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

June 2023

Saturday June 3

1:15 pm – 2:15 pm

Land Access & Leasing Options

Saturday June 3

1:15 pm – 2:15 pm

Land Access & Leasing Options

On Saturday, June 3, Wisconsin Farmers Unions will be holding a farm visit at Baldur Farm (N7659 950^th St., River Falls,WI 54022) for landowners and renters looking to lease to the next generation of farmers.

Joyce Monari, a native of Kenya, has been growing two types of chinsaga, a type of green familiar to her people, for several years on Baldur Farm. She will show participants her garden, talk about her crops, and discuss the difficulty of finding land.

Juliet Tomkins and Prescott Bergh have rented land to a variety of farmers over the years, from beginning CSA growers to livestock operators. They will talk about their experiences, which have led to the contract they now use to ensure understanding between themselves and their renters before problems arise.

Light snacks and refreshments provided after the talks. Maureen and Rich, the farmers at Baldur Farm, will be on-hand to answer questions about their draft horses. Attendees are welcome to walk the farm trails.

For more information, contact the Farmers Union’s Maureen Ash at maureen7ash@gmail.com.

3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Screening of Stewards of the Land / Serán las dueñas de la tierra in Northfield

Saturday June 3

3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Screening of Stewards of the Land / Serán las dueñas de la tierra in Northfield

Stewards of the Land/Serán las dueñas de la tierrais a feature documentary about Stephanie, Ian, and Alfredo, three young landless ecological farmers in Puerto Rico striving to produce healthy food for local consumption.

In this economically depressed U.S. territory, producing food locally is urgent. The archipelago sits on the path of powerful hurricanes, an increasing threat as the climate crisis worsens. Puerto Rico is highly dependent on food imports and a third of its population lives food insecurity.

The story begins when the protagonists arrive for the first time on the public lands they rent. The farms have been abandoned for decades and lack the most basic infrastructure to get started. The story follows the protagonists as they struggle to get the farms running before and after powerful hurricanes devastate the archipelago. The documentary shows the protagonists’ grit as they attempt to carve a living without land ownership or capital.

There are two opportunities to participate:

Clickhereto RSVP to the Northfield event on Saturday, June 3.
Clickhereto RSVP to the Minneapolis event on Sunday, June 4; co-hosted with partner organization, Copal.Haz clic aquí para español.

Sunday June 4

3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Screening of Stewards of the Land / Serán las dueñas de la tierra in Minneapolis

Sunday June 4

3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Screening of Stewards of the Land / Serán las dueñas de la tierra in Minneapolis

There are two opportunities to participate:

Clickhereto RSVP to the Northfield event on Saturday, June 3.
Clickhereto RSVP to the Minneapolis event on Sunday, June 4; co-hosted with partner organization, Copal.Haz clic aquí para español.

Tuesday June 6

11:00 am – 12:00 pm: Forever Green Winter Barley Webinar
Tuesday June 6
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Forever Green Winter Barley Webinar
The Environmental & Economic Clusters of Opportunity (EECO) grant provides an ecosystem services payment as well as risk management payments to growers enrolled in the program for winter barley, hybrid winter rye, winter camelina, and Kernza. Join us for an introductory webinar series on these four crops where we pair University researchers and Extension professionals with farmers who have trialed these crops on-farm. The webinar on June 6 will be on winter barley and will feature Jochum Wiersma (UMN Extension small grains agronomist) and Kurt Kimber (farmer, Hampton, Minn.).

To sign-up for the June 6 webinar on winter barley, click here. These presentations will be recorded for future viewing if you’re not able to make it.

Wednesday June 7

11:00 am – 12:00 pm: Forever Green Webinar on Winter Camelina
Wednesday June 7
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Forever Green Webinar on Winter Camelina
The Environmental & Economic Clusters of Opportunity (EECO) grant provides an ecosystem services payment as well as risk management payments to growers enrolled in the program for winter barley, hybrid winter rye, winter camelina, and Kernza. Join us for an introductory webinar series on these four crops where we pair University researchers and Extension professionals with farmers who have trialed these crops on-farm. On June 7, there will be a webinar on winter camelina. Presenters include Matthew Ott (UMN post doc researcher, camelina genetics) and Anne Schwagerl (farmer, Browns Valley, Minn.).

To sign-up for the June 7 webinar on winter camelina, click here. These presentations will be recorded for future viewing if you’re not able to make it.

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