Like a monster in a B movie, this is the bill that just won’t die. Despite strong public opposition, Senate File 270, which weakens township local control of factory farms and other large scale developments, passed the Minnesota Senate Local Government Committee late in the evening of April 27. With all the last-minute, behind-the-scenes shenanigans… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Food and Sustainable Agriculture
‘The most abused chemical we’ve ever had in agriculture.’
Professor Don Huber is not a chemo-phobe — he just hates to see a product of science go to waste. LSP’s new five-part podcast on the plant pathologist’s discussion of Roundup/glyphosate makes that clear (click here to listen; it’s episodes 98-102). In the presentation, Huber comes across as a scientist who is profoundly disappointed that… Read more »
Resisting Antibiotic Resistance
In its March 30 edition, Scientific American put the issue succinctly: “You could not design a better system for guaranteeing the spread of antibiotic resistance.” The “system” the publication was referring to was one that relies on the steady administering of low level, “subtherapeutic” dosages of antibiotics to boost the production of livestock. Attempts to… Read more »
Take the Living Green Expo Earth Day Challenge
This Earth Day (April 22), the Living Green Expo is challenging each Minnesotan to take a personal pledge to make at least one change that will positively impact the earth. “As the world around us is turning green with spring, it’s an ideal time for Minnesotans to think about ways to live a little greener,”… Read more »
Let’s Stop Treating Soil Conservation Like Dirt
Here’s the bad news: it turns out the USDA’s estimates that soil erosion rates are under control across the Corn Belt—something we reported in this blog last June—are probably overly optimistic, according to a report released a few days ago. The good news? Actually, there is none in this case. The same week this report… Read more »
MDA Sustainable Ag Program Under Siege (Again)
Remember the financial punch to the stomach the MDA’s Sustainable Ag Demonstration Grant Program took in 2009? Well, the Senate is attempting to finish the job with a budget proposal that provides no funding for the program—zilch. And final decisions on the program’s fate could be made as early as Monday. Click here to learn… Read more »
Mpls. Urban Ag Plan Needs to Deliver on Thursday
As we discussed in this blog a few months ago, the City of Minneapolis is on the verge of taking unprecedented steps to make our community friendlier to urban food production. After over a year of deliberation, it all comes down to Thursday, April 7, at 9:30 a.m. That’s when the Committee on Zoning and… Read more »
USDA Secretary: You Can Make Conservation History
An April 1 letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack from LSP Associate Director Mark Schultz: Congress and the Obama Administration are currently evaluating measures aimed at reducing federal spending for the present fiscal year and for 2012. The deficit reduction theme undoubtedly becomes more difficult in practice when actual program cuts and sacrifices are required…. Read more »
Enabling a New Kind of Ag
It’s been argued that promoting a type of agriculture that is more environmentally friendly threatens the food security of poor people all over the world. But a special “right to food” report submitted to the UN General Assembly comes to quite the opposite conclusion. Research like this could not come at a better time— it’s… Read more »
Reaching Out in Hog Country
Independent hog farmers are beginning to feel like inhabitants of isolated desert islands, with oceans of corporate-controlled CAFOs (as well as corn and soybean fields) separating them from their peers. That became clear at an LSP workshop on raising pork for niche markets held in Redwood Falls earlier this winter. “I think we’re one of… Read more »