Olmsted County Groundwater Protection and Soil Health Program

LSP Legislative Update: Proposals Related to Local Food, Land Access & Soil Health Moving Forward

Budget Issues Loom Large as Regular Session Heads into Final Weeks

By Laura Schreiber

April 8, 2025

As we pass a key date in the 2025 Minnesota legislative calendar, several initiatives supported by the Land Stewardship Project remain alive and are moving through the committee process. In order to be considered as part of an omnibus bill, the majority of proposed legislation had to be heard in both the House and Senate… Read More →

Category: Blog

Tags: emerging farmers • farm to institution • farm-to-school • land access • Minnesota Legislature • Olmsted County Groundwater Protection and Soil Health Program • soil health • state policy

Sign LSP’s Soil Health Petition

April 4, 2025

Building healthy soil across Minnesota is key to creating resiliency in the face of a changing climate and is also incredibly important in supporting clean water. We all want clean drinking water for our families and communities. Right now, bills are being heard in the Minnesota Legislature that could affect drinking water throughout the state… Read More →

Category: Action Alerts

Tags: Minnesota Legislature • Olmsted County Groundwater Protection and Soil Health Program • soil health

Land Line: CAFO Control, Cancer in Farm Country, Nitrates, Soil Health, Farm to School

March 19: An LSP Round-up of News Covering Land, People & Communities

By Brian DeVore

March 19, 2025

Something Smells With the Feedlot Trend, and it’s More Than Just the Manure 3/16/25 Ron Way, former assistant director of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, writes in the Star Tribune about how factory farms have transformed the landscape in southern and central Minnesota. Highlights: Since the 1970s, backers of large-scale, industrialized livestock production have successfully… Read More →

Category: Blog

Tags: CAFOs • cancer • groundwater • local democracy • nitrates • Olmsted County Groundwater Protection and Soil Health Program • pesticides • soil health

Nitrate’s Season of Reckoning

Ag Pollution in Karst Country Offers a Critical Opportunity for Soil-Friendly Farming

By Brian DeVore

January 20, 2024

For residents of southeastern Minnesota, the past few months must seem like “The Season of the Nitrate.” It turns out nitrogen, that critical source of crop fertility, is quite adept at escaping our farm fields, and, in the form of nitrate, polluting groundwater. So much so that scientists, government officials, and physicians now recognize it… Read More →

Category: Blog

Tags: cover crops • EPA • groundwater • karst • managed rotational grazing • MDA • MDH • MPCA • nitrates • Olmsted County Groundwater Protection and Soil Health Program • Olmsted County SWCD • soil health • water quality

Upcoming Events

April 2025

Monday April 14

4:30 pm – 6:30 pm

Pipestone: Building a Shared Vision for Western MN

Monday April 14

4:30 pm – 6:30 pm

Pipestone: Building a Shared Vision for Western MN

Meinders Community Library, 220 3rd Ave SE, Pipestone, MN 56164, USA

The goal of this free Land Stewardship Project program is to change the way we think about issues in our communities, our state, and our nation. We will identify the problems that are affecting us, connect over our common values, and identify existing groups that share our goals. The idea is to find common ground with your neighbors and places where we can come together to move forward in areas of shared values.

Format:
1) What are the areas of concern in your personal life and your community? Examples:

Food insecurity/inflation
Labor shortages/workforce challenges
Housing prices/unavailability
Lack of local control

2) How can I personally address those concerns in my community or with the help of my neighbors?Examples:

Expanding local options for food and food processing
Expanding workforce internships for area youth
Assisting local community in finding grant programs for new rural housing
Volunteering for get out to vote campaigns for local elections

3) What existing community groups can help achieve these goals? What groups can we build up? Examples:

Local food co-ops or farmers’ market associations
Local school programs or after-school activity groups
Local economic development or civic leadership groups
Local election boards

For more information, contact LSP organizer James Kanne at jkanne@landstewardshipproject.org.

Wednesday April 23

8:00 am – 12:30 pm: Supporting Beneficial Birds on the Farm
Wednesday April 23
8:00 am – 12:30 pm
Supporting Beneficial Birds on the Farm
15270 Haucke Ln, Viola, WI 54664, USA

Wild Farm Alliance and Keewaydin Farms invite you to join them for a farm field day all about beneficial birds on Wednesday, April 23, from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., in Viola, Wis. Tickets are $10 and include lunch.

Discover the birds that call our farms home and explore how they can support pest control and biodiversity. Join innovative farmers, avian researchers, and other experts to learn practical strategies for attracting beneficial birds to your farm. Engage in hands-on activities, including a guided bird walk, nest box installation, and monitoring demonstrations. Walk away with valuable knowledge and skills to integrate bird-friendly practices into your farming operation.

There is limited space for this event. For details and to register, click here.

Thursday April 24

6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Madison: Building a Shared Vision for Western MN

Thursday April 24

6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Madison: Building a Shared Vision for Western MN

Madison Mercantile, 601 1st St, Madison, MN 56256, USA

Food insecurity/inflation
Labor shortages/workforce challenges
Housing prices/unavailability
Lack of local control

2) How can I personally address those concerns in my community or with the help of my neighbors?Examples:

Expanding local options for food and food processing
Expanding workforce internships for area youth
Assisting local community in finding grant programs for new rural housing
Volunteering for get out to vote campaigns for local elections

3) What existing community groups can help achieve these goals? What groups can we build up? Examples:

Local food co-ops or farmers’ market associations
Local school programs or after-school activity groups
Local economic development or civic leadership groups
Local election boards

For more information, contact LSP organizer James Kanne at jkanne@landstewardshipproject.org.

Saturday April 26

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm: MN Book Award Series: Sonja Trom Eayrs: Dodge County Inc.
Saturday April 26
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
MN Book Award Series: Sonja Trom Eayrs: Dodge County Inc.
East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier Street, Saint Paul, MN 55106
Join the East Side Freedom Library and the Land Stewardship Project in welcoming Minnesota Book Award finalist Sonja Trom Eayrs for her award-nominated book Dodge County Inc.: Big Ag and the Undoing of Rural America.

In 2014 Sonja Trom Eayrs’s parents filed the first of three lawsuits against Dodge County officials and their neighbors, one of the few avenues available to them to challenge installation of a corporate factory farm near their intergenerational family farm in Dodge County, Minnesota. For years they’d witnessed the now widely known devastation wrought by industrial hog operations—inhumane treatment of animals and people, pollution, the threat of cancer clusters, and more. They’d had enough. They also deeply understood an effect of Big Ag rarely discussed in mainstream media—the hollowing-out of their lifelong farming community and economy in service of the corporate bottom line.

Sonja Trom Eayrs is a farmer’s daughter, rural advocate, and attorney. She is involved in several rural advocacy organizations, including the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, Farm Action, Land Stewardship Project, and Dodge County Concerned Citizens. Trom Eayrs also serves as the business manager for the Trom family farm in Dodge County, Minnesota. For more information about the author, visit sonjatromeayrs.com.

This event is free; for details and to register, click here.

Note: There will be a reception at 2 p.m. featuring the art exhibit You Betcha! Farmer-Labor Solidarity is Possible. Join us!

Join with Google Meet: https://meet.google.com/ydq-njqg-aks

Learn more about Meet at: https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9282720

July 2025

Thursday July 24

5:30 pm – 9:00 pm

LSP Twin Cities Cookout & Potluck

Thursday July 24

5:30 pm – 9:00 pm

LSP Twin Cities Cookout & Potluck

Land Stewardship Project, 821 E 35th St Suite 200, Minneapolis, MN 55407, USA

Join Land Stewardship Project members and supporters for a fun and casual evening of delicious local food, live music, and dancing. Bring a dish to share for the Twin Cities’ best potluck, among other Cookout favorites:

A Pie Raffle in support of LSP’s work keeping the people and the land together.

An opportunity to hear from LSP members and staff about on-the-ground organizing and how you can get involved!

It’s never too early to RSVP! Follow this link to let us know you’re coming: https://bit.ly/TCCP25

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