One of the most anti-environmental pieces of legislation to come out of the Minnesota Capitol in several years became law on Saturday, June 13. The Agriculture and Environment Omnibus Budget Bill was supposed to provide funding for numerous initiatives of importance to rural Minnesotans. However, as the session wound down, several policy provisions were plugged… Read More →
When Renville County dairy farmer James Kanne addressed a Minnesota Senate hearing on environmental review Jan. 29, he made it clear that size does matter when it comes to assessing the impact of an agricultural operation on the land and community. “If you have 50 cows in one spot, they have a small impact,” Kanne… Read More →
Give it a Listen Episode 374 of LSP’s Ear to the Ground podcast features a discussion with government relations director Laura Schreiber about how the organization’s priorities fared during the legislative session. ♦ ♦ ♦ As I write this, the regular session of the 2025 Minnesota Legislature wrapped up with some unfinished business, which means… Read More →
On an overcast day in late June, Arlo Hark drives a semi into a gravel parking lot near the southeastern Minnesota community of Rushford pulling a trailer adorned with an “Eat Lamb: 10,000 Coyotes Can’t be Wrong” bumper sticker. He opens two doors on the side of the trailer and 120 lambs and ewes explode… Read More →
CUMBERLAND, Iowa — Here in southwestern Iowa, it’s the season of the white torpedo. Once it seemed spring wasn’t fake news, pickup trucks began towing to winter-dormant fields tubular tanks of gaseous anhydrous ammonia fertilizer here and in the rest of the Corn Belt. These white cylinders are the harbingers of a new planting season… Read More →
Robyn is seeking farmland in Minnesota.
‘Farming in the dark’: Brooke Rollins’ Leadership, DOGE’s Grip and the Cost to American Agriculture (7/22/25) According to Investigate Midwest, during her first six months in office U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has brought sweeping changes to USDA and largely embraced President Donald Trump’s agenda of downsizing the federal government. Mass firings have purged… Read More →
Minnesota Sands Announces Intentions to Target Fillmore & Winona Counties for More Mining The Minnesota Environmental Quality Board (EQB) made the right decision May 21 by tabling the issue of taking a Houston County mine out of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) ordered on the multi-site Minnesota Sands, LLC, frac sand mining project. Thus, the… Read More →
MORRIS, Minn. — Building a community-based infrastructure that is centered around local farmers producing food for local markets is a significant challenge in a region dominated by an export-driven corn and soybean system, but there are signs of progress being made in the Upper Minnesota River Valley, said participants in a Land Stewardship Project (LSP)… Read More →
As a Nature Conservancy scientist based in a Midwestern state, Steve Chaplin thinks a lot about the impact agriculture has on ecological treasures such as native tallgrass prairie. “Other than plowing, grazing has probably been responsible for the degradation of more prairie than any other source,” says Chaplin, who is in the Conservancy’s Minnesota field… Read More →
