There’s farm planning. And then there’s long-term farm planning. Figuring out what kind of rotation to use the following growing season is one thing; picturing what the entire farm will look like in a decade or so is quite another. Abbie Baldwin and Mitch Hawes are well aware that when the enterprise you are undertaking… Read More →
From Kris Shelstad’s point of view, an empty building on Main Street is packed full of opportunities for revitalizing her hometown’s economic and cultural life, one conversation at a time. More Information: • Madison Mercantile • LSP’s Community-Based Food Systems Web Page • Support Local Food During the Upper Minnesota River Meander Sept. 30-Oct. 2… Read More →
The Questions… What does soil health have to do with racial justice? Why does the Land Stewardship Project write articles and posts about racial justice for mostly homogenous, white audiences in rural, farming communities? From time to time, LSP soil health organizers are asked these questions by farmers at our field days and workshops. Some… Read More →
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Spring is just around the corner, which means it’s time to sign-up for a 2022 share in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm. The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) has recently published the 2022 edition of its CSA directory for farms that service the Twin Cities, outstate Minnesota and western Wisconsin region. It’s available at https://landstewardshipproject.org/csa-farm-directory.… Read More →
Matthew Sheets joined the Land Stewardship Project’s staff in late 2019 after organizing for years in his home of western Minnesota. He began his work with LSP as part of the Farm Crisis Campaign and has been working to follow up on the goals of that campaign and expand that work to advance the cause… Read More →
Scott DeMuth initially started working with LSP as a consultant, researching how Federal Crop Insurance subsidies impact and can better suit beginning farmers. After that, Scott came on as a fulltime organizer working in our Farm Beginnings program and eventually leading our Food Sovereignty, Food Security, and Land Legacy initiatives. Outside of organizing, Scott’s passions… Read More →
With close to 20 years of organizing experience, Sean has worked on a broad range of social justice issues, including with the labor movement, on environmental issues, in faith communities, on elections, and on food systems. In that time, he has organized campaigns with teachers to keep their rural public school from closing, to register thousands of students to… Read More →
Oct. 9: An LSP Round-up of News Covering Land, People & Communities Minnesota Department of Transportation rethinks no-spray ditch program after yanking signs (10/9/20) The Minnesota Department of Transportation is reevaluating its decision to pull “Do Not Spray” signs without warning in southeastern Minnesota, according to the Star Tribune. Farmers, including LSP members, had complained… Read More →
A Pioneering Organic Operation, a Trial Run, & the Next Generation Black, ominous clouds were approaching fast, and Luke Peterson was in a bit of a panic as he stood next to his tractor parked in an 80-acre soybean field, scanning the sky. Hooked up to that tractor was a rotary hoe, and before this… Read More →
When Nathan Vergin applied to work as an apprentice on Polyface Farm in Virginia back in the mid-2000s, he had to undergo a three-day “working interview.” Vergin, who grew up helping out on a sheep dairy near Northfield, Minn., passed the trial by fire, and went on to serve a two-year apprenticeship with the farm’s… Read More →
