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Searched for: regional food system

Sen. Klobuchar: Consider the True Economic Costs of TPP

Dear Senator Klobuchar: In considering whether or not to support the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, I hope you will look beyond the positions of main stream economists who believe in more globalization of economic activity and seek out those economists who think more deeply and comprehensively about economic and social realities and believe in…  Read More

We Rely on the Land, Not Frac Sand

The Frac Sand Insider Conference is being held in La Crosse, Wis., today and tomorrow, with a projected 300 to 400 industry representatives expected to attend. Before the conference, the Alliance to Ban Frac Sand Mining and Address Climate Change, which the Land Stewardship Project belongs to, stated: “Banning frac sand mining is the goal…  Read More

U.S. Senate Passes Farm Bill, Yet Again

The U.S. Senate passed its version of a Farm Bill yesterday by a vote of 66-27. Both Minnesota Senators Al Franken (D-MN) and Amy Klobuchar( D-MN) voted for passage of the bill. The upshot is that for the first time ever the Senate bill limits the degree of crop insurance subsidies wealthy farm investors and…  Read More

Ear to the Ground 284: Hive of Healthy Activity

From Kris Shelstad’s point of view, an empty building on Main Street is packed full of opportunities for revitalizing her hometown’s economic and cultural life, one conversation at a time. More Information: • Madison Mercantile • LSP’s Community-Based Food Systems Web Page • Support Local Food During the Upper Minnesota River Meander Sept. 30-Oct. 2…  Read More

In West-Central Meeting with Rep. Peterson, LSP Members Call for 2018 Farm Bill that Supports Conservation & Family Farmers

LSP Holds On-Farm Meeting with Ranking Member of U.S. House Ag Committee as Ag Policy Debate Enters Next Stage BARRETT, Minn. — During an Aug. 28 on-farm meeting near Barrett in west-central Minnesota, the ranking member of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee agreed to fight for policy that supports working lands conservation policy and family…  Read More

The Loss of the Leopold Center is a Loss for All of Us

The State of Iowa is on the verge of eliminating one of the nation’s leading centers of sustainable agriculture research and innovation. The Iowa Legislature’s vote to defund and close the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture comes at a time when the work of the 30-year-old institution is, in many ways, just beginning. It was…  Read More

Building Connections Over Food Justice

My name is Maria Russo and I am a senior at the University of Minnesota majoring in political science. This semester I was a part of HECUA’s Environmental Sustainability: Science, Public Policy and Community Action program. HECUA stands for Higher Education Consortium of Urban Affairs and is an off-campus study program. The program I’m in…  Read More

Farm Beginnings Profile: Anna Racer & Peter Skold

Answering Community's Call

If you are the sort who likes to be outdoors, self-reliant and working close to the land, what Anna Racer and Peter Skold did for five summers might sound ideal. They worked at a camp in northern Minnesota where they took teenagers into the wilderness for six weeks at a time. But there comes a…  Read More

Making Room for Relationships

How Journeyperson is Helping Racing Heart Pace Itself

Pack-shed or people? That’s the question Les Macare and Els Dobrick are grappling with on a dank day in mid-March as they brave a biting wind to inspect the garden plots, cover crops, and outbuildings on Racing Heart Farm in western Wisconsin. With the exception of some onions sprouting in one of the hoop houses,…  Read More

Farm Beginnings Profile: An Enigmatic Edge in Corn Country

This Gateway into Farming Hinges on Small Grains, Livestock & Soil Health With its pool table topography and coffee-colored soils, southern Minnesota’s Nicollet County perennially ranks as one of the top producers of corn and soybeans in the state, and land prices reflect it — in 2019 the average annual non-irrigated cropland rental rate in…  Read More