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Searched for: regional food systems

Tool Provides Farmers a Way to Calculate the Cost of Soil Erosion

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Farmers now have an online tool available for calculating the potential soil erosion impact of various crop rotations. The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) today launched a component of its popular Cropping Systems Calculator that provides insights into how decisions made on an individual farm will influence water-caused soil loss in the immediate…  Read More

Fly-in Participants Call for Fair, Resilient Farm Policy

LSP Members Advocate for Climate Smart Ag Policy Proposals

During the Biden Administration’s first 100 days in office, the Land Stewardship Project was busy on the federal policy front. The role of agriculture in mitigating the climate crisis has been one focus of both the Administration and the new Congress. Over 500 LSP members and supporters signed on to our public comment on climate…  Read More

Land Line: CAFO Control, Cancer in Farm Country, Nitrates, Soil Health, Farm to School

March 19: An LSP Round-up of News Covering Land, People & Communities

Something Smells With the Feedlot Trend, and it’s More Than Just the Manure 3/16/25 Ron Way, former assistant director of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, writes in the Star Tribune about how factory farms have transformed the landscape in southern and central Minnesota. Highlights: Since the 1970s, backers of large-scale, industrialized livestock production have successfully…  Read More

Farmers Gather in Madison to Discuss ‘Bringing Small Grains Back to Minnesota’

LSP Networking Meeting Centers Around Producing, Processing & Marketing Wheat, Oats & Other Alternatives to Row Crops

MADISON, Minn. — “Welcome to my midlife crisis,” joked Peter Haugen on a Saturday morning in early August as a couple dozen farmers stood in a semi-circle around him and his wife, Brittany, at the edge of a 12-acre field south of Madison.  The “crisis” Peter was referring to was what was growing in that…  Read More

2024 Minnesota Legislative Session Wrap-Up 

Soil Health, Water Quality, Emerging Farmers, Regional Foods Supported; Factory Farm Controls Stall; Stage Set for 2025

As the clock struck midnight on Sunday, the Minnesota Legislature concluded its 2024 session. During the past few months, lawmakers primarily focused on revenue-neutral policy changes and some targeted funding of specific programs. During the session, Land Stewardship Project members made some progress on advancing our priorities and built a strong foundation to hit the…  Read More

Changes Ahead for LSP in 2023

Mike McMahon Departing as Executive Director

As the Land Stewardship Project begins the new year, Mike McMahon will be wrapping up his tenure as the executive director of LSP and the organization’s 501(c)4 political leadership development partner, the Land Stewardship Action Fund. McMahon would like to share this message with LSP’s members: “The Land Stewardship Project is a special organization and…  Read More

Healthy Soil, Healthy Farms, Healthy Communities (1st of 2 parts)

On a crisp morning in September, North Dakota farmer Gabe Brown held two handfuls of soil and searched for signs of life—theoretically not a difficult task considering one teaspoon of humus contains more organisms than there are humans in the world. But many of the bacteria and invertebrates that lurk in the dark basement of…  Read More

The Next Farm Bill Must be a Climate Bill

Sign the Letter Supporting the American Resilience Act

There are less than eight months before the current Farm Bill expires. Now is the time to demand BOLD solutions, especially BOLD climate solutions in the next Farm Bill. Take Action TODAY! The 2023 Farm Bill is being written now, and it needs to center farmer solutions when it comes to the climate crisis. Farmers…  Read More

The King of Cover Cropping

An Indiana initiative has made the state a national leader in getting continuous living cover established on crop acres. Can it change the way farmers view soil? Michael Werling is, literally, a card-carrying connoisseur of soil health. “I call it, ‘My ticket to a farm tour,’ ” says the northeastern Indiana crop producer, showing off…  Read More

Insuring Against Disaster

Thanks to the recently passed 2014 Farm Bill, federally subsidized crop insurance is an even bigger player in determining what the landscape looks like. That’s troubling, considering that in recent years that impact has been mostly negative, since the program removes most of the risk associated with plowing up acres formerly considered too erosive, wet…  Read More