SAINT PAUL, Minn. — Although the Minnesota Legislature wrapped up its 2025 session on May 19 with some unfinished business, the Agriculture Bill passed before adjournment, which means Land Stewardship Project (LSP) priorities related to market access, land access and soil health will make it to Gov. Tim Walz’s desk. “While this was a difficult… Read More →
Our farm and food system is more resilient and just with more farmers stewarding the land, growing food for their communities, but so many people who want to farm are facing significant barriers to getting established and sustaining their businesses. The Increasing Land Access, Security, and Opportunities (LASO) Act, championed by Sen. Tina Smith would… Read More →
Feb. 21: An LSP Round-up of News Covering Land, People & Communities A Different Kind of Land Management: Let the Cows Stomp (2/17/21) The New York Times writes about how Texas cattle producer Adam Isaacs is using regenerative grazing to reclaim worn-out, weedy pastureland on some 5,000 acres. Highlights: Regenerative grazing means closely managing where… Read More →
Oct. 5: An LSP Round-up of News Covering Land, People & Communities U.S. farm landscapes could be reshaped by changing climate – research (10/5/20) Climate change could render swathes of agricultural land largely useless for farming in the U.S. South, and force Midwestern farmers to move corn and soybeans elsewhere as crop yields decline, reports… Read More →
LSP Urges Farmers to Apply to this Working Lands Conservation Program Before the March 2 Deadline American farmers and ranchers have until March 2 to submit an initial fiscal year 2018 application for the nation’s largest working lands program—the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). This program is administered by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).… 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 →
I sat in a farmhouse one afternoon last month as a hot wind lifted rich topsoil from surrounding fields. On the drive in, I’d noticed a surprising amount of rill erosion on newly tilled cropland—surprising because recent rains had not been all that intense and the fields were not unusually steep. Out of the blue… Read More →
At a time when we’re all scanning the dark horizon of recession land for any economic spark, local food systems look to be a flare-up that’s got some staying power. The past several weeks have been full of signs that both in Minnesota and nationally producing and consuming food in our own collective backyard isn’t… Read More →
Land Stewardship Project members Aimee Haag and Laura Cullip testify Wednesday, Feb. 12, during an informational state Senate hearing on Free School Meals in Minnesota and how Farm to School is bolstered through this critical program. For more on LSP’s Farm to School and community-based food systems work, click here. You can listen to an… Read More →
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 →
