How Indiana is using cover cropping and early adopters as ‘gateways’ into a deeper understanding of sustainable soil management. It’s an overcast August morning in northeastern Indiana, and in a massive machine shed well stocked with the tools of a modern row crop operation, some 60 farmers are being reminded that growing corn and soybeans… Read More →
Talk about ignoring the elephant in the room. When Minnesota environmental officials announced the results of a new major nitrogen pollution study on Thursday, they were surprisingly frank about how bad the problem is, but just as surprisingly hesitant to name a major underlying cause: federal farm policy. First the problem: basically, the Minnesota Pollution… Read More →
Soil Health Specialists Sound the Alarm on Continuing Soil Erosion (5/9/25) Despite a “Wake-up Call” warning issued a decade ago, wind erosion has continued to significantly damage soil health in North Dakota, according to Agweek. Highlights: Ten years after NDSU soil health expert Dave Franzen issued a report called “Wake-up Call” that highlighted high levels… Read More →
On April 15, the Land Stewardship Project saw farmers, community members, agency staffers, nonprofit folks, legislators, school district staff, and champions of Farm to School engage in this farm-to-fork initiative in the most hands-on way possible — by breaking bread together over school lunch trays at the Hutchinson High School. This diverse group of people… Read More →
LEWISTON, Minn. — The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) today released a strategic plan that describes how, during the next five years, the Minnesota-based organization will work with its members and allies to support the next generation of farmers and drive rural economic revitalization via community-based food systems, as well as help farmers adopt soil health… Read More →
Sept. 25: An LSP Round-up of News Covering Land, People & Communities Very large farms collect one-fifth of USDA’s coronavirus payments (9/23/20) Chuck Abbott reports on Agriculture.com that the government’s COVID-19 payments to agriculture have been a gravy train for mega-operations. According to an analysis done by the Environmental Working Group, the largest 1% of… Read More →
Bill Contains Some LSP Priorities, but Overall Federal Ag Policy Remains in Major Need of Reform MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — The membership of the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) launched its “Our Farm Bill” campaign in 2017 to advocate for a Farm Bill that worked for people and the land. This vision called for a change in… Read More →
I am not seeing any solid program that addresses access to land for new farmers. I do see networking and apprentice efforts (such as the one we have at our Earth Wisdom Farm) but I am not seen a comprehensive program that actually provides a viable path to ownership, or resident stewardship. With so much… Read More →
In early May, I represented the Land Stewardship Project at “Sequestering Carbon in the Soil: Addressing the Climate Threat,” an international conference held in Paris and organized by Breakthrough Strategies and Solutions. The conference convened 200 scientists, governmental leaders and representatives of nongovernmental organizations from around the world. Attendees included farmers from the Global South… Read More →
H5N1 avian influenza virus that emerged in 2022 is what role the mega-confinement, industrialized poultry system of agriculture has played in creating and propagating this pandemic. Are these operations the “victims” of a virus that originated in an environment outside of Big Ag’s control? Or is the Big Bird CAFO system itself the source of… Read More →
