There’s a farm near Hixton, Wis., (Jackson County) that is in the process of being destroyed by being turned into a frac sand mine. I would say it’s a least a couple of hundred acres. It’s at the intersection of Highway 95 and Green (but not for long!) Acres Road. Some excavation has begun, there… Read More →
Not long ago, Rich and Carol Radtke were on a bit of a roll. They had graduated from the Land Stewardship Project’s Farm Beginnings course and felt the program had provided them a solid basis for developing a profitable farming operation on land they and their three children moved to in 2008. Before taking the… Read More →
Amy Haben and Tom Moore ride a golf cart over a rickety wooden bridge spanning Otter Creek and follow a path to a lush pasture where a couple dozen head of Scottish Highland cattle graze, their shaggy coats luminescent in the late afternoon sun of a June day. “Before they grazed the edge of the… Read More →
What is the most critical discussion that needs to take place to ensure a sustainable food and farming system long into the future? Is it one on policy, farming techniques, green technology, consumer preferences or soil fertility? No. It’s the conversation that takes place between Nettie and Gerald during LSP’s play, Look Who’s Knockin’, which… Read More →
On the Internet, you’re only as old as you feel—at least until the person you’re corresponding with travels from two states away to meet you face-to-face. When Dave and Deb Welsch started communicating via e-mail with Steve and Shelley Lorenz in 2007, a lot of assumptions were made about the age of the parties on… Read More →
Note: This commentary originally ran in the Minnesota Star Tribune on Oct. 17. When Minnesota’s growing season draws to a close, so does another kind of season: that period between spring and fall when farmers invite other farmers onto their land for “field days,” so they can share ideas about what’s working and what isn’t.… Read More →
The Land Stewardship Project and our members have worked for 43 years to push back against the expansion of a factory farming model that forces out farmers, harms the land and water, and puts our communities at risk. This work is built upon that experience, and the stories of our farmer and rural members who… Read More →
When I first moved to Minnesota eight years ago, my knowledge of soils and agricultural systems was purely textbook. I live and work in an amazing community that has taught me more than I ever expected to learn, and has pulled back the curtain on our current farming systems and the ways in which they… Read More →
Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court announced that it would not hear frac sand corporation Minnesota Sands, LLC’s, suit attempting to overturn the Winona County frac sand ban. Thus, the ordinance preventing any frac sand mining, processing, or transportation operations within the southeastern Minnesota county’s jurisdiction remains in place. The Land Stewardship Project is pleased… Read More →
Research is Developing Crops that Help Farmers Profitably Clean up Water SAINT PAUL, Minn. — Bills have been introduced in the Minnesota House and Senate that would fully fund the University of Minnesota’s Forever Green Initiative, a program employing cutting-edge research focused on developing cover cropping and perennial plant systems that keep the land covered… Read More →
