Note: This is the 3rd installment in the 12-part “A Sense of Where You Are” series. History is a critical piece of context. All too often, farming practices are carried out without taking into consideration past practices and their subsequent impact. Regenerative farmers often say they are “listening to the land” when making management decisions.… Read More →
In early May, I represented the Land Stewardship Project at “Sequestering Carbon in the Soil: Addressing the Climate Threat,” an international conference held in Paris and organized by Breakthrough Strategies and Solutions. The conference convened 200 scientists, governmental leaders and representatives of nongovernmental organizations from around the world. Attendees included farmers from the Global South… Read More →
Sept. 28: An LSP Round-up of News Covering Land, People & Communities MNDOT abruptly ends 25-year program with organic farmers (9/25/20) Noah Fish reports in the Grand Forks Herald on how organic farmers and the Land Stewardship Project are upset with the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s decision to abruptly end a 25-year agreement that kept… Read More →
Innovative Farming Requires an Innovative Approach to Soil Health It’s a bright June day in southeastern Minnesota, and the hilly landscape is in full summer bloom. But as Chuck Henry watches his dairy herd graze a mix of winter wheat and Sudan grass, he has numbers on his mind: 33,000 bites per day, per cow;… Read More →
Cover crops proved themselves foul weather friends during the Great Drought of 2012. A groundbreaking farmer survey conducted in the Upper Mississippi River watershed showed that during that year’s brutal growing season keeping the soil covered with small grains and other plants helped fields preserve enough precious moisture to provide a yield bump of, in… Read More →
On July 1, the United States Supreme Court delivered a win for local control and a blow to Big Ag when it declined to hear the Iowa Pork Producers Association’s case against a California law that mandates the amount of space livestock animals, in particular hogs, have while being raised. The Iowa Capitol Dispatch explains… Read More →
When it comes to introducing and supporting innovative sustainable farming practices, nothing beats a field day. Such events provide an opportunity for farmers to see firsthand how profitable, environmentally sound production practices are performing on their neighbor’s land under climatic, agronomic and economic conditions they can relate to. Studies have shown that while sustainable farming… Read More →
On an afternoon in late June, west-central Minnesota farmers Anne and Peter Schwagerl walk out of the bright sun into the deep shade of an old granary that has six separate storage areas for various kinds of harvested crops—a throwback to an era when most Midwestern farms produced more than corn and soybeans. On many… Read More →
When Nathan Vergin applied to work as an apprentice on Polyface Farm in Virginia back in the mid-2000s, he had to undergo a three-day “working interview.” Vergin, who grew up helping out on a sheep dairy near Northfield, Minn., passed the trial by fire, and went on to serve a two-year apprenticeship with the farm’s… Read More →
When it comes to making the ag landscape healthier, how much is enough? One day in 2007, a farmer walked into Paul Wymar’s office in Montevideo, Minn., not far from where the Chippewa River drains into the Minnesota River. He had a question for Wymar, who at the time was a scientist for the Chippewa… Read More →
