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Tell Congress a Farm Bailout is Not the Solution: We Must Invest in America’s Small & Mid-Sized Farmers

We need transformational change in our farm and food system, not another bailout.

October 22, 2025

It’s clear that the Trump administration’s tariffs and international trade war are harming American farmers and showing the weakness of our industrial agriculture model. With international commodity markets vanishing, some small and medium-sized farmers are having to decide if they can keep operating under this level of uncertainty, or if they need to sell off…  Read More →

A Sense of Where You Are: First Things First

Part 8 in a Series

By Brian DeVore
January 14, 2025

Note: This is the 8th installment in the 12-part “A Sense of Where You Are” series.  So, here’s a chicken or egg situation to ponder: when launching a farming operation, when should you approach the local NRCS office about applying for funding to set up infrastructure such as a high tunnel or a rotational grazing system?…  Read More →

Farm Beginnings Profile: A Land-Based Launching Pad

Four Winds Farm Serves as a Staging Ground for New Agrarians

By Brian DeVore
December 14, 2018

On a warm day in early October, the owner-operators of Clover Bee Farm are preparing a delivery for the 43 shareholders that make up their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) vegetable operation. Standing in a hoop house, Andrew Hanson-Pierre cleans dozens of fat onions, while across the farmyard in a barn that’s been converted to a…  Read More →

There are no Healthy Communities without Racial Justice

By Laura Frerichs
April 23, 2018

NOTE: Land Stewardship Project board of directors member Laura Frerichs spoke April 24 at the National Press Club during the People’s Action Rural & Small Town Organizing Cohort Gathering. Below is the text of her talk: My name is Laura Frerichs. I’m an organic vegetable farmer from rural Hutchinson, Minn., where I farm with my…  Read More →

Connecting with Farmers in SE MN at a Critical Time for our Soil

By Shona Snater
January 4, 2017

“Upon this handful of soil our survival depends. Husband it and it will grow our food, our fuel, our shelter, and surround us with beauty. Abuse it and the soil will collapse and die, taking humanity with it.” This quote was taken from the Vedas Sanskrit Scriptures, which date back to 1500 BC. For a…  Read More →

Soil Hub Report

LSP Bridge to Soil Health Program’s Peer-to-Peer Learning Groups:  The Strategy & Construction of Regional Farmer Soil Hubs Through this publication, the Land Stewardship Project is sharing our experience constructing and implementing the Regional Soil Hubs through our Bridge to Soil Health initiative. We hope that other agricultural groups, including farmer-led groups, might want to…  Read More →

SE MN Farmers Invited to Join Soil Builders’ Network

May 4, 2017

LEWISTON, Minn. — If you are a crop or livestock farmer in southeastern Minnesota, the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) invites you to join the Soil Builders’ Network to receive regular updates on workshops, field days and on-farm demonstrations related to the latest in soil health and cover-cropping. The Soil Builders’ Network was launched earlier this…  Read More →

Land Line: Oats, Nitrates & Karst, Fraudulent Science, ICE & Ag, Soil Health, Biostimulants, Fertilizer Price Collusion

By Brian DeVore (editor)
January 31, 2026

Opportunity Knocks for Oats in Minnesota (1/28/26) Morning Ag Clips reports that interest in returning oats to Minnesota crop rotations is increasing as a result of a new processing facility being built and research related to the soil health benefits of planting the small grain. Highlights: A new, $68 million food-grade oat mill is expected…  Read More →

Cooking Up Some Hope in the Phillips Community

By Anna Cioffi
May 7, 2013

On April 13, Hope Community intern Taya Shultz lead a cooking class at Hope’s community kitchen. “The topic was breakfast. We made almond milk, vegetable breakfast smoothies and buckwheat muesli pancakes,” Taya told me. Hope Community is a place-based community development organization that is entrenched in the Phillips Neighborhood, one of the most economically challenged…  Read More →

Lawns vs. Food

July 28, 2011

What’s up with all the backlash against urban food production? Google the phrase “urban farming illegal” and you’ll see what I mean. Communities in Minnesota and across North America are struggling with what to do when some energetic entrepreneurs begin raising produce in their yards on a scale that goes beyond planting a few tomatoes…  Read More →