Ear to the Ground 161
How women play a major role in the future of farmland and our rural communities.
How women play a major role in the future of farmland and our rural communities.
While walking a piece of North Dakota landscape under a withering summer sun, one’s thoughts turn to moisture—or rather, the lack of it. So when I and other participants in a soil health tour kicked up signs of cool, shady places while traipsing across a hay field, it seemed like a mirage. Green-and-black leopard frogs… Read More →
When you grow up on a farm in the shadow of the Jolly Green Giant, you can’t help but think that size matters when it comes to success in agriculture. Josh Reinitz’s family’s land sits between Minneapolis and Mankato, just a few miles from where a wooden likeness of the Green One and his apprentice… Read More →
While leading a group of natural resource professionals through one of his dairy pastures one early fall day, Martin Jaus made it crystal clear he farms the land for more than a milk check. “Every day we see something that just amazes us,” he said with a smile. “One day I was making hay and… Read More →
Sign Up for E-mail Delivery of The Land Line Nitrate is Quietly Polluting Rural Drinking Wells. How Researchers are Working to Help (4/21/26) Harvest Public Media reports that across the Midwest and Great Plains, large-scale fertilizer application and livestock facilities have increased the pace of nitrate contamination accumulating in groundwater. Highlights: Scientists have tested more… Read More →
DRATfarm is a custom rotational grazing operation offering a nontraditional farm internship blending training on rotational grazing/regenerative agricultural practices with electoral campaigning. Farm internship description: Dan Wilson is looking for someone who is interested in helping on his ‘custom grazing’ operation of about 35 cows on our 60 acres of mixed woodland pasture outside of… Read More →
Farm Manager | The Boreal Farm Certified Organic · Full-Time · Year-Round · Northeastern Minnesota About the Farm- The Boreal Farm is a certified organic operation just outside Duluth, Minnesota, growing vegetables, flowers, herbs, and native plants for a CSA and farmstand in rhythm with the Northern season. Big sky. Lake Superior wind. Long summer… Read More →
After Nitrate Lawsuit, Minnesota Opens Farm Fertilizer Rule for Public Comment (2/18/26) The Star Tribune reports that the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is seeking public comment on its 2019 groundwater protection rule, a standard that governs how and when fertilizer is applied. Highlights: It’s the first step in the MDA’s review of the standard… Read More →
We wanted to make you aware of an opportunity Farm Aid is offering Minnesota farmers as the Land Stewardship Project and our allies prepare to welcome the group’s 40th Anniversary concert to Minneapolis on Saturday, Sept. 20. Farm Aid is seeking farmers who would like to have their operations photographed in early August. These photos… Read More →
When it comes to youth programs centered around gardening and farming, a common mantra is, “We’re teaching kids about where their food comes from.” Sounds laudable, but to Marcos Giossi, such a feel-good goal is too limiting when it comes to exposing young people to the realities of the farm and food system that dominates.… Read More →