Search Results

Searched for: lsp staff board retreat 2021

Ear to the Ground 224: Living on Stolen Ground

This is the first in a three-part series titled “Farming on Stolen Land.” These three episodes were developed by LSP staff member Elizabeth Makarewicz as a guide to exploring issues of native justice and equity in Minnesota’s food system. This first episode seeks to answer the question, “What does it mean to be a non-indigenous person living on native land?” Elizabeth’s interviewee, Nora Murphy, attempts to answer this question in her book, White Birch, Red Hawthorn.

  Read More →

Farm to School at the Legislature: Good News & Bad News

By Ben Anderson
April 17, 2019

During the 2019 session of the Minnesota Legislature, the Land Stewardship Project has been working with a large stakeholder group to push for “Farm to School” provisions to be included in the final Agriculture Finance Bill. What we are asking for is a very clear prescriptive grant program to reimburse schools and early care centers…  Read More →

Don Wyse’s Land Grant Legacy

It's Imperative Forever Green Stays True to its Foundations: Farmer-Centered, Accountable to the Public, Rooted in the Land

By Brian DeVore
July 5, 2024

Back in 1998, I was working on an article for the Land Stewardship Letter about how the lack of biodiversity in agriculture was threatening the agronomic, ecological, and economic future of Midwestern farming communities. One of the people I interviewed was Don Wyse, a respected University of Minnesota plant scientist who had recently helped coordinate…  Read More →

LSP Members Deliver Letter to Governor’s Office Demanding Action on Fish Kills

‘We want this troubling pattern of aquatic destruction to stop.’

September 21, 2022

SAINT PAUL, Minn. — Members of the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) today delivered a letter to Gov. Tim Walz’s office calling on state officials to take action to address a rash of fish kills in southeastern Minnesota streams in recent years. “As people who drink, cook and wash with this water when it comes out of our…  Read More →

Rural Voices Hold More Power Than You Think

By Dan Wilson, LSP member
May 5, 2022

Like many people, I watched with hope as the protests in Minneapolis and across the country made possible the idea of significant police reform. I also watched with horror in 2021 as those reform efforts stalled in the Minnesota Senate. Being a white farmer living in rural Minnesota, I felt removed and powerless as all…  Read More →

Legislative Wrap-up: Lack of Ag Bill Passage Represents Lost Opportunities 

Some Gains Made for Clean Water/Soil Health & Beginning Farmers

By Laura Schreiber 
June 4, 2026

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 →

Farm Transition Profile: Full Circle

One LSP Course Helped Launch Melissa Driscoll & Jay Hambidge's Ag Career — Years Later, Another Helped Wrap It Up

By Brian DeVore
November 13, 2025

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 →

LSP Land Line: Big Ag Gravy Train, Habitat Loss, Soil Health, Dairy Crisis, Nitrogen, Kernza

By Brian DeVore
September 25, 2020

Sept. 25: An LSP Round-up of News Covering Land, People & Communities Very large farms collect one-fifth of USDA’s coronavirus payments (9/23/20) Chuck Abbott reports on Agriculture.com that the government’s COVID-19 payments to agriculture have been a gravy train for mega-operations. According to an analysis done by the Environmental Working Group, the largest 1% of…  Read More →

2020 Legislative Session: What Happened & What’s Next

By Amanda Koehler
May 19, 2020

The past few months have been harder than ever for thousands of Minnesotans. Our communities were already facing a serious farm crisis, inaccessible and unaffordable healthcare, increasing impacts of climate change, corporate consolidation across our economy, and more. On top of that, a pandemic has wreaked havoc on our healthcare system, farm and food system,…  Read More →

LSP Statement on 2018 Farm Bill

December 12, 2018

Bill Contains Some LSP Priorities, but Overall Federal Ag Policy Remains in Major Need of Reform MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — The membership of the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) launched its “Our Farm Bill” campaign in 2017 to advocate for a Farm Bill that worked for people and the land. This vision called for a change in…  Read More →