What do you do when your county has the highest cancer rate in the state and the local river experiences a catastrophic fish kill? Denise O’Brien, Larry Harris, and their neighbors responded by asking an important question: “What’s in the water?” (4th in a series on nitrates, farming, and water) More Information • Nishnabotna Water… Read More →
Nutrient management expert Matthew Helmers has researched how certain land use practices can have a “disproportionate impact” when it comes to nitrate pollution reduction. He says it all starts with focusing on a simple mantra: “always be growing.” (2nd in a series on nitrates, farming, and water) More Information • 1st in the “Nitrates, Farming,… Read More →
The MPCA’s Justin Watkins sees nitrates leaking out of farm fields as an “invisible” problem that’s all too easily ignored. The solution is to shine a spotlight on widespread systems changes in agriculture. (1st in a series on nitrates, farming, and water) More Information • 2nd in the “Nitrates, Farming, and Water” LSP podcast series:… Read More →
Sign Up for E-mail Delivery of The Land Line USDA’s Regenerative Pilot Program Expansion Contradicts Farm Bill’s Funding Cuts (10/2/26) Brownfield Radio Network reports on the USDA’s plans to expand its Regenerative Pilot Program and concerns that conservation program cuts will undermine its implementation. Highlights: The USDA announced increased financial assistance for the Regenerative Pilot… Read More →
BYRON, Minn. — How do you grapple with a hidden problem? That was a question at the center of a Land Stewardship Project (LSP) “Smarter Nitrogen Policy” discussion involving around two dozen farmers, water quality experts and state legislators at the Martin Larsen farm near Byron Aug. 20. “We fix what we can see —… Read More →
Sign Up for E-mail Delivery of The Land Line Morris-Based Mega-Dairy Coming Closer to Reality with Key Regulatory Ruling (6/7/26) The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) will not require an environmental impact statement for an expansion that would create the largest dairy CAFO in Minnesota, reports the Minnesota Reformer. Highlights: Riverview wants to expand a… Read More →
Sign Up for E-mail Delivery of The Land Line Opinion: Huge Dairy Operations Change the Fabric of Farm Country (5/28/26) Dairy farmer Duane Holker writes in the Minnesota Star Tribune that plans to build the largest dairy operation in Minnesota are a threat to producers like himself, as well as rural communities in general. Highlights:… Read More →
Sign Up for E-mail Delivery of The Land Line Nearly One-Fifth of Americans Are Consuming Water With High Levels of Nitrates (4/27/26) Close to 20% of Americans are exposed to water polluted with high levels of potentially cancer-causing nitrates, known to come mostly from agricultural runoff, according to a study reported on in Inside Climate… 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 →
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 →
