Amy Haben and Tom Moore ride a golf cart over a rickety wooden bridge spanning Otter Creek and follow a path to a lush pasture where a couple dozen head of Scottish Highland cattle graze, their shaggy coats luminescent in the late afternoon sun of a June day. “Before they grazed the edge of the… Read More →
As farmers from across the region haul corn past Allen and Kathleen Deutz’s farm to the local ethanol plant, they can’t help but notice fences, livestock, and a diversity of plants. What’s not as immediately evident is how this counter- intuitive way of farming is building long-term soil health and resilience. More Information • LSP’s Soil Health Web Page… Read More →
Axdahl’s Garden Farm and Greenhouse, a family owned and operated farm, is situated along the St. Croix River in Stillwater, Minn. Our farm market is located at 7452 Manning Avenue North in Stillwater. We practice sustainable farming, are long-time members of the Land Stewardship Project, highly involved with the NRCS’s Conservation Stewardship Program, and our… Read More →
Two years ago, the Land Stewardship Project released the Cropping Systems Calculator (CSC), a “what-if” tool to examine the costs and returns of two crop rotations. This tool includes scenarios that involve row crops and grazing, and provides important information for farmers as they consider integrating soil building practices into their rotations. The original Calculator… Read More →
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) today applauded the U.S. House of Representatives for defeating the 2018 Farm Bill (H.R. 2) by a 212-198 vote. LSP members have been clear from the beginning that we need a Farm Bill that supports family farmers, the land and communities. This proposal failed on all counts.… Read More →
I am not seeing any solid program that addresses access to land for new farmers. I do see networking and apprentice efforts (such as the one we have at our Earth Wisdom Farm) but I am not seen a comprehensive program that actually provides a viable path to ownership, or resident stewardship. With so much… Read More →
This spring, a marketing firm hired by WEC Energy Group stopped by our farm a number of times. They wanted us to sign an agreement allowing an Environmental Impact Statement to be done so that a natural gas pipeline could be laid through our front field. We worried that all the work that we had… Read More →
Below is a picture from the close of a thought-provoking, challenging and energizing two-day meeting the Land Stewardship Project hosted this week at our Minneapolis office. Leaders and staff from state-based rural membership organizations representing 10 Midwest and Western states came together in Minnesota and shared our experiences and our analyses related to organizing for… Read More →
While walking through a knee-high prairie planted on a central Iowa hillside Tuesday, I happened to look down. Trapped amongst all that vegetation was an impressive amount of rich, black glacial soil, the kind that produces record crop yields. And just a few feet away was the source of that soil: a soybean field planted… Read More →
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Spring is just around the corner, which means it’s time to sign-up for a 2022 share in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm. The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) has recently published the 2022 edition of its CSA directory for farms that service the Twin Cities, outstate Minnesota and western Wisconsin region. It’s available at https://landstewardshipproject.org/csa-farm-directory.… Read More →
