Talk of how agriculture can improve soil quality seems to be popping up more frequently these days. Perhaps the most exciting recent mention was in an issue of Successful Farming magazine, which has produced an impressive package of stories called The Good Earth. Most of what’s in this package won’t be news to anyone who’s… Read more »
Posts By: Brian DeVore, Land Stewardship Project
Anti-Local Control Bill Goes to House Floor Vote This Afternoon—Call Reps. Now
Surprise and intimidation can be powerful tools when backers of major development seek to build a large facility in a small, rural township. For a town board used to dealing with mundane issues like gravel road maintenance and ditch mowing, to be suddenly confronted with a proposal for a large-scale industrialized livestock operation, garbage burner… Read more »
Local Control & the Capitol’s Dangerous Double Standard
Nice irony: when a key committee passed House File 389 last Wednesday, it was by a 9 to 5 vote, which is less than the two-thirds majority the bill imposes on local governments that want to enact a temporary freeze on major development—the kind of development that can change a community forever. Apparently, some legislators… Read more »
It’s CSA Time
Okay, maybe winter hasn’t quite given up the ghost yet, but spring really will be upon us before we know it. A sure sign of that is CSA farms are firing up their greenhouses. Now that the farmers are preparing for the upcoming growing season, it’s the eaters’ turn: LSP’s 2012 directory of CSA farms… Read more »
Tell Mpls. City Council by March 1 to Support Market Gardens
By Anna Cioffi, Land Stewardship Project The Minneapolis City Council will be voting on the complete Urban Ag Text Amendments on March 1 during the Zoning and Planning Committee meeting. As we’ve reported here before, these text amendments are an important step toward making urban farming a key part of the city’s fabric. However, we… Read more »
Loving the Land Enough to Let it Go
While recording a recent LSP podcast interview with southwest Minnesota farmer Carmen Fernholz, I was reminded of how important it is that farmers identify closely with the land they’re producing a livelihood from. As Fernholz put it: “If you’re a good farmer you can’t help but become attached to the land. And when you become… Read more »
First on the Agenda Thursday: Weaken Local Control
Well, that didn’t take long. Tomorrow, at the very first meeting of the Minnesota House Government Operations and Elections Committee, lawmakers will take up House File 389, which weakens township, county and city local control. This legislation needs to be stopped before it even gets out of the starting gate. For details on how to… Read more »
A Chance to Advance Urban Ag in Mpls. on Jan. 23
By Anna Cioffi, Land Stewardship Project On Monday, Jan. 23, there will be a public hearing of the Minneapolis Planning Commission to discuss proposed draft changes to the zoning code as it pertains to urban agriculture. LSP supports the passage of these draft changes as a first step. However, there are still improvements that could… Read more »
Eating Our Own Farm Financial Cooking
One winter evening in 1999 I was sitting in on a Farm Beginnings class being held in the southeast Minnesota community of Plainview when a local banker stood up and made a statement that about knocked me out of my chair. “We need to eat our own cooking,” said the banker, Dean Harrington. The statement… Read more »
Denying the Science, Derailing the Solutions
I talked to a Todd County farmer yesterday who uses 100 percent no-till and other conservation measures to raise his crops. Conserving soil is important to him, and so he’s quite upset at how mobile humus has been on neighboring farms this fall/early winter. “You know that little skiff of snow we got the other… Read more »