transition Tools ♦ Registered to Vote? ♦ Losing Farmers, Losing Community

No. 1, 2020, Land Stewardship Letter

New ED ♦ Frac Sand Ban ♦ The Voices of the Farm Crisis ♦ The Power of Small Group Discussions ♦ Insects, Ag & Economics ♦ Power Walking Pastures ♦ That Farm on Highway 40 ♦ Wildling ♦ Making a Wager on Smaller Dairy Farms ♦ Ag’s Climate Change Potential ♦ Channeling Water’s Profitability ♦ A New Generation of Soil Generators ♦ Fulfilling a Social Contract with Carrots

No. 3, 2019, Land Stewardship Letter

Sustainable Ag Oral History ♦ Mega Dairies & Local Economies ♦ Partners on the Food Marketing Front ♦ Developing Financial Skills ♦ Farm Crisis Statement ♦ Standing Up to a Factory Farm ♦ Talking Trade ♦ Renting It Out Right ♦ Conservation Leases Toolkit ♦ Farm Transition Planning ♦ Science of Soil Health Resiliency ♦ Report from the Soil Health Underground ♦ Farming for the Long Haul

No. 2, 2019, Land Stewardship Letter

LSP’s New Long Range Plan ♦ Mark Schultz Retires ♦ Racial Justice Cohort ♦ Carbon’s Crisis Management Potential ♦ Legislative Wrap-up ♦ A Healthcare Victory ♦ Farm-to-School ♦ Power of Perennial Roots ♦ Leases that Fit Your Values ♦ Soil Builders’ Network ♦ Grazing Financials Fact Sheet ♦ Suzanne Swanson Poetry ♦ Relentless Business of Treaties ♦ Farming for the Long Haul

No. 1, 2019, Land Stewardship Letter

Remembering Dean Harrington & Chris Blanchard ♦ Land Gifts & Indigenous Lands ♦ Nitrogen Fertilizer’s Limitation ♦ Frac Sand Case ♦ Family Farm Breakfast ♦ Healthcare Victory ♦ Factory Farms ♦ 2019 Legislative Session ♦ Rooting a Landowner Relationship in Soil ♦ Local Foods Initiative ♦ Rallying Around a Beginning Farmer ♦ Integrating Crops & Livestock ♦ Storm Lake

No. 4, 2018, Land Stewardship Letter

Respect Our Mother ♦ Land Sharing Vs. Land Sparing ♦ LSP Youth Summit ♦ Farm Financial Stress ♦ Hidden Figures of Soil Health ♦ Soil Health Pocket Guide ♦ Tale of the Soil Health Trench ♦ Talking Smart Soil ♦ Grazing Fact Sheet ♦ Land-Based Launching Pad ♦ Landowner-Renter Workshops ♦ Farm Dreams ♦ Farm Beginnings ♦ Beginning Farmer Podcast ♦ Dirt to Soil ♦ Wildly Successful Farming

No. 3, 2018, Land Stewardship Letter

The War on SNAP ♦ Journalists Get the Scoop on Soil Health ♦ Farm Beginnings Field Days ♦ Fighting Factory Farms ♦ Healthcare Petition ♦ Our Minnesota Future ♦ Land Stewardship Action Fund ♦ Cropping Systems Calculator ♦ Soil Health & Profits ♦ Soil Health Pocket Guide ♦ Climate Conversation ♦ Ecological Agrarians ♦ Farm Dreams ♦ Wildly Successful Farming

No. 2, 2018, Land Stewardship Letter

Bold Solutions Call for Bold Actions ♦ Family Farm Breakfast ♦ Remembering Dwight Ault ♦ Legislative Update ♦ Federal Farm Bill ♦ Private Insurer Waste ♦ Ray Archuleta’s Soil Passion ♦ The Currency of Carbon ♦ Climate Video ♦ Calculating Erosion’s Cost ♦ Beginning Farmer Tax Credit ♦ Farm Stress: Never, Ever Ignore the Problem ♦ When Nature Bites Back ♦ The Driftless Reader

No. 1, 2018, Land Stewardship Letter

Climate Change, Agriculture & Energy ♦ The Economics of Working Lands Conservation ♦ Crop Insurance: A Torn Safety Net ♦ Healthcare ♦ A Vision for Rural Minnesota ♦ Call to Save CSP ♦ Bringing Soil Health to Congress ♦ Racial Justice Cohort ♦ Farm Dreams ♦ Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship ♦ Making Connections in Mexico ♦ CSA Farm Directory ♦ Ten Plants that Changed Minnesota

Upcoming Events

February 2023

Monday February 6

8:30 am – 1:30 pm: Crop, Livestock & Soil Innovation Conferences Workshop

Crop, Livestock & Soil Innovation Conferences Workshop

Monday February 6

8:30 am – 1:30 pm

The Land Stewardship Project is a co-sponsor of the 2023 I-90 & Highway 14 Tour CLASIC. Network, learn, and get inspired with area farmers and regional farming innovators as we discuss current trends for improving productivity and profitability in crop and livestock operations utilizing soil-healthy practices. The Crop, Livestock, and Soil Innovation Conferences (CLASIC) is made up of two tours in Minnesota, traveling along Interstate 90 and Highway 14, consisting of several stops.

Click this link for more details and a complete listing of workshops. Each venue’s program is unique and varied — be sure to check them all out and register for multiple events.

The speaker for the Feb. 6 event will be Dean Sponheim, a fourth-generation farmer from Mitchell County, Iowa. He began strip-tilling in 1999, aerial applying cover crops in the fall of 2012, and started a cover crop seed business in 2014 and no-tilling corn and soybeans in 2019.

To register for the Feb. 6 workshop, click here.
3:30 pm – 5:30 pm: Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training Course

Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training Course

Monday February 6

3:30 pm – 5:30 pm

This Northeast Wisconsin Technical College course is for produce growers who want to navigate the best food safety practices for growing vegetable produce. It is for farmers who need to comply with this FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act) requirement:

“At least one supervisor or responsible party for your farm must have successfully completed food and safety training at least equivalent to that received under standardized curriculum recognized as adequate by the Food and Drug Administration.”

Upon completion of the course, you will receive an AFDO/PSA certificate verifying that you fulfilled the requirements of the training. The cost of the certification is covered by Wisconsin Farmers Union.

For more information, click here.

Registration: Enroll in class #22701. Call or text NWTC at 1-888-385-6982 for help enrolling or go to this link: https://www.nwtc.edu/admissions-and-aid/contact-nwtc.

Tuesday February 7

9:00 am – 12:30 pm: Wholesale Readiness Training for Farmers

Wholesale Readiness Training for Farmers

Tuesday February 7

9:00 am – 12:30 pm

MISA, UMN Extension and Renewing the Countryside are offering training and one-to-one technical assistance for farmers who want to grow their operation into wholesale markets. Wholesale isn’t just for large-scale distributors. You can use this training and support team to prepare to sell to schools, restaurants, grocery stores and hospitals in your community. Participating farmers will be eligible for $500 mini-grants to cover expenses related to launching a wholesale enterprise.

For details, click here.
10:00 am – 2:00 pm: Crop, Livestock & Soil Innovation Conferences Workshop

Crop, Livestock & Soil Innovation Conferences Workshop

Tuesday February 7

10:00 am – 2:00 pm

The Land Stewardship Project is a co-sponsor of the 2023 I-90 & Highway 14 Tour CLASIC. Network, learn, and get inspired with area farmers and regional farming innovators as we discuss current trends for improving productivity and profitability in crop and livestock operations utilizing soil-healthy practices. The Crop, Livestock, and Soil Innovation Conferences (CLASIC) is made up of two tours in Minnesota, traveling along Interstate 90 and Highway 14, consisting of several stops.

Click this link for more details and a complete listing of workshops. Each venue’s program is unique and varied — be sure to check them all out and register for multiple events.

The speakers for the Feb. 7 workshop are Dean Sponheim and Andy Linder. Sponheim is a 4th generation farmer from Mitchell County Iowa. He began strip-tilling in 1999, aerial applying cover crops in the fall of 2012, and started a cover crop seed business in 2014 and no-tilling corn and soybeans in 2019.

Linder farms with his dad near Easton, Minn. Their soil health journey unintentionally started in 2010 when they purchased a vertical tillage machine. In fall 2016 they put cover crops on every acre.They now no-till most of their corn aces and do some strip-till trials.

For more information and to register, click here.

Wednesday February 8

9:00 am – 2:30 pm: Crop, Livestock & Soil Health Conferences Workshop

Crop, Livestock & Soil Health Conferences Workshop

Wednesday February 8

9:00 am – 2:30 pm

The Land Stewardship Project is a co-sponsor of the 2023 I-90 & Highway 14 Tour CLASIC. Network, learn, and get inspired with area farmers and regional farming innovators as we discuss current trends for improving productivity and profitability in crop and livestock operations utilizing soil-healthy practices. The Crop, Livestock, and Soil Innovation Conferences (CLASIC) is made up of two tours in Minnesota, traveling along Interstate 90 and Highway 14, consisting of several stops.

Click this link for more details and a complete listing of workshops. Each venue’s program is unique and varied — be sure to check them all out and register for multiple events.

The speakers for the Feb. 8 workshop are Dean Sponheim, Martin Larsen, and Andy Linder.

Sponheim is a fourth-generation farmer from Mitchell County, Iowa. He began strip-tilling in 1999 and began no-tilling his corn and soybean acres in 2019. Sponheim started aerial applying cover crops in 2012 and in 2014 started a cover crop seed business.

Martin Larsen farms 700 acres near Byron, Minn., producing corn, soybeans, cover crops and food-grade oats in a full no-till system. As an Olmsted County Soil and Water Conservation District staffer, he gives technical assistance to farmers and manages soil health test plots.

Andy Linder farms with his dad, Don, near Easton, Minn. Together, they raise corn, soybeans, oats, canning crops, and grass hay. Their journey to soil health unintentionally started in 2010 when they purchased a vertical tillage machine. In the fall of 2016, a cover crop was put on every acre and they continue using cover crops. He has transitioned to most corn being no-till.

For more information and to register for the Feb. 8 workshop, click here.

View Full Calendar