Land Stewardship Project

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Justice & Stewardship

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The Land Stewardship Project envisions a food and farming system and thriving, healthy communities that work for everyone, no exceptions.

In 2020, LSP members and others in Litchfield, Minn., called for justice in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.

Whether Black or white, immigrant or Indigenous, working class or middle class, queer or straight, man, woman, or non-binary, we all deserve dignified, productive, and creative lives.

Racism, patriarchy, and economic injustice are major barriers to accomplishing the Land Stewardship Project’s mission. Therefore, we must dismantle these systems of oppression and lift up collective liberation so we can all be free to live healthy and vibrant lives together.

As we care for the soil, we participate in the healing of the land. As we work to understand each other and eliminate oppression, we participate in the healing of community. Because we believe people and the land belong together, these aspects of stewardship and healing are inseparable.

Racial Justice Cohorts

During the past few years, the Land Stewardship Project has convened racial justice cohorts during which participants, working with people of color, learn how they can advance justice and equity in their communities. To participate in an upcoming cohort, contact one of the LSP organizers listed in the sidebar on the right side of this page.

Social Justice Reference Document

LSP has developed “Connecting Economic & Racial Justice to Expand a Rural Social Justice Network” as a reference document for any group, agency, or organization looking to establish and grow a social justice network in their locality. This report is also intended to guide other social justice networks through discussions and activities that draw out their values, experiences, and ideas for influencing social change in their communities. To read and download the reference document, click here.

Connecting Economic & Racial Justice to Expand a Rural Social Justice Network

LSP has developed “Connecting Economic & Racial Justice to Expand a Rural Social Justice Network” as a reference document for any group, agency, or organization looking to establish and grow a social justice network in their locality. This report is also intended to guide other social justice networks through discussions and activities that draw out their values, experiences, and ideas for influencing social change in their communities. To download this publication, click here.

Subscribe to LSP’s Racial Justice E-letter

Amplify! is a Land Stewardship Project e-letter featuring updates, action items, and resources for LSP members engaging in racial justice work in their communities. To subscribe, click here.

Rural Voices for Racial Justice Videos

Check out our recent video series, “Rural Voices for Racial Justice,” which features LSP members across the Upper Midwest who are amplifying their voices for racial justice in the food and farming system. 

  • Abigail Hindson reminds us that we need to move beyond fear and white silence to stand up for the common good.
  • Dayna Burtness talks about how structural racism is real and that we need to pull together and have a sense of urgency around implementing solutions together.
  • Ben Doherty reminds us that when we talk about working to make things better for future generations, we should be working to do that for everybody’s kids and grandkids.
  • Eva Barr says, “If we’re committed to diversifying our fields in the interest of building our soil, we need to be committed to diversifying our society on the landscape to save our planet.”

What We Mean by Economic, Gender & Racial Justice*

Systemic economic injustice, structural racism, and gender inequity are major barriers to the advancement of LSP’s mission. These forces are interconnected and impact every facet of our work. Understanding how they affect our work and ultimately dismantling these systems of oppression is required for LSP to achieve the change we seek in the world. Addressing systemic injustices also gives us the opportunity to participate in the healing part of the movement. As we care for the soil, we participate in the healing of the land. As we work to understand each other and eliminate oppression, we participate in the healing of community. Moving forward, we will use the following descriptions to understand how our work is impacted by these powerful inequities and how we will work to dismantle them.

Economic Justice

We believe that each person has the right to have a dignified, productive, and creative life. We depend on each other, and we are invested in each other’s success. However, the economy we live in today is controlled by major corporations, which prioritize their profits and control above all else. Huge corporations exert influence over every aspect of our farm and food system, consolidating wealth, land, and profits for a few while rural communities and the land suffer.

What we need is an economy that supports the family-sized farms that are on the land now and expands land access and secures land tenure for all people who want to farm, including people of color, Indigenous people, and women. We need a people-centered economy and a people-centered government that support opportunities for meaningful work with compensation which allows families to flourish. We need quality housing, services, and infrastructure that connect us and allow for innovation. We envision stronger connections among people who live, work, and eat in rural, urban, and suburban communities, allowing them to build a shared prosperity together. We believe economic decisions should be shaped by the people directly impacted by them; these decisions about natural resources and the land should serve the people and promote stewardship of the earth.

Gender Justice

To achieve the vibrant, resilient communities we envision, everyone’s energies and full creative potential must be unleashed. This can’t happen without equity in opportunity for everyone, whatever gender identity they have. Women and gender non-conforming people increasingly make up the ranks of farmers. They have been essential farm partners for generations, and many more are inheriting farms and becoming beginning farmers.

We embrace all as farmers and welcome everyone who aspires to farm and care for the land. Family farms are part of the multitude of farming operations and relationships that make up LSP’s membership. There are many different kinds of household and small community relationships and structures that people rely on to farm together, and there are new kinds of farms emerging all the time. All of these farms matter and are part of the fabric of small and mid-sized farms that LSP believes is essential to stewardship of the land.

Women and gender non-binary people, those who farm and those who do not, are leaders in our communities, and their power and ability to create positive change grows with the advancement of gender justice.

LSP has the opportunity to demonstrate in practice what gender equity looks like and can mean for all of us. Ensuring one’s full contribution paves the way for a society based on stewardship, sustainability, economic justice, and racial equity.

Racial Justice

LSP believes every person — of any race, rural or urban, old or young — has value that can’t be earned or taken away. We believe healthy rural communities and sustainable agriculture are not possible without addressing racism and racial disparities in our communities and valuing the wisdom and contributions of people from all backgrounds. We all benefit when we are united behind a common goal of a society where everyone can thrive. We believe that achieving racial equity is the work of white people in collaboration with people of color and Indigenous communities. Towards this goal, LSP seeks to lead as a mostly white, mostly rural membership organization to act in real and sustained solidarity. This work takes many forms and we are learning as we move forward. In January 2017, LSP’s management team
adopted five strategies to advance racial justice:

• Organizing white rural Midwesterners, leading with values, and winning on issues that matter to
them, while being explicit that we stand for racial justice, and linking to the larger movement for
stewardship and justice that we are helping to build.
• Racial justice training, education, action, and analysis with LSP’s staff, members, and leaders.
• Movement organizing — LSP joining with, sometimes following and sometimes providing
leadership to, an emerging multi-racial movement of allies, working to achieve economic,
environmental, gender, and racial justice.
• Showing up and standing with allied organizations and communities of color and indigenous
communities that come under attack.
• Responding directly and effectively to racist statements and actions.

Furthermore, we recognize that the founding of the U.S. was via migrations of peoples from Europe and elsewhere, imposing new borders on land already occupied by Indigenous peoples. Today we are seeing increasing migrations of peoples across the world due to violence, stress over resources, and the effects of the climate crisis. We recognize our interconnection with such refugees and migrants as people like ourselves, seeking opportunity and security for their loved ones. Rather than build walls to exclude others, we understand the need to heal the planet and the violence that plagues our nations.

It is only by actively engaging in the dismantling of each of these types of systemic oppression
that we can achieve the truly sustainable and regenerative food and farming systems that we
want and need.

* This language taken from the Land Stewardship Project’s long range plan: Vision for the Future: 5 Year Plan 2019-2024.

Racial Justice Fact Sheets

• Justice on the Land: Responding to Police Violence

• White Nationalism & White Supremacy

Related Posts

  • Soil Health & Racial Justice — What?!

    April 5, 2022

    The Questions…
    What does soil health have to do with racial justice? Why does the Land Stewardship Project write articles and posts about racial justice for…

    Blog
    agriculture policy, economic justice, local food systems, racial justice, regional food systems, soil health, state policy
    Soil Health & Racial Justice — What?!
  • Ear to the Ground 188: Telling a New Story About Race

    Autumn Brown talks about how we can counter the myths that lead to racial injustice in rural America and elsewhere.

    Ear to the Ground 188: Telling a New Story About Race
  • Ear to the Ground 309: Stewards of the Land

    Two Puerto Rican filmmakers talk about Stewards of the Land/Serán las dueñas de la tierra, which documents the stories of three beginning farmers as they build relationships and…

    Ear to the Ground 309: Stewards of the Land

Contact

• Nick Olson, LSP organizer
e-mail, 320-269-1057
• Alex Romano, LSP organizer
e-mail, 612-767-9880
• Clara Sanders, LSP organizer
e-mail, 612-400-6340

 

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        • Anti-Competitiveness & Price Gouging
      • Federal Policy
        • A Farm Bill For Us
      • State Policy
        • MN Farm, Food & Climate Funding
      • Developing Leadership
      • Caucus for Land Stewardship
    • Justice & Stewardship
    • Organizational Stewardship
    • Building People Power
  • Join, Donate, or Renew
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Upcoming Events

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October 2023

Friday September 29 – Sunday October 1

Upper Minnesota River Meander Art Crawl
Friday September 29 – Sunday October 1
Upper Minnesota River Meander Art Crawl

The award-winningMeander Art Crawlis a free self-guided tour of artist studios featuring 40 local artists from the Upper Minnesota River Valley. We encourage visitors to visit artists in their own environment who celebrate a lifestyle that represents the small, handmade, personal, and local culture of the area.This event has more than 30 individual studios in and near the western Minnesota communities of Ortonville, Appleton, Madison, Milan, Dawson, Montevideo, and Granite Falls.

Tuesday October 3

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Optimizing No-Till Methods for a Direct-to-Market Organic Vegetable Farm
Tuesday October 3
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Optimizing No-Till Methods for a Direct-to-Market Organic Vegetable Farm

No-till farming methods are increasingly part of the dialogue in conventional crop farming, but the techniques employed at large scales are not practical or accessible for small vegetable growers. Join Land Stewardship Project members Whitewater Gardens Farm as they explore three of the more common vegetable no-till methods to identify the most sustainable approach in terms of soil health, labor investment, and crop health and yield on our farm.

The field day will be at 17485 Calico Hill Road, Altura, MN. For more information, call 507-993-5504 or e-mail londietz@aol.com.

5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Organic Dairy Pasture Walk
Tuesday October 3
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Organic Dairy Pasture Walk

The NW Wisconsin Graziers Network, River Country RC&D, and UW-Madison Extension invite you to an organic dairy pasture walk hosted by Turnip Rock Farm and Cosmic Wheel Creamery four miles south of Amery in Polk County on Tuesday, October 3, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. This educational event will emphasize seasonal calving organic dairying with on-farm cheese making and direct marketing with an on-farm store, and vegetable production.

The host farm is home to Land Stewardship Project members Josh Bryceson and Rama Hoffpauir and family. They raise grass fed mixed breed high component dairy cows, (10), pastured pork production (20), and extensive vegetable garden production. Their locally processed cheese is marketed directly to customers and the whey is fed to their pigs. The operation consists of about 80 acres (60 acres rotated pastures and 3 acres in vegetable production) on gently rolling loamy soils.

A soil health discussion lead by Extension staff will highlight the challenges of forage production in this year’s dry conditions. A farmstead creamery with seasonal spring calving and once a day milking, a home built milking parlor facility, grass fed beef, and pastured pork will be included on the farm tour. We will discuss stockpiling pasture, marketing techniques, and many othertopics along with answering any and all questions from pasture walk participants.

Josh and Rama have developed a diversified direct marketing program. Everything is direct-marketed through 150 member veggie CSA, online stores, restaurants, farmer’s markets, and a new on-farm store and other strategies to support direct sales to customers. Ask questions and learn all about this diversified approach.

The farm is located at 260 95th Street, Clear Lake, WI, and south of Amery in central Polk County. From Hwy 46 south of Amery 3 miles, take a left turn (east) onto 35thavenue , go east 1½ miles, then turn right onto 95thStreet and go south about a mile to farm. From the south, take Hwy 46 north to 20thAvenue, turn right (east) and go about 1½miles and then turn north onto 95thstreet then go north about half mile to farm on the right. Watch for the signs.

For more information, contact Josh at 715-239-5127,http://www.turniprock.com/, Chris Johnson, with River Country RC&D at 715-579-0793, Becky Brathal, UW-Madison Extension Regional Crops Educator, at 651-302-6520, or Lynn Johnson at 715-225-9882 with NW Graziers.

Saturday October 7 – Monday October 9

Women Food & Ag Network Conference
Saturday October 7 – Monday October 9
Women Food & Ag Network Conference

The Women, Food, and Agriculture Network will convene with members this fall for its first in-person conference since the pandemic began. This will be a time of reunion, celebration, community learning, and retreat, as WFAN nourishes its rootsandgathers its communityonce again. For more information, see the conference web page.

Wednesday October 11

12:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Carbon Intensity, Kernza, & Water Quality Field Day
Wednesday October 11
12:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Carbon Intensity, Kernza, & Water Quality Field Day

Join the Land Stewardship Project and Clean River Partners at White Barn Acres in Kellogg, Minn., Oct. 11 for a Carbon Intensity, Kernza, and Water Quality field day to learn about emerging profit opportunities in farming. You’ll hear about: Continuum Ag, a regenerative ag company providing farmers with carbon intensity scoring and agronomy services; the new perennial dual use forage/grain crop, Kernza, its emerging markets, and how it benefits both soil health and water quality; and how local farmers have worked with the Minnesota Ag Water Quality Certification Program (MAWQCP).

Registration is required and available here. Please reach out to Alan Kraus, Conservation Program Manager for Clean River Partners, with any questions at alan@cleanriverpartners.org.

View Full Calendar

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