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Searched for: regional food systems

Land Line: Senate Budget Bill, Who Owns Land?, Nitrates, Conservation Cuts, Immigration, Drought When Wet, Judging Soil, Sea of Grass

Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Clears Senate, Sending it Back to House (7/1/25) Vice President JD Vance broke a 50-50 tie in the U.S. Senate today to pass President Donald Trump’s centerpiece legislation on tax cuts and spending, the 940-page “One Big Beautiful Bill,” reports Oklahoma Farm Report. In order to pay for spending on…  Read More

Channeling Water’s Power Profitably

Farmers Battle Saturated Soils with More Roots in the Ground To Tom Cotter, the various natural resources his farming operation relies on don’t operate in a vacuum. Rather, they have a relational quality — the role one resource plays in keeping his business viable depends on how it interacts with other resources. For example, rain…  Read More

The Cropping Systems Calculator’s Real World Roots

During my first meeting on a farm that was testing the Cropping Systems Calculator tool, there was plenty of skepticism about how this differed from the numerous other budget tools already available to farmers. This particular resource has been developed by the Land Stewardship Project through the Chippewa 10% Project initiative. Its purpose is to…  Read More

Nitrogen Pollution’s Farm Policy Roots

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

Letter: When it Comes to Addressing Nitrates, State Needs an Effective Public Engagement Campaign

LSP & Allies Call for Several Action Steps on the Part of MDH, MPCA & MDA

Note: In April 2023, the Land Stewardship Project joined 10 other groups in filing a petition calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to use its emergency authority under the Safe Drinking Water Act to address the fact that nitrate contamination is causing “an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health” in the karst region of…  Read More

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

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

Land Line: Riverview, Community Foods, State Farm Bills, Avian Flu, Nitrogen Fertilizer, Glyphosate & Cancer, MCOOL

Proposed Dairy in Morris Would Become Minnesota’s Largest Feedlot (3/16/26) The Minnesota Star Tribune reports on a proposal to create the largest livestock operation in Minnesota. Highlights: Riverview LLP, the state’s largest milk producer, has applied for permits to build the single largest dairy and feedlot in the state’s history by expanding one of its…  Read More

The Fifth R

A 'Generational Urban Farmer' Looks to Build Community Resilience

On a warm, overcast day in early fall, a low line of shrubby trees blocks the view of a seemingly empty lot on Penn Avenue, a busy thoroughfare in the Willard-Hay Neighborhood of North Minneapolis. A television with a cracked screen lays in some weeds at the edge of the lot, a reminder that if…  Read More

Will Allen’s Good People Revolution

Near the end of Will Allen’s inspiring book, The Good Food Revolution, DeShell Parker talks about what Growing Power means to her: “It means integrity. It means strong thinking. It means willpower. It means confidence. It means assertiveness. It’s so far beyond dirt and worms.” Allen’s book, which he wrote with Charles Wilson, is extremely…  Read More