This session of the Minnesota Legislature is supposed to be about bonding. By bonding, I don’t mean the “Hug a Ranger” campaign to raise awareness of the importance of the Iron Range. Bonding in this session means the Bonding Bill, a collection of perhaps up to one billion dollars in capital projects that have been… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Loon Commons blog
Urban Ag Needs Your Support by March 22
Additional changes have been proposed to the current Minneapolis Urban Agriculture Zoning Text Amendments that won’t work for urban farmers. LSP opposes incorporating these changes into the current language, as they create more barriers for urban farmers at a time when we should be supporting them. The City Council needs to hear from supporters of… Read more »
Cashing in on Soil Quality
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 »
Minnesotans in DC: Observations of a political newbie
Last week I travelled with twelve other Minnesotans to Washington, DC with the Healing Our Waters Coalition. We were lobbying for three main issues: Continued funding for the Great Lakes Initiative, support for conservation programs in the Farm Bill and support for the Stop Asian Carp bill. Here are some observations Recommend on Facebook Share… Read more »
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 »
Capitol Update: Community rights, bonding and Aquatic Invasive Species
Defending Community and Township Rights Rep. Beard (R-Shakopee) and Sen. Vandeveer (R-Forest Lake) introduced H.F. 389 and S.F. 270, bills that weaken township and community rights and make it more difficult for citizens to work through their local units of government to make sure large-scale developments don’t harm the well being of their communities. Merely… Read more »
Take Action TODAY: Stop Congress from Wasting Millions on a Destructive Bridge
By MEP member group National Parks Conservation Association On Thursday, March 1, the U.S. House of Representatives will consider legislation that threatens one of America’s national parks. We need you to tell your representative to vote NO on S.1134. At the same time park budgets face cuts, S. 1134 paves the way for the construction… 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 »
Capitol Update: Here we go again with the rollbacks
It’s disheartening when our legislative leaders are so out of step with Minnesotans. Statewide polling done earlier this year by a professional bipartisan polling team found that the majority of Minnesotans want strong environmental protections.
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 »