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Searched for: regional food systems

For its 10th Round of Farm Transition Workshops, LSP Expands Course to South Dakota 

Farmers/Landowners in Region Offered 2 Options for 2026 Session

October 16, 2025

LEWISTON, Minn. — The Land Stewardship Project’s long-running course for farmers and other landowners looking to transition their agricultural operations to the next generation is expanding into South Dakota in 2026. The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) Winter Farm Transition Planning Course, which enters its 10th session in 2026, provides a holistic opportunity to dig into important topics…  Read More →

Ear to the Ground 360: Food Bank Booster

At a time when rural residents are grappling with high food insecurity, an innovative Wisconsin program is connecting local farmers with local eaters. More Information • Wisconsin Local Food Purchase Assistance Program • LSP’s Community-Based Food Systems Web Page • Latino Economic Development Center • Threshing Table Farm You can find LSP Ear to the Ground podcast…  Read More →

A Home Away From Home

When Melissa Driscoll Climbed Down the Ladder, She Reassessed Sustainability

By Brian DeVore
July 12, 2023

Every living thing needs a home — even ginger, tomatoes, and garlic. And southeastern Minnesota farmer Melissa Driscoll sees written contracts as handy and efficient vehicles for getting her produce to their final destination. An extensive use of forward contracts isn’t just good for business — it gives Driscoll the kind of peace of mind…  Read More →

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

By Brian DeVore
April 20, 2017

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 →

Land Line: Corn Belt Cancer, Integrating Crops & Livestock, Trade Turmoil, Farmland Access, Erosion, SNAP, Microbe Memory

October 31, 2025

Report: Cancer Rates Rising Among Young People in the Corn Belt (10/29/25) The Minnesota Reformer reports on an analysis conducted by The Washington Post showing that the six states that lead in corn production — Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, and Kansas — have seen higher rates of cancer among young people than other states…  Read More →

Area Farmers Share Land Access & Marketing Concerns with Legislators From 9 States

Pre Farm-Aid SIX Tour Highlights Environmental, Health Benefits Provided by Cannon Falls & Rochester Farmers 

September 23, 2025

CANNON FALLS, Minn. — Shea-Lynn Ramthun stood in a recently harvested oat field on her family’s farm near Cannon Falls last week and described to a couple dozen lawmakers a dilemma that’s all-too-common in the agriculture business: she had just successfully raised a bumper crop, only to run into the brick wall of not having…  Read More →

LSP Board Chair: ‘We do love our immigrant neighbors and we need them.’

'Through much of LSP's work, we see firsthand the role that immigrant families play in revitalizing our rural economies.'

By Heather Benson
February 17, 2025

On Valentine’s Day, members of the Immigrant Defense Network turned out across Minnesota to spread a “Love Your Immigrant Neighbor” message and to inform people of their rights when confronted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who are enforcing mass deportation orders from the White House. Last November, more than 90 Minnesota groups…  Read More →

Midwestern Farmers Invited to Answer this Question: What Do YOU Want in the New Farm Bill? 

Farmers in Minnesota, Iowa & Wisconsin Asked to Participate in New Survey

February 24, 2022

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — As discussions around the 2023 Farm Bill get off the ground, a key group of people are being asked to share their views on the future of agricultural policy: farmers. During the next several weeks, the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) is circulating the National Young Farmer Survey in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin in…  Read More →

Farm Transitions: A Transition Power Team

By Brian DeVore
October 1, 2020

A Farm Transfers Ownership & a Farmer Transfers into a New Role What’s that stuff in soil that’s supposed to provide humans a sense of wellbeing? You know, like a protozoa-based version of Prozac? Emmalyn Kayser is trying to come up with the name on a recent March afternoon as she and Chris Burkhouse squat…  Read More →