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Searched for: regional food system

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

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

Stewardship, Justice & Democracy

At the Land Stewardship Project, among member-leaders and staff, we’ve been thinking more about our work in the context of economic, racial, and gender equity in this country, and how that relates to core values of LSP, like stewardship, justice, community, democracy, and health. Land Stewardship Project’s board is meeting this week to give a…  Read More

Area Farmers Share Land Access & Marketing Concerns with Legislators From 9 States

Pre Farm-Aid SIX Tour Highlights Environmental, Health Benefits Provided by Cannon Falls & Rochester Farmers 

CANNON FALLS, Minn. — Shea-Lynn Ramthun stood in a recently harvested oat field on her family’s farm near Cannon Falls last week and described to a couple dozen lawmakers a dilemma that’s all-too-common in the agriculture business: she had just successfully raised a bumper crop, only to run into the brick wall of not having…  Read More

Time to Level the Farming Playing Fields for BIPOC

Systemic racism is ingrained in all of our institutions, including our farm and food system. Achieving structural change and justice begins with standing together, walking alongside each other, and lifting up voices that need to be heard to express outrage and to demand a new status quo. In honor of “Juneteenth,” the annual holiday commemorating…  Read More

Battling Diabetes on the Street & in the Garden

One can almost detect the longing in Denise Crews’ voice when she describes what foods she misses the most since she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. “The hardest thing to give up was the fried chicken—Popeyes, Kentucky Fried Chicken. Their biscuits. The grease,” Crews told me during a recent LSP podcast interview at a…  Read More

Organizing Secures Key Wins for Rural Healthcare in 2023 Minnesota Legislative Session 

MinnesotaCare Public Option & Prescription Drug Affordability Board are Strong Steps Forward

The Land Stewardship Project began organizing around healthcare in 2008 after hearing over and over again from our members that one of the primary barriers to getting into farming, or staying in it, is lack of access to affordable and useful health insurance. Farmers and other self-employed people do not have employer-based healthcare coverage without off-the-farm or…  Read More

Why Restricting the Right to Vote is Bad for our Land, Farms & Rural Communities

Recently, the Land Stewardship Project joined “Our Vote, Our Future,” a coalition of over 70 organizations working to oppose the voter restriction amendment to the state constitution that is to be put before Minnesota voters Nov. 6. Why is an organization whose mission is stewardship of the land and our communities speaking out on this…  Read More

LSP Stands With Immigrant Neighbors in Rural Minnesota 

As ICE Activities Escalate, LSP & Other Members of the Immigrant Defense Network are Providing Training, Networking & Support in Outstate Communities

MONTEVIDEO, Minn. — As federal officials escalate attacks on immigrants in Minnesota, the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) is more committed than ever to working with its allies to ensure all members of rural communities are treated in a just and fair manner, according to an LSP organizer who has a long history of working with…  Read More

Tell Congress: Support Market Access for Farmers by Funding Local Food Purchasing

Take 2 Minutes to Tell Congress to Support the "Local Farmers Feeding Our Community" Act

The Land Stewardship Project and our partners across the nation are calling on Congress to support investment in local foods for our communities. We need to keep the pressure up. Congressional members are responding to our demands for permanent investments for local foods in local nutrition programs. We need your help to keep up the…  Read More

LSP’s Farmer Network: A Voice at the Other End of the Line

The call came in the night. On the end of the line was the panicked voice of Tyler Carlson, a 26-year-old beginning farmer who was starting a grazing operation in west-central Minnesota. It seems that while making a long-distance move of the cowherd he had just purchased a few days before, a baby calf had…  Read More