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Searched for: regional food systems

Open Hands Farm

Open Hands Farm is a 20-acre certified organic CSA farm located just two miles north of Northfield, Minn. We think that healthy food should not be a luxury, and that a CSA share is an inexpensive way to enjoy organic vegetables and fruit. Our shareholders come to the farm once-a-week from early June through the…  Read More

Prairie Drifter Farm

Prairie Drifter Farm is a diversified, certified organic vegetable farm serving the Minnesota communities of Litchfield, Dassel, and Saint Cloud through Community Supported Agriculture. Pick-up locations include the farm, Litchfield Natural Food Co-op, Dassel Community Room, and the Good Earth Food Co-op in Saint Cloud. Our farm is committed to building community through food, stewarding…  Read More

From Crisis to Community

A Shared Threat Prompts a Shared Vision for a New Farm As the land auction progressed, it looked like the parcel was on its way to exchanging hands at a decent price. But the landowner grew increasingly anxious about the guy who was likely to get the highest bid—he was a well-known owner of large-scale…  Read More

Farm Beginnings Profile: Andy Cotter & Irene Genelin

Wheeling into the Future

It’s not every day that you see the words “unicyclists” and “farming” used in the same sentence, but here we go: national and world champion unicyclists Andy Cotter and Irene Genelin launched a farming operation a half-a-dozen years ago. Now, this is the part of the story that cries out for a familiar trope like…  Read More

LSP: Congress Should Vote No on Fast Track, TPP

As Land Stewardship Project members and supporters know, LSP has been active in working to defeat Congressional approval of pro-corporate trade policy, such as fast track authority and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. This week, we sent letters to members of the Minnesota and Wisconsin congressional delegations, laying out LSP’s reasons for its firm opposition, and urging…  Read More

Our Voices Matter: Minneapolis Park Board Adds Racial Equity to Urban Ag Plan

On May 21, Neighborhoods Organizing for Change member and Food Justice Leader Selam Yosief joined dozens of others in demanding racial equity in the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board’s (MPRB) Urban Agriculture Activity Plan. “I ask you Park Board to take action tonight and add racial equity into the plan,” said Yosief. Later, she reflected…  Read More

How Farmworker Wage Theft Bankrupts Our Rural Communities

A few years ago LSP organizer Doug Nopar was told of a southeast Minnesota farm operation that was withholding wages from a worker after he had accidentally damaged a door with a skid steer loader. Nopar called the farm owner and let him know this action was quite illegal. The farmer’s response? “You know, I…  Read More

Land Line: Farm Finance Crisis, Mental Health, Inflated Inputs, Crop-Livestock Synergy, Bread Bloat, Pesticides in Water, Soil Health & MAHA

Minnesota Farmers Seek State Aid as Foreclosure Crisis Looms (8/8/25) Financially strapped Minnesota farmers are asking the state to intervene with their lenders at a midsummer rate not seen in almost a decade, reports the Star Tribune. Highlights: In June, 197 farmers filed notice for help from the University of Minnesota Extension’s Farmer-Lender Mediation program.…  Read More

Sarah Wescott

Sarah Wescott was raised on a commercial apple orchard outside of Elgin and Plainview, in southeastern Minnesota. From a young age, she gained an appreciation for rural community and agriculture. This guided her studies at Macalester College where she earned a degree in environmental studies, a food systems emphasis, a minor in Latin American studies,…  Read More

Ear to the Ground 362: Regenerative Return

When Roy Pfaltzgraff returned to his family’s northeastern Colorado cropping operation in 2016, he was committed to making farming a fulltime endeavor that built resilient soil, supported the community, and produced healthy food. (Second in a three-part series on small grains and community-based foods.) More Information • Episode 3 in Ear to the Ground Small Grains Workshop Series: “Landon Plagge —…  Read More