There are upsides to launching a farm on raw, open land: no broken-down outbuildings or junk piles to deal with, the ability to truly start anew from the soil up. Then…there’s the other side of the fence, so to speak. “I decided to move the sheep before they move themselves,” says Hannah Bernhardt with a… Read More →
Land Stewardship Project members believe that the kind of agricultural system and democracy we have is up to us. Our members are the experts when it comes to their communities and farms and, together, we can and must make regenerative agriculture the norm, rather than the exception. We believe our public institutions exist to serve the… Read More →
It’s been said that politics is the art of the compromise. But during the 2026 session of the Minnesota Legislature, that approach to policymaking was undermined by disagreements about the role one particular herbicide should play in the state’s agricultural production system. As the session of the Minnesota Legislature entered its final month, it was… Read More →
Last fall, the Land Stewardship Project’s organizing efforts won a major victory when the Winona County Board in southeastern Minnesota banned any new frac sand operations in the county’s jurisdiction. In recent years, outside interests have been seeking to strip-mine and haul away silica sand from beneath southeastern Minnesota hills, bluffs and farmland to use… Read More →
Water, as Land Stewardship Project board member Vince Ready says, is vital for life. When Governor Mark Dayton’s Water Summit takes place on Feb. 27, it’s likely a lot of innovative proposals for solving Minnesota’s water quality crisis will be discussed. That’s good, because this Summit is centered around one of the most basic questions… Read More →
For longer than I can remember, my family has taken the same route from our farm in southeast Minnesota to visit my grandparents in north-central Wisconsin. The first leg of the four-hour trip takes us across the Mississippi River and through the farmland, pastures and rolling, wooded hills of Trempealeau and Jackson Counties. The landmarks… Read More →
When it comes to farming, oftentimes things don’t work out as planned—and sometimes that’s a good thing. Take for example Greg and Nancy Rasmussen, who on a recent fall afternoon are checking on some newly arrived chicks gathered under heat lamps in their barn. When the Rasmussens enrolled in the Land Stewardship Project’s Farm Beginnings course… Read More →
CANNON FALLS, Minn. — Shea-Lynn Ramthun stood in a recently harvested oat field on her family’s farm near Cannon Falls last week and described to a couple dozen lawmakers a dilemma that’s all-too-common in the agriculture business: she had just successfully raised a bumper crop, only to run into the brick wall of not having… Read More →
It’s early July—a time on one Wisconsin farm when there’s a brief reprieve between the spring rush of putting in crops and the mid-summer hurly-burly of making sure the land and animals are as productive as possible by fall. What better time to take a breather and assess where you’ve been, and where you’re going.… Read More →
Ready for the Next Step (part 1) Jon Kaiser is less than a year away from paying off his Farm Beginnings livestock loan. He smiles when he says this, because it means he’s just a little bit closer to making farming more than just a fantasy. “I’m surprised I’ve come this far,” says the 35-year-old… Read More →
