From raising produce and working in a restaurant to teaching food safety and managing a farmers’ market, Sara George has experienced “farm-to-fork” from just about every angle possible. This has given her invaluable insights into the barriers, and opportunities, involved with connecting farmers and institutional buyers. More Information • LSP’s Community-Based Food Systems Web Page… Read More →
Legislation Providing Children with Local, Healthy Foods Draws Bipartisan Support at State Capitol SAINT PAUL, Minn. — A bipartisan bill that would provide school districts across the state with a reimbursement for feeding students healthy, local foods through farm-to-school initiatives was introduced in the Minnesota Legislature today. Senator Mike Goggin (R-Red Wing) and Representative Todd… Read More →
When considering significant changes to the way one farms, there’s nothing like a couple acres of convincer, a template for the potential offered up by tapping into the land’s ability to build soil health in an economically viable manner utilizing livestock and perennial plants. Mark Erickson points out just such a personal proving ground on… Read More →
Sometimes a Farm Transition is Done at a Distance On a brilliantly bright October afternoon, Chris Mosel makes his way over a clear-running brook and through a stand of basswood, oak and maple on his central Minnesota farm. As he approaches the edge of the woodlot, he steps over a strand of temporarily erected electric… Read More →
Walking down a sloping lane on a spring afternoon, Luke and Liana Tessum surprise an Angus beef cow wandering up from a bottomland paddock. The lone bovine, and 18 cow-calf pairs grazing on the pasture below, represent the reaching of what the 30-something couple calls yet one more “micro-goal.” In December, the Tessums paid off… Read More →
For the past year the Land Stewardship Project and our allies have been organizing to make sure Minnesota moves forward, not backward, under the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare). It’s clear that our current health care system is failing working people across the state—including urban people, rural people and farmers. In fact, lack of access to… Read More →
Cover crops proved themselves foul weather friends during the Great Drought of 2012. A groundbreaking farmer survey conducted in the Upper Mississippi River watershed showed that during that year’s brutal growing season keeping the soil covered with small grains and other plants helped fields preserve enough precious moisture to provide a yield bump of, in… Read More →
Budget Provides Needed Support for Small & Mid-sized Farms, but Maintains a Corporate-Centered Status Quo in MN Ag Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s two-year budget proposal was released Jan. 26. The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) applauds the measures included in this budget that require the wealthiest individuals and major corporations in our state to contribute their… Read More →
This is the first in a three-part series titled “Farming on Stolen Land.” These three episodes were developed by LSP staff member Elizabeth Makarewicz as a guide to exploring issues of native justice and equity in Minnesota’s food system. This first episode seeks to answer the question, “What does it mean to be a non-indigenous person living on native land?” Elizabeth’s interviewee, Nora Murphy, attempts to answer this question in her book, White Birch, Red Hawthorn.
Minnesota Part of 10-State Rural & Small Town Organizing Strategy WASHINGTON, D.C.—Racial justice is an essential element in developing a food and farming system that supports healthy and prosperous rural communities, said central Minnesota farmer Laura Frerichs today during a national rural progressive strategy summit at the National Press Club in Washington. Frerichs, a member… Read More →
