In our democracy, it is up to us as organized people to use our power to make sure our governments and institutions best serve people and the land. Nearly two-and-a-half years ago, the people of Winona County won an historic victory when the County Board of Commissioners voted to pass a ban on any new…  Read More →

NOTE: Today, the Land Stewardship Project joined allies TakeAction Minnesota, ISAIAH, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Minnesota Nurses Association to confront Medica officials at their Minnetonka, Minn., headquarters. The HMO has put profit before people and transferred $120 million from its nonprofit Minnesota HMO to its for-profit Wisconsin insurance businesses. Below is…  Read More →

Governor Mark Dayton announced in January his proposal to require an additional 125,000 acres of perennial vegetation along lakes, rivers and streams. There is a long history of utilizing such living borders to filter out fertilizers and herbicides, while fortifying streambanks and reducing the amount of eroded soil that ends up in the water. While…  Read More →

The Land Stewardship Project, sustainable agriculture and family farming lost a true friend this week when Dan Specht was killed in a tragic farm accident. He was 63. (See obituary here.) Dan, who farmed above the banks of the Mississippi River near McGregor, in northeast Iowa, had been a pioneer in innovative, sustainable farming methods…  Read More →

After a long, hot summer, prospects for a new Farm Bill in 2012 are wilting fast. If Congress doesn’t act within the next few weeks, the current Farm Bill will expire Sept. 30 without a law to replace it. Congress will not reconvene again until the lame duck session after the November elections, where chances…  Read More →

One winter evening in 1999 I was sitting in on a Farm Beginnings class being held in the southeast Minnesota community of Plainview when a local banker stood up and made a statement that about knocked me out of my chair. “We need to eat our own cooking,” said the banker, Dean Harrington. The statement…  Read More →

We at the Land Stewardship Project are shocked, saddened, and outraged at the news that a black man died while in police custody Monday night, less than three blocks from the Minneapolis office of the Land Stewardship Project. Video footage shows a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for several minutes after he…  Read More →