Ear to the Ground 185: Beauty Beneath Our Feet
An artist uses her work to introduce people to the wonders of the soil universe.
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Frac Sand Mining & Food Production Aren’t Compatible
In the 1980s, we helped start the Winona Farmers’ Market in Winona, Minn. Today, downtown Winona is buzzing with activity on Saturday mornings, with 40 vendors selling vegetables, fruits, meats, flowers, baked goods, dairy, honey and all sorts of delicious and healthy products, all grown and processed within a 50-mile radius of Winona. The Farmers’… Read More →
LSP 2016 Legislative Wrap-up: Local Control, Sustainable Ag Funding & Healthcare
The 2016 Minnesota legislative session ended at midnight on May 22 with the Land Stewardship Project engaged right until the end. Here is a summary of how the issues LSP was most engaged in fared during the session: ðŸ‘Legislation weakening local control is defeated (HF 2585/ SF 2694). For decades, LSP has fended off efforts… Read More →
Pacing Ourselves in the World Hunger Race
In the late 1790s and early 1800s, British economist Thomas Robert Malthus used mathematics, the agronomic reality of the day and basic biology to lay out a grim assessment about the future of the planet: we were doomed to an endless cycle of boom and bust. It was inevitable human populations would periodically grow to… Read More →
Stages of Learning in Farming: Stage 0–Laying the Foundation
First, some background: I grew up on a conventional hay, corn and soybean farm in western Iowa and moved to Rochester, Minn., for work after getting a mechanical engineering degree from Iowa State University. I like engineering, but after a few years of working in an office environment, I was feeling the urge to get… Read More →
Ear to the Ground 176: Testing Total Terra
LSP experiments with a new test that provides deeper insights into soil’s productive potential.
Ear to the Ground 175: Spades, Worms & Fungi
An Indiana farmer describes his experience with cover cropping and how it fits into a bigger goal of improving his land’s soil health (part 3 of 3).
The Farm Kid & the People’s University
Just about halfway through Dennis Keeney’s slim memoir on his life in agriculture, the author’s tone changes dramatically. For 54 pages, The Keeney Place: A Life in the Heartland, delivers on its title—it offers a somewhat nostalgic glimpse at growing up during the mid-20th Century on a diverse family farm east of Des Moines, Iowa.… Read More →
Ear to the Ground 166: From the Lab to the Land
A farmer works with a professor and her students at a local college to study the impacts of cropping on soil health.
BioBlitz: Community Conservation in Action
With knowledge comes power—as well as responsibility. On an overcast Saturday in July 2014 several dozen people were gaining more of the former with each step they took through rolling grassland in west-central Minnesota. And as they referred to field guides and smart phone nature apps while tallying a growing list of plant and animal… Read More →