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Tell Your Representatives: We Want a Farm Bill for All, Not a Tax Break for the Wealthiest

The Current Budget Reconciliation Bill is Bad for Farmers, the Land & Communities

July 2, 2025

The Land Stewardship Project and our allies have been loud and clear for years: we need strong agricultural legislation that invests in programs that nourish people, protect our environment, and build strong economies. All farmers deserve support so they can thrive, and all community members deserve access to nutritious food. The House of Representatives will soon vote…  Read More →

U.S. Supreme Court’s Decline of Iowa Case Bolsters Local Control

SCOTUS Action a Good Indicator That These Kinds of Laws Work

By Matthew Sheets
July 2, 2025

On July 1, the United States Supreme Court delivered a win for local control and a blow to Big Ag when it declined to hear the Iowa Pork Producers Association’s case against a California law that mandates the amount of space livestock animals, in particular hogs, have while being raised. The Iowa Capitol Dispatch explains…  Read More →

The Other 80%

From Disney World to the Real World

By Brian DeVore
June 30, 2025

2025-2026 Farm Beginnings Class LSP is now accepting applications for its 2025-2026 Farm Beginnings class session. For details, click here. Before jumping into agriculture, Kevin Keene worked as a data science consultant for 11 years. So it makes sense that he describes farming success in terms of a mathematical calculation. “The way I think about…  Read More →

Risk to Resilience

Farming has always required adaptability, and today’s changing weather patterns are creating new challenges and opportunities. The Land Stewardship Project, in collaboration with University of Minnesota Extension, has created a resilience-focused program that gives commodity and small grain growers the opportunity to join a cohort with other like-minded farmers and learn how to prepare their…  Read More →

Sarah Wescott

Sarah Wescott was raised on a commercial apple orchard outside of Elgin and Plainview, in southeastern Minnesota. From a young age, she gained an appreciation for rural community and agriculture. This guided her studies at Macalester College where she earned a degree in environmental studies, a food systems emphasis, a minor in Latin American studies,…  Read More →

The Devil’s in the Details

Regenerative Ag Can Help Bring Our Dysfunctional Relationship with Phosphorus Back into Balance

By Brian DeVore
February 26, 2025

In the early 2000s, I wrote a series of Land Stewardship Letter articles about a generic environmental impact statement study that was done on Minnesota’s livestock industry. The final report had an interesting finding related to phosphorus, a key source of crop fertility: small livestock farms had a medium phosphorus shortage of 17 pounds per…  Read More →

A Sense of Where You Are

11 Examples of Viewing Farms in Context (Part 1 in a Series)

By Brian DeVore
January 21, 2025

Note: This is the 1st installment in the 12-part “A Sense of Where You Are” series.  On a sunny day in June, hundreds of ewes make their way through a narrow grazing paddock, flowing along the contours of a Driftless Area hill in southeastern Minnesota like a woolly river. Later in the growing season, a…  Read More →

A Sense of Where You Are: Forest for the Trees

Part 5 in a Series

By Brian DeVore
January 17, 2025

Note: This is the 5th installment in the 12-part “A Sense of Where You Are” series.  Grazing livestock have been described as “combines that poop.” That’s an accurate, if somewhat graphic, depiction of how moving cattle and other animals through well-managed paddocks can rebuild soil that’s been decimated by tillage, chemical use, and compaction. Langdon…  Read More →

A Sense of Where You Are: The Quickening

Part 6 in a Series

By Brian DeVore
January 16, 2025

Note: This is the 6th installment in the 12-part “A Sense of Where You Are” series.  When your context is farming in the city, everything is a little faster, denser, and louder. “We grow everything very intensively,” said Elyssa Eull on a warm evening in early September while she stood near the entrance to California…  Read More →

Youth Movement

From Tilling an Old Soccer Field to Helping Teens Kick-off Better Communities

By Brian DeVore
January 2, 2025

When it comes to youth programs centered around gardening and farming, a common mantra is, “We’re teaching kids about where their food comes from.” Sounds laudable, but to Marcos Giossi, such a feel-good goal is too limiting when it comes to exposing young people to the realities of the farm and food system that dominates.…  Read More →