Food and Sustainable Agriculture

Forever Green & Highly Efficient Agriculture

April 16, 2014
Brian DeVore
agriculture, Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, Food and Sustainable Agriculture, Loon Commons blog, Water
Carmen Fernholz, Clean Water Fund, cover crops, diversity, Don Wyse, erosion, Forever Green Initiative, Land Stewardship Project, Legacy Amendment, nitrogen pollution, perennials, runoff, soil health, water quality

To understand why the Forever Green Initiative is so important to the future of Minnesota’s landscape, one has to consider this: there is a big difference between agricultural productivity and agricultural efficiency.…
Cover Crops: Insuring Against Disaster

April 7, 2014
Brian DeVore
agriculture, Food and Sustainable Agriculture, Loon Commons blog
2014 Farm Bill, climate change, commodity programs, cover crops, crop insurance, diversity, drought, Gabe Brown, Land Stewardship Project, mob grazing, RMA, SARE, soil erosion, soil health

Thanks to the recently passed 2014 Farm Bill, federally subsidized crop insurance is an even bigger player in determining what the landscape looks like. That’s troubling, considering that in recent years that…
Cover Crops: Not Just Foul Weather Friends

February 21, 2014
Brian DeVore
agriculture, Food and Sustainable Agriculture, Loon Commons blog, Water
cover crops, erosion, Gabe Brown, Howard G. Buffett, Land Stewardship Project, mob grazing, National Conference on Cover Crops and Soil Health, Ray Archuleta, Rob Myers, row crops, runoff, SARE, Soil and Water Conservation Society, soil health

Cover crops proved themselves foul weather friends during the Great Drought of 2012. A groundbreaking farmer survey conducted in the Upper Mississippi River watershed showed that during that year’s brutal growing season…
Snirt: A Stain on the Landscape

February 3, 2014
Brian DeVore
agriculture, Food and Sustainable Agriculture, Land Conservation, Loon Commons blog
A Road Being Taken, cover crops, John White, Land Stewardship Project, snirt, soil erosion, soil health, wind erosion

A drive through Farm Country this winter is a revelatory experience. Revelatory in that the impacts of planting the landscape to monocultures of corn and soybeans and plowing the ground black as…
Prepping Prairie Strips for the Real World

January 27, 2014
Brian DeVore
agriculture, Food and Sustainable Agriculture, Loon Commons blog, Water
birds, Gary Van Ryswyk, grasses, grassland birds, Land Stewardship Project, Matt Helmers, Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, nitrogen pollution, Pauline Drobney, perennial plants, pollinators, prairie, row crops, runoff, sediment, soil erosion, STRIPs, water quality

Gary Van Ryswyk’s concern for how his farming methods impact the landscape is obvious. A practitioner of a no-till system that avoids disturbing a field’s surface as much as possible, he is…
A Disappearing World Beneath Our Feet

December 17, 2013
Brian DeVore
agriculture, Food and Sustainable Agriculture, Land Conservation, Loon Commons blog
cover crops, International Soil Reference and Information Centre, Kristine Nichols, Land Stewardship Project, nitrogen pollution, soil bacteria, soil degradation, soil erosion, soil health, soil mirobes, tallgrass prairie, Verrucomicrobia

As Midwestern farm fields take a long winter’s nap, evidence is piling up that even when the temperature’s above freezing, all that soil is basically in a bit of a stupor—so devoid…
Gov. Dayton: This is Farmland, Not Fracland

December 9, 2013
Brian DeVore
agriculture, Clean Energy, Energy, Food and Sustainable Agriculture, Groundwater management, Land Conservation, Loon Commons blog
Bob Christie, energy companies, frac sand mining, frac sand mining ban, fracking, Gov. Mark Dayton, groundwater, hydraulic fracturing, Land Stewardship Project

By Bob Christie NOTE: Land Stewardship Project members and staff met with Governor Mark Dayton about frac sand mining issues on Dec. 4 in Winona, Minn. The meeting began with Bob Christie…
Healthy Farms, Healthy Frogs, Healthy Land

December 2, 2013
Brian DeVore
agriculture, Food and Sustainable Agriculture, Loon Commons blog
amphibians, Apocalyptic Planet, Burleigh County Soil Health Team, cover crops, diverse farming, Farm as Natural Habitat, frogs, Land Stewardship Project, perennial farming systems, pollinators, riparian grazing, soil health, sustainable agriculture, wildlife

While walking a piece of North Dakota landscape under a withering summer sun, one’s thoughts turn to moisture—or rather, the lack of it. So when I and other participants in a soil…
Our Nitrogen Pollution Solution? Livestock, Land & People

November 13, 2013
Brian DeVore
agriculture, Food and Sustainable Agriculture, Groundwater management, Loon Commons blog, Water fees
agricultural runoff, diversity, grazing, Jim VanDerPol, Land Stewardship Project, livestock, MPCA, nitrates, nitrogen fertilizer, Nitrogen in Minnesota Surface Waters, nitrogen pollution, pasture, Pastures A Plenty, perennials, soil health, sustainable agriculture

By Jim VanDerPol In October, I told the Minnesota House Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Finance Committee that we had begun to listen to our farm, an assertion lawmakers heard with some…
Deadline for a Strengthened Sustainable Ag Grants Program Announced

October 29, 2013
Brian DeVore
agriculture, Food and Sustainable Agriculture, Loon Commons blog
cover crops, diverse cropping systems, grazing, Greenbook, Land Stewardship Project, MDA Sustainable Agriculture Demonstration Grant Program, Minnesota Department of Agriculture, sustainable agriculture

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) announced yesterday that it will award up to $250,000 in 2014 for on-farm sustainable agriculture research or demonstration projects. That funding amount is good news: it…