I “care for” 50 acres of certified organic cropland east of Caledonia in southeastern Minnesota. Although small in acreage, I am intent upon building back my soil using alternative farming practices like roller-crimping winter rye and spring-seeding rye before soybeans. I’d like to share some insights I’ve gathered while figuring out how to implement these… Read More →
I am happy to report that frac sand corporation Minnesota Sands, LLC, failed in its latest attempt to circumvent comprehensive environmental review (see the action alert below). Thanks to Minnesotans speaking up for the land and the health of our communities, the requirement of a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on a proposed massive frac… Read More →
After a lifetime of working for others in agricultural jobs, and retired after a career with the postal service, Tom Hoekstra and his wife, Lisa, bought a 150-acre farm outside of Plainview in southeastern Minnesota. Tom was 59 when they bought the farm in 2009. Right after their purchase, they immediately went to work re-building… Read More →
I have been a member of the Land Stewardship Project since 2008, first joining through the Farm Beginnings program. Since then, and even before, as a grass-fed beef farmer, a professor of sustainable agriculture law issues, and now renting our farm fields to Farm Beginning’s graduates, I have observed and participated in LSP’s campaigns and… Read More →
It’s been said that soil without biology is just geology—an accumulation of lifeless minerals unable to spawn healthy plant growth. And as intense monocropping production practices increasingly remove more life from the ground than they return, it sends that soil closer to fossilization via what conservationist Barry Fisher calls, “the spiral of degradation”: eroded, compacted… Read More →
“Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.” — Wendell Berry The line above from Wendell Berry’s poem, “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front,” has stuck with me since I heard it many years ago. For me, its staying power comes from Berry’s ability to both reassure and challenge us in a single simple… Read More →
Many good arguments can be made for supporting a type of agriculture less reliant on energy, technology and Wall Street, and more on soil, communities and people: it’s better for the environment, produces good food and keeps more Main Street businesses open, to name a few. But after reading Jim Van Der Pol’s just-published collection… Read More →
Minnesota Farmers Seek State Aid as Foreclosure Crisis Looms (8/8/25) Financially strapped Minnesota farmers are asking the state to intervene with their lenders at a midsummer rate not seen in almost a decade, reports the Star Tribune. Highlights: In June, 197 farmers filed notice for help from the University of Minnesota Extension’s Farmer-Lender Mediation program.… Read More →
AUSTIN, Minn. — Internationally known soil health pioneer Gave Brown will be featured at a regenerative farming field day Friday, Sept. 16, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Tom Cotter farm near Austin (50203 205th Street). This event, which is being sponsored by the Minnesota Soil Health Coalition, Superior Cannabis Company and the… Read More →
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — As the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) launches its 40th year of “keeping the land and people together,” a veteran grassroots organizer has been selected as its new executive director, the organization’s board of directors announced today. When Mike McMahon takes over the helm at LSP on Jan. 18, he will also lead the… Read More →
