Do you own farmland and want to make sure it is taken care of using good stewardship practices? Two “Managing for Stewardship” workshops are being presented in Minnesota this winter by the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) and the Upper Mississippi Region of the League of Women Voters. These workshops are for farmland owners, retired farm… Read More →
This summer and fall, Land Stewardship Project members have been hard at work preparing for the 2023 Minnesota state legislative session, which begins on Tuesday, January 3. Hundreds of LSP members, supporters, and allies across the state have engaged in workshops, surveys, and one-to-one visits to lay out what they’re excited for our organization to… Read More →
Anne on behalf of the Land Conservation Natural Burial Association is seeking to conserve/restore a minimum of 20 acres. But if the land directly touches other protected land, the minimum is much lower: just 5 acres (though more is welcome!). If you have a much larger parcel of land that you would like to conserve,… Read More →
Even a brief conversation with Tom Cogger makes it clear what he enjoys doing: producing food. And that’s what he’s done on his Maple Hill Farm near Washburn in northwestern Wisconsin for almost two decades. In the early years, Cogger concentrated mostly on produce, but since his son Matthew joined the operation in 2009, pork… Read More →
The Land Stewardship Project began organizing around healthcare in 2008 after hearing over and over again from our members that one of the primary barriers to getting into farming, or staying in it, is lack of access to affordable and useful health insurance. Farmers and other self-employed people do not have employer-based healthcare coverage without off-the-farm or… Read More →
A Minnesota Dairy Farm Transitions from One Family to the Next Atop the river-bluffs near the southeastern Minnesota community of La Crescent, the 90-plus Ayrshires of Enchanted Meadows Organic Farm munch on fescue, clovers, plantain and other greenery on a recent summer day. Then, on schedule, they’re led from pasture to barn. Recently, after 10… Read More →
The past few months have been harder than ever for thousands of Minnesotans. Our communities were already facing a serious farm crisis, inaccessible and unaffordable healthcare, increasing impacts of climate change, corporate consolidation across our economy, and more. On top of that, a pandemic has wreaked havoc on our healthcare system, farm and food system,… Read More →
As of today— April 10 — due to the outbreak of COVID-19, nearly 350,000 Minnesotans have applied for unemployment benefits. That is already more than the total number of applicants in all of 2019. Nationally, 16.6 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits in the past three weeks. In the wake of a global pandemic,… Read More →
Cover crops proved themselves foul weather friends during the Great Drought of 2012. A groundbreaking farmer survey conducted in the Upper Mississippi River watershed showed that during that year’s brutal growing season keeping the soil covered with small grains and other plants helped fields preserve enough precious moisture to provide a yield bump of, in… Read More →
Sometimes, there’s nothing like a speed bump to send you on your way toward that ultimate goal. In the case of Jason and Juli Montgomery-Riess, that slight detour was in the form of the Land Stewardship Project’s Farm Beginnings course. Before taking the class, both had worked on some of the top produce operations in… Read More →
