On the Internet, you’re only as old as you feel—at least until the person you’re corresponding with travels from two states away to meet you face-to-face. When Dave and Deb Welsch started communicating via e-mail with Steve and Shelley Lorenz in 2007, a lot of assumptions were made about the age of the parties on… Read More →
When I started working with the Land Stewardship Project on the Chippewa 10% Project, the work felt far away. Based out of Minneapolis, I was working on the Cropping Systems Calculator to help farmers in the Chippewa River watershed region in west-central Minnesota determine what financial differences they would see by switching a marginal corn/soybean… Read More →
Climate change is happening. Farmers who work with higher elevations may be able to deny it. Those of us on more variable and wetter soils cannot. I have been aware of it in our farming for 20 years. The water cycle is impaired. This is the most obvious. Excessive rainfall spreads into a huge number… Read More →
Finding the weakest link in a farming operation is often easier said than done. But sometimes a few energetic pigs accomplish the task quite nicely. “Today, fencing suddenly moved up the list as our weakest link,” quips Paul Freid on a brisk day in early May. He and his wife Sara, along with their 11-year-old… Read More →
Despite Previous Rulings, MN Sands Attempts to Yet Again Circumvent Environmental Law LEWISTON, Minn. — The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) today called on the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board (EQB) to continue to enforce its requirement of a comprehensive environmental review of a proposed frac sand mining project in southeastern Minnesota. Earlier this week, EQB considered… Read More →
The Land Stewardship Project today released our latest report on grants allocated through the USDA’s Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP). This is the fifth such report we’ve done in collaboration with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC). These analyses are a measure of the success of BFRDP in providing public support for effective… Read More →
When Minnesota lawmakers return to Saint Paul Feb. 17 for the start of the next state legislative session, Land Stewardship Project’s members and organizers will be active in pushing forward our values and priorities. Before we go into what issues we will be focusing on in 2026, I’d like to provide some political context and… Read More →
Claim: Grazed Grasslands Trump Cover Crops on Long-term Carbon Sequestration (6/5/22) The Food and Environment Reporting Network reports on research showing that rotationally grazed pastures sequester more carbon than annual cropping systems. An ongoing 29-year-old field experiment in Wisconsin shows that perennial pastures managed with rotational grazing accumulated 18% to 29% more soil organic carbon… Read More →
Policy Changes & Market Support Could Help State Become Leader in Carbon Farming MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Farming systems that build healthy soil by keeping the land covered in vegetation year-round have the potential to lower the net greenhouse gas emissions produced by Minnesota’s crops and livestock by as much as 30% while cutting nitrogen pollution… Read More →
The Land Stewardship Project’s State Policy Steering Committee convened last week to start setting LSP’s state policy priorities for the 2019 Minnesota Legislative Session, which begins Jan. 8. The committee, made up of LSP members who are farmers and leaders in their communities, directs what LSP supports and champions on the state level. Below are… Read More →
