Search Results

Searched for: MFU Support of Fair Repair February 2023

Beginning Farmer Program for MN, WI & IA Accepting Applications for 2022-2023 Course

Farm Beginnings Marks a Quarter Century of Training Ag’s Next Generation

June 10, 2022

LEWISTON, Minn. — One of the most successful beginning farmer training programs in the country is now accepting applications for its 2022-2023 course session serving the Minnesota, western Wisconsin and northern Iowa region. The Land Stewardship Project’s (LSP) Farm Beginnings initiative is a year-long training program that focuses on the goal-setting, marketing and financial skills needed to…  Read More →

Bite-by-Bite: Building Community Food Assets

By Brian DeVore
September 16, 2024

Mapping a rural region’s “community food assets” reveals isolated islands of opportunity in a sea of corn and soybeans. LSP’s Scott DeMuth says now is the time to connect the dots and create a new relationship between farmers, eaters, and the places they live in. “You know, when I talk about rural economic development, from…  Read More →

How Farmworker Wage Theft Bankrupts Our Rural Communities

By Brian DeVore
May 3, 2013

A few years ago LSP organizer Doug Nopar was told of a southeast Minnesota farm operation that was withholding wages from a worker after he had accidentally damaged a door with a skid steer loader. Nopar called the farm owner and let him know this action was quite illegal. The farmer’s response? “You know, I…  Read More →

Letter: When it Comes to Addressing Nitrates, State Needs an Effective Public Engagement Campaign

LSP & Allies Call for Several Action Steps on the Part of MDH, MPCA & MDA

December 18, 2023

Note: In April 2023, the Land Stewardship Project joined 10 other groups in filing a petition calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to use its emergency authority under the Safe Drinking Water Act to address the fact that nitrate contamination is causing “an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health” in the karst region of…  Read More →

LSP’s 2021 MN Legislative Priorities

By Amanda Koehler
January 4, 2021

For months, Land Stewardship Project members have been preparing to hit the ground running during the 2021 Minnesota legislative session to advance rural economic justice across the countryside. The 2021 session begins Tuesday, Jan. 5, and we need you with us. When we come together across zip codes, class, gender, and race, united in our…  Read More →

LSP’s 2021 MN Legislative Priorities

By Amanda Koehler
January 4, 2021

For months, Land Stewardship Project members have been preparing to hit the ground running during the 2021 Minnesota legislative session to advance rural economic justice across the countryside. The 2021 session begins Tuesday, Jan. 5, and we need you with us. When we come together across zip codes, class, gender, and race, united in our…  Read More →

A Dairy Farm Rises From the Ashes

By Brian DeVore
January 10, 2015

Not long ago, Rich and Carol Radtke were on a bit of a roll. They had graduated from the Land Stewardship Project’s Farm Beginnings course and felt the program had provided them a solid basis for developing a profitable farming operation on land they and their three children moved to in 2008. Before taking the…  Read More →

BFRDP: Making the Most of Public Support for Beginning Farmer Education

By Megan Buckingham
June 3, 2015

The Land Stewardship Project today released our latest report on grants allocated through the USDA’s Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP). This is the fifth such report we’ve done in collaboration with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC). These analyses are a measure of the success of BFRDP in providing public support for effective…  Read More →

2024 Minnesota Legislative Session Update: Less Than One Month Left! 

By Amanda Koehler & Laura Schreiber 
April 25, 2024

There is less than one month left in the 2024 Minnesota legislative session. This week, the House and Senate are finalizing and passing their separate omnibus policy and supplemental budget bills, which will then be sent to conference committees where differences between the proposals will be hammered out.   This session, the Land Stewardship Project has…  Read More →

Hitting the Conservation Target

By Brian DeVore
February 26, 2016

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 →