APPLETON, Minn. — The Coalition of Concerned Residents of Western Minnesota held a meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 13, to lift up and grow the opposition to CoreCivic’s plan to open the prison in Appleton, as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center. Many Land Stewardship Project (LSP) members are deeply involved in this grassroots… Read More →
Dates for LSP’s Farm Dreams & Farm Beginnings Set MENOMONIE, Wis. — In coming weeks, beginning farmers have two exciting Land Stewardship Project (LSP) educational opportunities available to them in Menomonie. A four-hour “Farm Dreams” workshop will be held Sunday, August 25, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., at the Menomonie Market Food Co-op (814… Read More →
This is the first in a three-part series titled “Farming on Stolen Land.” These three episodes were developed by LSP staff member Elizabeth Makarewicz as a guide to exploring issues of native justice and equity in Minnesota’s food system. This first episode seeks to answer the question, “What does it mean to be a non-indigenous person living on native land?” Elizabeth’s interviewee, Nora Murphy, attempts to answer this question in her book, White Birch, Red Hawthorn.
On a warm day in early October, the owner-operators of Clover Bee Farm are preparing a delivery for the 43 shareholders that make up their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) vegetable operation. Standing in a hoop house, Andrew Hanson-Pierre cleans dozens of fat onions, while across the farmyard in a barn that’s been converted to a… Read More →
From the beginning of the 2018 Minnesota Legislative session, it was clear that corporate interests and their legislative allies were pushing for special treatment at the expense of rural communities, family farmers and Minnesota values. As an example, six days into the session, Dr. Marin Bozic, a dairy economist at the University of Minnesota, testified… Read More →
UPDATE: The House Farm Bill was voted down 212-198 on Friday, May 18; click here for details. Today (Friday May 18th), the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on the 2018 Farm Bill, H.R. 2. This is a disastrous bill and your Representative needs to hear your opposition. Click here for instructions on… Read More →
Minnesota Part of 10-State Rural & Small Town Organizing Strategy WASHINGTON, D.C.—Racial justice is an essential element in developing a food and farming system that supports healthy and prosperous rural communities, said central Minnesota farmer Laura Frerichs today during a national rural progressive strategy summit at the National Press Club in Washington. Frerichs, a member… Read More →
The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is under threat. This is an attack on our soil, our water and our work to build a healthier food and farming system for all. In their first draft of the 2018 Farm Bill, House Agriculture Committee leaders are talking about dramatic cuts to the program—or even eliminating it altogether.… Read More →
We have learned that quality produce on our eight-acre vegetable farm starts with the soil—soil that teems with life at both the macro- and micro-level. First, some background: I had grown up on a conventional hay, corn and soybean farm in western Iowa and moved to Rochester, Minn., for work after getting a mechanical engineering… Read More →
Good things go bad when out of their rightful places. Take farm fertilizer and soil, essential ingredients in the field but all wrong in the 27 percent of Minnesota lakes now too contaminated to drink. Last month’s report from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) blasted corn-and-soybean agriculture as the major source of nitrogen contamination… Read More →
