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 →

It has become far too common these days to open a newspaper or hear from a neighbor about another small dairy going under, whether it be from a labor shortage, slim margins on low milk prices, or the nonstop work of running a dairy single-handedly. I am a Land Stewardship Project soil health organizer, tasked…  Read More →

At a time when there’s a lot of bad news when it comes to the state of our land, spending a bit of time in the company of optimists can be good for the soul. And there’s no doubt Kristin Ohlson and Courtney White have a positive message to relay in their new books about…  Read More →

It’s that age-old struggle: accepting a little short-term disturbance in the name of long-term stability. Dave Trauba regularly faces the challenge of explaining that tradeoff to hunters who visit the Lac Qui Parle Wildlife Refuge in western Minnesota only to find their favorite spot for shooting pheasants has recently been grazed by cattle from a…  Read More →

As a Nature Conservancy scientist based in a Midwestern state, Steve Chaplin thinks a lot about the impact agriculture has on ecological treasures such as native tallgrass prairie. “Other than plowing, grazing has probably been responsible for the degradation of more prairie than any other source,” says Chaplin, who is in the Conservancy’s Minnesota field…  Read More →