Beginning farmer Zach Knutson talks to Alex Romano about how rotational grazing allows him to manage land, time, and finances more efficiently.
LSP's Ear to the Ground is an audio podcast produced by the Land Stewardship Project. It features interviews and presentations related to sustainable agriculture, rural development, local food and farming systems, agricultural policy and social justice.
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Ear to the Ground No. 246: Letting Livestock do the Work
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Ear to the Ground No. 245: Sustainable vs. Regenerative
Should we call it "sustainable" or "regenerative" ag? Dana Jackson makes it clear this is not a new debate and it all centers around soil, communities, and people.
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Ear to the Ground No. 244: Cultural Competency & Local Food
Researcher Emily Reno started out doing a simple market analysis for a Latino produce cooperative, but ended up gaining new insights into the barriers and opportunities involved when any farmer seeks to sell local food on a wholesale basis.
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Ear to the Ground No. 243: Debunking the Land Ownership Myth
How the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust is connecting stewardship-minded landowners with the next generation of regenerative farmers.
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Ear to the Ground No. 242: A Geography of Hope
Conservation pioneer Paul Johnson talks about forging a social compact between farmers and society...and the day he made a farmer cry.
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Ear to the Ground No. 241: A Farm Transition Power Team
A desire to continue a legacy (and a love of weed-pulling) eases Foxtail Farm into the hands of the next generation.
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Ear to the Ground No. 240: The Farmer-Chef Connection
What happens when you bring a group of food service folks out to see how vegetables are actually grown?
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Ear to the Ground No. 239: From Entomology to Economics
Blue Dasher Farm's Jonathan Lundgren talks about bugs, biodiversity and, of course, cow pies.
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Ear to the Ground No. 238: Big Box Ag & Musical Chairs
An ag economist talks about the negative impacts the "get big or get out" attitude has had on farming and rural communities.
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Ear to the Ground No. 237: At the Intersection of Queerness & Farming
LSP staffer Elizabeth Makarewicz talks to participants in the 2019 Queer Farmer Convergence at Humble Hands Harvest in Iowa about connecting queerness, farming, and community.
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Ear to the Ground 236: Nature as Profit Partner
How farmers Dawn and Grant Breitkreutz are building soil carbon and bolstering financial resiliency.
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Ear to the Ground 235: Lights in the Darkness
Farm advocates provide tips on dealing with the ag crisis, and how we can fight for a brighter future.
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Ear to the Ground 234: Thinking Like a Prairie
How the Tallgrass Prairie Center in Iowa is introducing a little wildness into a domesticated landscape.
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Ear to the Ground 233: Public Science-Public Good
How one land grant experiment station is helping farmers integrate livestock and crops in a way that creates resilient soils...and a resilient food system.
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Ear to the Ground 232: A Difficult Discussion
Excessive erosion on her farm prompted Jeannie Hill to have a hard conversation with her renter. But first, she did some homework.
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Ear to the Ground 231: Caves Don't Lie
Farmer and caver Martin Larsen describes the connections between land use on the surface and water quality problems he sees underground.
For more on ways to build soil health profitably, see LSP's Soil Builders web page.
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Ear to the Ground 230: Renting It Out Right
Robin Moore talks about how LSP is using soil health to forge stewardship partnerships between non-operating landowners and the farmers who rent from them.
For more resources on how to develop farmland leases that reflect your stewardship values, click here.
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Ear to the Ground 229: Kernza's Continuous Cover
A farmer and a researcher discuss the potential agronomic, economic, and ecological benefits of a commercially-viable perennial grain.
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Ear to the Ground 228: Spreading Grazing's Benefits Beyond the Fenceline
During a tallgrass prairie "BioBlitz," farmers, a wildlife expert, and an LSP organizer discuss how livestock can benefit natural habitat and the community at large.
For more on the BioBlitz events that are held periodically in western Minnesota, click here.
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Ear to the Ground 227: From Crisis to Community
When a CAFO threatened a rural neighborhood, residents looked to a beginning farmer for a different vision of the future.
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Ear to the Ground 226: What Does Justice Look Like?
This is the third and final episode in a 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 land justice and equity in Minnesota's food system. In this episode, writer and scholar Waziyatawin shares with Elizabeth her vision of land justice for the Dakota people.
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Ear to the Ground 225: Say it With Me: Bde Maka Ska
This is the second 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 land justice and equity in Minnesota's food system. This episode offers a peek into the life of Dakota tribal member and activist, Carly Badheart Bull. Carly is a scholar of the Dakota language and, along with her twin sister, Kate Beane, has led a campaign to return the original Dakota name to an historically significant body of water, Bde Maka Ska.
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Ear to the Ground 224: Living on Stolen Ground
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.
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Ear to the Ground 223: Sustainable Ag Policy's Deep Roots
LSP co-founder Ron Kroese talks about the National Sustainable Agriculture Oral History Archive, which features interviews he did with pioneers in the movement to develop policy that supports regenerative farm and food systems.
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Ear to the Ground 222: Painting a New Picture for Landlords