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: • • • • • • •

LSP Supporters Talk ‘Farm to Kids,’ Land Access & Soil Health During 20th Family Farm Breakfast at the Capitol

Farmers Join MN Lt. Governor & Attorney General as Featured Speakers

March 18, 2025

SAINT PAUL, Minn. — Getting healthy, local food to Minnesota’s children, providing support for emerging farmers and building resilient soil were the topics of conversation when over 170 Land Stewardship Project (LSP) members and allies gathered in Saint Paul March 13 for the 20th iteration of the Family Farm Breakfast at the Capitol. Minnesota Lieutenant…  Read More →

Category: News Releases
Tags: • • • • • • • •

POSTPONED: Small Grains Workshop for Western Minnesota Farmers March 15 in Benson

NOTE: This event has been postponed due to weather.

March 5, 2025

BENSON, Minn. — Farmers, agricultural professionals and community members in western Minnesota are invited to a Small Grain Markets Workshop on Saturday, March 15, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at McKinney’s on Southside (300 14th St. South) in Benson, Minn. This free Land Stewardship Project (LSP) event is an opportunity to learn from regional…  Read More →

Category: News Releases
Tags: • • • •

Ear to the Ground 367: Disrupting the Food Chain

Mastering the market is no easy task for a cutting-edge perennial grain. What lessons have the staff at Forever Green learned from their work with Kernza? More Information • Forever Green Initiative • Blog: Don Wyse’s Land Grant Legacy • Ear to the Ground 365: Perennial Pivot • Ear to the Ground 229: Kernza’s Continuous…  Read More →

Ear to the Ground 365: Perennial Pivot

When Sogn Valley Farm transitioned out of intensive production of vegetable crops, it opened up opportunities to utilize a unique cousin of wheat as a way to steward the land. More Information • Sogn Valley Farm • Forever Green Initiative • Ear to the Ground 367: Disrupting the Food Chain • Ear to the Ground…  Read More →

Land Line: Small Grains, Manure, Soil Carbon, Rural Empowerment, Regenerative Generation

Feb. 3: An LSP Round-up of News Covering Land, People & Communities

By Brian DeVore
February 3, 2025

Growing Small Grains Market in Albert Lea Attracting Attention from Farmers (1/28/25) KAAL-TV reports on a Land Stewardship Project workshop where over 150 people gathered to talk about ways of bringing small grains back to Minnesota. Highlights: After being mostly replaced by corn and soybeans during the past several decades, small grains such as oats…  Read More →

Category: Blog
Tags: • • • • • • • • • • •

Farmers Gather in Albert Lea to Talk About ‘Bringing Small Grains Back to Minnesota’

Attendees from 3 States Heard National, Local Ag Leaders Discuss the Economic, Agronomic & Environmental Opportunities Crops Like Oats Can Provide

January 30, 2025

ALBERT LEA, Minn. — Corn and soybeans may dominate the agricultural landscape in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa, but reintroducing small grains such as oats into the rotation could help make farming more economically, agronomically and environmentally sustainable, while serving a growing consumer demand for healthy food, said a panel of national and local experts during…  Read More →

Category: News Releases
Tags: • • • • • • •

A Sense of Where You Are

11 Examples of Viewing Farms in Context (Part 1 in a Series)

By Brian DeVore
January 21, 2025

Note: This is the 1st installment in the 12-part “A Sense of Where You Are” series.  On a sunny day in June, hundreds of ewes make their way through a narrow grazing paddock, flowing along the contours of a Driftless Area hill in southeastern Minnesota like a woolly river. Later in the growing season, a…  Read More →

Category: Blog
Tags: • • •

A Sense of Where You Are: Red Dresses & Magic Management

Part 2 in a Series

By Brian DeVore
January 20, 2025

Note: This is the 2nd installment in the 12-part “A Sense of Where You Are” series.  One of the ways Rachelle and Jordan Meyer keep things in context is to avoid being distracted by what they call “the woman in the red dress.” Is a new enterprise a good fit for the farm, or is…  Read More →

Category: Blog
Tags: • • • • •

Ear to the Ground 363: Small Grain-Big Opportunity

Landon Plagge’s experience growing oats has proven that this humble grain can play a big role in revitalizing soil health on corn-soybean farms. Can the milling facility he’s proposing do the same for rural communities? (Third in a three-part series on small grains and community-based foods.) More Information • Episode 2 in Ear to the Ground Small Grains Workshop…  Read More →