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 →
Government regulators may be befuddled by Cella Langer and Emmet Fisher’s tiny dairy, but these Farm Beginnings/Journeyperson grads know exactly where it fits into their business. More information: • Land Stewardship Letter Oxheart Farm profile • Oxheart Farm • LSP’s Farm Beginnings • LSP’s Journeyperson • MOSES Farmer-to-Farmer Mentorship Program You can find LSP Ear to the… Read More →
Feb. 12: An LSP Round-up of News Covering Land, People & Communities The Efficiency Curse — We built a ‘better’ food system. The cost: It couldn’t handle a pandemic. (2/5/21) When COVID-19 arrived in the U.S., we discovered that the food system was fragile, rigid, and therefore vulnerable. But, as Michael Pollan points out in… Read More →
LSP Farmer-Members Demand State Policy Reforms, Investigations MANKATO, Minn. — Public officials need to take immediate action to address the farm crisis that is decimating Minnesota’s rural families and communities. That was the message farmer-members of the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) conveyed to state Commissioner of Agriculture Thom Petersen and Attorney General Keith Ellison at… Read More →
The Coronavirus Pandemic Unmasks a Brutal, Multinational Food & Farming System that’s as Unsustainable as the Economic Model that Created it As the coronavirus disrupts “normal” life in America and worldwide—and we ride the rapids of shifting strategy and messaging from the White House, its cabinet, and Congressional leaders — the pandemic also shines light… Read More →
2025-2026 Farm Beginnings Class LSP is now accepting applications for its 2025-2026 Farm Beginnings class session. For details, click here. ♦ ♦ ♦ This is a story about how traffic jams aren’t all bad, the powerful draw of regenerative agriculture, an MBA project, and how one woman living in the suburbs got over imposter’s syndrome,… Read More →
Note: This is the 5th installment in the 12-part “A Sense of Where You Are” series. Grazing livestock have been described as “combines that poop.” That’s an accurate, if somewhat graphic, depiction of how moving cattle and other animals through well-managed paddocks can rebuild soil that’s been decimated by tillage, chemical use, and compaction. Langdon… Read More →
RIDGEWAY, Iowa — The Land Stewardship Project (LSP), along with the Winneshiek Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), will host a workshop called, “Cover Crops, No-Till & Grazing: Evaluating the Economics and First Steps to Improving Soil Health” on Thursday, Jan. 30, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Ridgeway Community Center. It will… Read More →
When it comes to making the ag landscape healthier, how much is enough? One day in 2007, a farmer walked into Paul Wymar’s office in Montevideo, Minn., not far from where the Chippewa River drains into the Minnesota River. He had a question for Wymar, who at the time was a scientist for the Chippewa… 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 →
