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Searched for: regional food system

Land Line: Small Grains, Manure, Soil Carbon, Rural Empowerment, Regenerative Generation

Feb. 3: An LSP Round-up of News Covering Land, People & Communities

By Brian DeVore
February 3, 2025

Growing Small Grains Market in Albert Lea Attracting Attention from Farmers (1/28/25) KAAL-TV reports on a Land Stewardship Project workshop where over 150 people gathered to talk about ways of bringing small grains back to Minnesota. Highlights: After being mostly replaced by corn and soybeans during the past several decades, small grains such as oats…  Read More →

What Makes a Welcoming Community?

By Sam Streukens
October 18, 2021

I became a member-leader of the Land Stewardship Project to help achieve justice for the people and the land. By identifying our self-interest, listening to our neighbors, and acting on our values, I also believe that we can become a welcoming community. Doug Nopar,who worked for many years as a rural LSP organizer, believes that…  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 →

Land Stewardship Project Picks Veteran Grassroots Organizer as New ED

Group Marks 40th Anniversary with New Leadership

January 10, 2022

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — As the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) launches its 40th year of “keeping the land and people together,” a veteran grassroots organizer has been selected as its new executive director, the organization’s board of directors announced today. When Mike McMahon takes over the helm at LSP on Jan. 18, he will also lead the…  Read More →

Land Line: Land Baron Gates, Regenerative Grazing, Cost of Soil Loss, High Commodity Prices, EQIP Misses the Mark, COVID & OSHA

By Brian DeVore
January 15, 2021

Jan. 15: An LSP Round-up of News Covering Land, People & Communities Bill Gates: America’s Top Farmland Owner (1/15/21) Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates are now the largest private farmland owners in the U.S., according to The Land Report. Highlights: They have accumulated a massive farmland portfolio — 242,000 acres —…  Read More →

Farm Beginnings: When Farming Doesn’t go as Planned

By Brian DeVore
December 10, 2011

When it comes to farming, oftentimes things don’t work out as planned—and sometimes that’s a good thing. Take for example Greg and Nancy Rasmussen, who on a recent fall afternoon are checking on some newly arrived chicks gathered under heat lamps in their barn. When the Rasmussens enrolled in the Land Stewardship Project’s Farm Beginnings course…  Read More →

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 →