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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 →

Land Line: Trillion $ Landlord, Ag’s Next Generation, Fertilizer Prices, Oats, Farm Finance Grumbles, CAFO Permits, Big Meat

By Brian DeVore (editor)
March 15, 2026

The $1.7 Trillion Landlord: New USDA Data Reveals the Shifting Face of Ownership (3/12/26) Farm Journal reports on new USDA showing a 47% surge in rented farmland value over the past decade, even as the footprint of available acreage shrinks. With $1.7 trillion in assets now held by a shifting demographic of landlords, the landscape…  Read More →

Land Line: Corn Belt Cancer, Integrating Crops & Livestock, Trade Turmoil, Farmland Access, Erosion, SNAP, Microbe Memory

October 31, 2025

Report: Cancer Rates Rising Among Young People in the Corn Belt (10/29/25) The Minnesota Reformer reports on an analysis conducted by The Washington Post showing that the six states that lead in corn production — Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, and Kansas — have seen higher rates of cancer among young people than other states…  Read More →

Land Line: Invisible Hand, Price-Fixing, Oat Mafia, Bird Flu, Profitable Conservation, SNAP, Compost, Farm Subsidizers

By Brian DeVore (editor)
May 12, 2025

The Invisible Hand, Elasticity, and the Vanishing Farmer (5/7/25) Writing on the AGDAILY website, farmer and international consultant Ben Henson describes how the traditional building blocks of the American agricultural economy are being undermined by unprecedented consolidation in farming. Highlights: One basis of economic theory is “inelastic” versus “elastic” demand for products. Food is considered…  Read More →

Land Line: Lost Horizon, Nitro Overload, Drugs & Bugs, Meatpacker Compensation, Food System Control, Giving Back Through CSA, Farms & Groceries

By Brian DeVore
February 28, 2021

Feb. 28: An LSP Round-up of News Covering Land, People & Communities New Evidence Shows Fertile Soil Gone From Midwestern Farms (2/24/21) National Public Radio reports on a new study showing the most fertile topsoil is entirely gone from a third of all the land devoted to growing crops across the upper Midwest. Highlights: The…  Read More →

The ‘Big Reveal’

By Barbara Sogn-Frank
March 31, 2020

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 →

Land Line: Nitrates, High Tech Mismatch, Dairy Soil Health, USDA Cuts, A Dairy’s Demise, New Farm Bill, Whole Grain Baking

By Brian DeVore (editor)
May 12, 2026

Sign Up for E-mail Delivery of The Land Line Nearly One-Fifth of Americans Are Consuming Water With High Levels of Nitrates (4/27/26) Close to 20% of Americans are exposed to water polluted with high levels of potentially cancer-causing nitrates, known to come mostly from agricultural runoff, according to a study reported on in Inside Climate…  Read More →

The Endowed Chair in Agricultural Systems

Transcript of Ear to the Ground No. 398

By Brian DeVore
May 11, 2026

Note: The Land Stewardship Project’s Ear to the Ground podcast recently featured an interview with Marvin Johnson, a Minnesota farmer and president of the Alumni Association for the School of Agriculture at the University of Minnesota. Johnson discussed the history and the future of the Endowed Chair in Agricultural Systems. For three decades, the Endowed…  Read More →

Land Line: Commodity Ag Regrets, Bailout Blues, Corn & Climate, USDA Regenerative Ag Pilot, Manure Monitoring, Conservation & Community, Farmer-to-Farmer

By Brian DeVore (editor)
December 16, 2025

Iowa Farm & Rural Life Poll: 2025 Summary (November) The majority of farmers responding to the latest Iowa Farm & Rural Life Poll feel that a reliance on specialized commodity agriculture is bad for them and their communities. Highlights: Sixty-nine percent agreed with the statement “Increased specialization in commodities (corn, soybeans, hogs, etc.) has led…  Read More →