In Boone County, Iowa, fertile farmland stretches as far as the eye can see. But as our van of Land Stewardship Project members rounded the corner on a rural road, we saw a disturbing sight: miles of black, vacant land where the landscape has been shaved to make way for the Dakota Access Pipeline. On… Read More →
It’s time to restore farmers’ right to fix the equipment they own as they choose — but legislation to do just that is at risk in the Minnesota Legislature. Right now, major farm equipment manufacturers refuse to make the software tools necessary to repair agricultural equipment fully available to farmers and independent mechanics, leaving farmers… Read More →
This is the second year of a two-year research project through the Minnesota Department of Agriculture looking into creating on-farm compost recipes using the Johnson-Su Bioreactor design. Land Stewardship Project staff are working with five farms to build a total of 10 bioreactors in the month of June 2022. We are looking for 3 to… Read More →
A Farm Transfers Ownership & a Farmer Transfers into a New Role What’s that stuff in soil that’s supposed to provide humans a sense of wellbeing? You know, like a protozoa-based version of Prozac? Emmalyn Kayser is trying to come up with the name on a recent March afternoon as she and Chris Burkhouse squat… Read More →
LEWISTON, Minn. — The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has ignored sound environmental science and policy by failing to order an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a major dairy expansion project near Lewiston, say rural residents. The MPCA announced today it would issue a feedlot permit for Daley Farms’ proposal to expand its operation by… Read More →
Our state of Minnesota has the power and responsibility to create a transformational, regenerative food and farm system that is good for family farmers, rural communities, and the land. But so far this state legislative session, we have not seen our leaders take the bold action we need to advance our vision for rural Minnesota.… Read More →
RED WING, Minn. — Zumbrota Township residents were denied access twice this week to a copy of the Conditional Use Permit application for the Kohlnhofer factory hog farm being proposed in their community. They were denied access to the information despite the fact that a public hearing is scheduled for the Conditional Use Permit on… Read More →
In December, members of the Land Stewardship Project and Toxic Taters filed a citizens’ petition for environmental review of R.D. Offutt’s major expansion plans in northern Minnesota. R.D. Offutt is the nation’s largest potato producer. This expansion would use more than 166 million gallons of water per year, just as concerns over the unsustainable depletion… Read More →
On a crisp morning in September, North Dakota farmer Gabe Brown held two handfuls of soil and searched for signs of life—theoretically not a difficult task considering one teaspoon of humus contains more organisms than there are humans in the world. But many of the bacteria and invertebrates that lurk in the dark basement of… Read More →
