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Farmers Gather in Albert Lea to Talk About ‘Bringing Small Grains Back to Minnesota’

Attendees from 3 States Heard National, Local Ag Leaders Discuss the Economic, Agronomic & Environmental Opportunities Crops Like Oats Can Provide

January 30, 2025

ALBERT LEA, Minn. — Corn and soybeans may dominate the agricultural landscape in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa, but reintroducing small grains such as oats into the rotation could help make farming more economically, agronomically and environmentally sustainable, while serving a growing consumer demand for healthy food, said a panel of national and local experts during…  Read More →

LSP Land Line: Big Ag Gravy Train, Habitat Loss, Soil Health, Dairy Crisis, Nitrogen, Kernza

By Brian DeVore
September 25, 2020

Sept. 25: An LSP Round-up of News Covering Land, People & Communities Very large farms collect one-fifth of USDA’s coronavirus payments (9/23/20) Chuck Abbott reports on Agriculture.com that the government’s COVID-19 payments to agriculture have been a gravy train for mega-operations. According to an analysis done by the Environmental Working Group, the largest 1% of…  Read More →

Pollinators in Peril

By Brian DeVore
December 19, 2012

As last week’s Congressional Research Service report on bee health makes clear, the crisis plaguing pollinators is not a single, big bad bogey man. It’s likely a combination of factors such as habitat loss, pesticide poisoning, introduced diseases and the stress of making domesticated honey bees the insect equivalent of migrant workers. That’s the bad…  Read More →

Land Line: USDA Changes, Climate-Smart Ag, Dead Zone, Nitrate Pollution, Feedlot Regs, Soil Bacteria, the Power of Diverse Farming

By Brian DeVore (editor)
July 28, 2025

‘Farming in the dark’: Brooke Rollins’ Leadership, DOGE’s Grip and the Cost to American Agriculture (7/22/25) According to Investigate Midwest, during her first six months in office U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins  has brought sweeping changes to USDA and largely embraced President Donald Trump’s agenda of downsizing the federal government. Mass firings have purged…  Read More →

Social Sustainability: Fostering Farmer-Focused Communities 

2nd in a Series on LSP's Soil Health Hubs

By Sarah Wescott
July 24, 2025

For soil health practices to be truly sustainable, they must be economically viable, environmentally beneficial, and socially supported. As the first blog in this series illustrates, the Land Stewardship Project’s Soil Health Hubs sit at the intersection of these three “legs of the stool.” “Economic” and “environmental” viability may seem like no-brainers, but why is…  Read More →

California Dreaming

A Farm Beginnings Grad Makes a Go of it in an Urban Setting

By Brian DeVore
June 30, 2025

2025-2026 Farm Beginnings Class LSP is now accepting applications for its 2025-2026 Farm Beginnings class session. For details, click here. ♦ ♦ ♦ By the time Elyssa Eull moved back to Minnesota a few years ago, she already had several years of experience working on vegetable farms. But she felt that in order to successfully…  Read More →

Legislative Wrap-Up: A Chaotic Session  Produces Concrete Results

Market Access, Land Access & Soil Health Support Passes 

By Laura Schreiber
May 20, 2025

Give it a Listen Episode 374 of LSP’s Ear to the Ground podcast features a discussion with government relations director Laura Schreiber about how the organization’s priorities fared during the legislative session. ♦ ♦ ♦ As I write this, the regular session of the 2025 Minnesota Legislature wrapped up with some unfinished business, which means…  Read More →

Land Line: CAFO Control, Cancer in Farm Country, Nitrates, Soil Health, Farm to School

March 19: An LSP Round-up of News Covering Land, People & Communities

By Brian DeVore
March 19, 2025

Something Smells With the Feedlot Trend, and it’s More Than Just the Manure 3/16/25 Ron Way, former assistant director of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, writes in the Star Tribune about how factory farms have transformed the landscape in southern and central Minnesota. Highlights: Since the 1970s, backers of large-scale, industrialized livestock production have successfully…  Read More →

A Sense of Where You Are: Seeking Signs of Life

Part 4 in a Series

By Brian DeVore
January 18, 2025

Note: This is the 4th installment in the 12-part “A Sense of Where You Are” series.  Jerry and Nancy Ackermann’s context is this: for around four decades, they have been raising corn and soybeans in southwestern Minnesota’s Jackson County, a region dominated by the kind of flat, fertile fields that regularly churn out impressive yields…  Read More →

A Sense of Where You Are: Forest for the Trees

Part 5 in a Series

By Brian DeVore
January 17, 2025

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 →