Minnesota’s Next Governor Must Take Direct, Concrete Steps The people of Minnesota are beginning to consider what they would like the future of the state to look like in the context of the fall gubernatorial elections. Will they elect Minnesota’s first woman governor? Go “Back to the Future” with a former governor? Select a leader… Read More →
Note: LSP’s next Farm Transition Planning Course will begin meeting Jan. 27, 2026. For details and information on how to enroll, click here. Sometimes a successful farm transition requires a shoulder season — a period when the current owners are still present, still have their hands in the soil, so to speak, but the newbies… Read More →
During yesterday’s otherwise excellent field day at the USDA’s soil conservation lab in Morris, the “S” word reared its ugly head. “S” as in our best farmland needs to be “sacrificed” in the name of food and fuel production, leaving room for only an odd corner here and there to provide a smattering of natural… Read More →
On an overcast day in late June, Arlo Hark drives a semi into a gravel parking lot near the southeastern Minnesota community of Rushford pulling a trailer adorned with an “Eat Lamb: 10,000 Coyotes Can’t be Wrong” bumper sticker. He opens two doors on the side of the trailer and 120 lambs and ewes explode… Read More →
As a Nature Conservancy scientist based in a Midwestern state, Steve Chaplin thinks a lot about the impact agriculture has on ecological treasures such as native tallgrass prairie. “Other than plowing, grazing has probably been responsible for the degradation of more prairie than any other source,” says Chaplin, who is in the Conservancy’s Minnesota field… Read More →
Soil Health Specialists Sound the Alarm on Continuing Soil Erosion (5/9/25) Despite a “Wake-up Call” warning issued a decade ago, wind erosion has continued to significantly damage soil health in North Dakota, according to Agweek. Highlights: Ten years after NDSU soil health expert Dave Franzen issued a report called “Wake-up Call” that highlighted high levels… Read More →
Jan. 15: An LSP Round-up of News Covering Land, People & Communities Bill Gates: America’s Top Farmland Owner (1/15/21) Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates are now the largest private farmland owners in the U.S., according to The Land Report. Highlights: They have accumulated a massive farmland portfolio — 242,000 acres —… Read More →
Pro-frac sand interests suing Winona County in southeastern Minnesota have attempted to block the Land Stewardship Project’s (LSP) participation in the defense of the county’s historic ban on any new frac sand operations. Attorneys with Minneapolis corporate law firms Larkin Hoffman and Faegre Baker Daniels have filed objections to LSP’s intent to intervene in the… Read More →
As Midwestern farm fields take a long winter’s nap, evidence is piling up that even when the temperature’s above freezing, all that soil is basically in a bit of a stupor—so devoid of microbial life that it can’t even produce a decent crop without getting a hit of chemical inputs. The latest proof of this… Read More →
Saturday, Oct. 5, has been billed the National Day of Dignity and Respect as thousands around the country will join together in calling on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform. In Minnesota, members of our state’s faith, business, labor, law enforcement and immigrant communities share the goal of comprehensive immigration reform. As a result, a… Read More →
