When you look at the bills being pushed at our State Capitol this year it appears many legislators think that what people living in rural and small town Minnesota want are more factory farms and less of a say in what happens in our community. Nothing is further from reality. But reality at the Capitol… Read More →
Permit is Suspended Until Minnesota Court of Appeals Issues Ruling RED WING, Minn. — Goodhue County Commissioners voted today to grant a Conditional Use Permit for a controversial factory hog farm proposed in Goodhue County’s Zumbrota Township. Neighbors to the proposal have documented how it does not meet the standards of the Goodhue County Ordinance.… Read More →
CALEDONIA, Minn. — Building soil health and integrating cover crops on area farming operations is the focus of a Land Stewardship Project (LSP) workshop Wednesday, Feb. 15, at the Good Times Restaurant in Caledonia (118 Bissen Street). The keynote speaker is Dr. Kristine Nichols, chief scientist at the Rodale Institute and an internationally known soil… Read More →
Without MPCA Citizens’ Board, Neighbors Shut Out of Decision ZUMBROTA TOWNSHIP, Minn. — The Commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has decided an inaccurate and incomplete Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) on a proposed factory hog farm in Goodhue County’s Zumbrota Township will not be corrected. Neighbors to the proposed facility learned late last… Read More →
Incredibly, MPCA Environmental Review Missed Neighbors’ Homes & Wells Land Stewardship Project members in Zumbrota Township in southeastern Minnesota’s Goodhue County are facing the possibility of having a proposed 4,700-hog factory farm and 3.7-million-gallon liquid manure pit in their community. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is charged with doing an accurate and thorough environmental… Read More →
After a lifetime of working for others in agricultural jobs, and retired after a career with the postal service, Tom Hoekstra and his wife, Lisa, bought a 150-acre farm outside of Plainview in southeastern Minnesota. Tom was 59 when they bought the farm in 2009. Right after their purchase, they immediately went to work re-building… Read More →
After receiving my degree from St. Olaf College last spring, I have returned to the family farm outside Caledonia, Minn. I come home with a deeper understanding that soil rich in organic matter and biota can function more efficiently than biologically deprived soils. Having grown up on this small southeastern Minnesota beef and crop farm,… Read More →
NOTE: Southeastern Minnesota farmer and Land Stewardship Project member Curt Tvedt recently talked to LSP staffer Shona Snater about why he is excited about building soil health on his farm. Below is an excerpt of Tvedt’s thoughts: The soil scientists say there are more living species in a tablespoon of soil than there are people… Read More →
I have been a member of the Land Stewardship Project since 2008, first joining through the Farm Beginnings program. Since then, and even before, as a grass-fed beef farmer, a professor of sustainable agriculture law issues, and now renting our farm fields to Farm Beginning’s graduates, I have observed and participated in LSP’s campaigns and… Read More →
As Laura Lengnick makes clear, “resiliency” is all the rage these days. It seems the term is being tossed around by everyone from Wall Street investment bankers to wildlife biologists. That the term is in such vogue is a good thing. It’s an acknowledgement that whatever system we’re talking about—economic, ecological or sociological—it often lacks… Read More →
