The Land Stewardship Project’s annual Family Farm Breakfast and Lobby Day serves as a prime opportunity for our members to get together with lawmakers and discuss the issues they most care about. As the lead organizer focusing on issues related to land access, it’s my job during the day to facilitate meetings between beginning farmers… Read More →
LEWISTON, Minn. — On Jan. 4, five “agricultural groups” filed an amici curiae (friend of the court) motion with the Minnesota Court of Appeals in support of Daley Farm’s request that a recent District Court ruling be overturned, thus allowing the Lewiston dairy operation to circumvent Winona County’s zoning rules related to livestock operation size.… Read More →
In my experience, few learning experiences are more motivating to me than the ones that help us see the connections around us, empowering us to make more of a difference than we thought possible. I see this a lot in my work with non-operating farmland owners via their enthusiasm to learn about soil health, farming… Read More →
One day in 2014, a man stopped by Bill and Bonnie McMillin’s farm tucked away in the hills of southeastern Minnesota’s Wabasha County and offered to pay cash for all 160 acres, lock, stock and barrel. Such an offer can be tempting. After all, Bill and Bonnie had worked hard over the previous few decades… Read More →
When a business closes in a rural community, the following 24 months or so are key. Whether it be a farm, small town grocery or repair shop, if the real estate it occupied is still lacking a day-to-day human presence a year or two down the road, it sends a troubling message about the future… Read More →
While sitting in a western Wisconsin high school auditorium listening to farmers and other rural residents discussing urban sprawl the other evening, I was struck by an epiphany of sorts: the argument for saving farmland near our cities and suburbs has evolved beyond the “let’s save our pretty viewscapes” phase. Protecting prime farmland from the… Read More →
Sign Up for E-mail Delivery of The Land Line Nearly One-Fifth of Americans Are Consuming Water With High Levels of Nitrates (4/27/26) Close to 20% of Americans are exposed to water polluted with high levels of potentially cancer-causing nitrates, known to come mostly from agricultural runoff, according to a study reported on in Inside Climate… Read More →
2026-2027 Farm Beginnings Class LSP is now accepting applications for its 2026-2027 Farm Beginnings class session. For details, click here. ♦ ♦ ♦ By the time Elyssa Eull moved back to Minnesota a few years ago, she already had several years of experience working on vegetable farms. But she felt that in order to successfully… Read More →
The $1.7 Trillion Landlord: New USDA Data Reveals the Shifting Face of Ownership (3/12/26) Farm Journal reports on new USDA showing a 47% surge in rented farmland value over the past decade, even as the footprint of available acreage shrinks. With $1.7 trillion in assets now held by a shifting demographic of landlords, the landscape… Read More →
Iowa Farm & Rural Life Poll: 2025 Summary (November) The majority of farmers responding to the latest Iowa Farm & Rural Life Poll feel that a reliance on specialized commodity agriculture is bad for them and their communities. Highlights: Sixty-nine percent agreed with the statement “Increased specialization in commodities (corn, soybeans, hogs, etc.) has led… Read More →
