Fostering an ethic of stewardship for farmland, promoting sustainable agriculture and developing healthy communities.
Welcome to the Land Stewardship Project Action Alerts page. The Land Stewardship Project periodically sends out Action Alerts that describe how citizens can make their voices heard on critical issues related to family farming, the environment and our rural communities.
A handful of Minnesota state Senators on the Agriculture Conference Committee are pushing to not fund a critically important program called Market Bucks (formally known as the Healthy Eating Here at Home Program) that allows people to use SNAP/EBT at farmers' markets to buy affordable, healthy, local foods while supporting our local farmers.
It should be a no-brainer to fund this...
Weeks after the regular 2021 Minnesota state legislative session ended, committees agreed to meet behind closed doors as ad hoc "working groups" to finalize their budget bills by Friday, May 28. But that didn't happen. While some working groups, like the Agriculture & Rural Development Working Group, are close to a deal, others are far away.
This means that, to avoid a state...
As you read this message, Congress is hashing out a once-in-a-generation climate and infrastructure package. Negotiations are underway which will determine how much funding will go toward agriculture — and toward building the resilient and equitable farm and food system we know we need.
This is our chance to increase jobs and farming opportunities that improve rural economies,...
Today, on the last day of the regular 2021 Minnesota legislative session, top lawmakers have finally come to a general budget deal. Since the House and Senate had wildly different proposals this year, as we detailed in a recent blog, it has taken more negotiating than ever to finalize a deal. This means a special...
Land Stewardship Project members have developed and organized to win a landmark, one-of-a-kind soil-based solution for agriculture and the climate that will have big impacts in Minnesota and set the bar nationwide. Key parts of our farmer-built proposal are included in Minnesota House budget bills, but not...
During this session of the Minnesota Legislature, thousands of Land Stewardship Project members from across the state are fighting for a budget and policies that reflect our vision and values. This includes: making sure our state is stewarding a mosaic of prosperous small and mid-sized farms across the countryside; creating vibrant local economies free of corporate exploitation; stewarding...
Where and how our public money is allocated by the Minnesota Legislature reflects the values that our lawmakers are acting on and determines how impactful the policies and programs that we enact can be. Right now, we have an opportunity to increase the funding and impact of Minnesota's Farm to School program, but we need your help.
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On Monday, April 19, the full Minnesota State Senate will be debating, amending, and voting on this year's Environment and Natural Resources omnibus budget bill (Senate File 959). This bill contains several troubling policy provisions that would prioritize factory farms and other polluting industries above what's right for people and the land. This is a critical time for your State Senator to...
Thank you for taking action and being engaged with the Land Stewardship Project this legislative session! Many of you have been key to powering our 100% Soil Healthy Farming campaign at the Legislature and making sure farmers are provided with the resources they need to implement soil-healthy practices. But we have not crossed the finish line, yet!
Negotiations between Minnesota House...
This is a key moment to win federal investment in climate-smart agriculture.
Do you want to ensure that climate policy benefits small to mid-scale farmers and ranchers? Do you want healthier rural communities and a more just and sustainable farm and food system? If so, we need your input now.
President Joe Biden recently issued the "Executive Order on Tackling the Climate...
This legislative session, our elected leaders are crafting Minnesota's state budget for the next two years. We have choices to make as a state: will we stick with the status quo — even go backwards by allowing cuts to essential priorities — or, will we instead make bold investments in the common good and shared prosperity? By requiring the wealthiest households and profitable...
Exciting news! The Land Stewardship Project's comprehensive soil health bill was introduced in the Minnesota House last week by Rep....
On the campaign trail, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris communicated clear priorities to address the needs of agriculture and rural communities, including: strengthening regional food systems and anti-trust enforcement, expanding conservation programs with a focus on soil health and carbon sequestration, increasing microloans for beginning farmers, and advancing racial...
Farmers are on the front lines of the climate crisis — battling extreme weather and changing seasons while also building soil health to sequester carbon and manage water. In developing the Land Stewardship Project's Soil Health and Climate Campaign, our members were clear: now is the time for landscape-scale transformation.
...
The government of Minnesota belongs to the people of Minnesota — not outside corporate interests who want to write special laws for themselves at the expense of our communities and democracy.
During the last three legislative sessions, the Land Stewardship Project and our allies in the Protect MN Voices Coalition successfully stopped efforts by outside corporate interests to...
The Land Stewardship Project is dedicated to fighting for a farm and food system rooted in environmental sustainability, democracy, and economic justice for rural communities. Part of our fight for economic justice in farming has been giving farms and farm families the time they need to financially recover from the effects of a farm economy that favors large operations, and the compounding...
Nurturing the water, soil, and air that life depends on means we must move away from the extractive economic practices that define our current corporate-controlled economy. In 2019, Land Stewardship Project members came together to craft a bold "Vision For the Future," in which we collectively committed to shift farming practices so they restore life and carbon to our soil and work to decrease...
At its hearing on Sept. 9, members of the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board (EQB) made it clear that they are hearing an outpouring of concerns from southeastern Minnesotans about the frac sand industry's attempt to pave a path for frac sand mining across the region (see previous LSP action alert),...
Urgent action is needed to protect southeastern Minnesota from the harmful impacts of the major frac sand mining, processing, and transportation operation proposed by the company Minnesota Sands, LLC.
In March 2013, thanks to organizing and pressure from the people of southeastern Minnesota, the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board (EQB) enforced the requirement of an Environmental...
Part of the Land Stewardship Project’s mission is to develop healthy communities for everyone, no exceptions. Racist violence is a clear violation of our strongly held belief that every person has value that cannot be earned or taken away. At the core of LSP’s work is our drive to create a society based on sustainability. Racism, along with the violence it spawns, is not...
The Problem:
After years of poor returns, farm prices have...
Thanks to the hard work of the Land Stewardship Project's members and supporters who have lobbied their legislators by phone and sent e-mails from across the state, the Minnesota Legislature has taken an important first step to protect small to medium-size farms. Farm foreclosures and mediation deadlines are on pause for 60 days. However, 60 days is not...
As people across Minnesota and around the world face a global health pandemic, the reality of the farm crisis grows starker and more urgent. Small- to mid-sized farmers who strengthen our rural economies and act as stewards of the land and water face greater uncertainty in the production and distribution of the food we depend on.
Now, more than ever, we recognize our interdependence...
Today, more than ever, we need to fight back against the farm crisis and support healthy rural communities, people, farmers, and families. Our fight back is rolling forward by getting our demanded solutions heard in the Minnesota Legislature. But right now with the outbreak of COVID-19, we're entering uncharted territory and we need your help to move forward safely and powerfully.
This...
The government of Minnesota belongs to the people of Minnesota — not to outside corporate interests who write special laws for themselves that threaten our democracy.
Land Stewardship Project members know why free speech is so important. Since the 1980s, members across the state have been leveraging our collective power to fight against farm foreclosures, consolidation, co-opted...