I recently phoned members of my geographically far-flung family to give them Thanksgiving greetings and was struck by a common element of our ensuing conversations. From Iowa and Nebraska to Kentucky and Texas, the report was the same: drought, drought and more drought. I thought about that recently while watching the new documentary, The Dust… Read more »
Posts Tagged: Land Stewardship Project
Why Restricting Voter Rights is Bad for the Land & its People
By Mark Schultz Recently, the Land Stewardship Project joined “Our Vote, Our Future,” a coalition of over 70 organizations working to oppose the voter restriction amendment to the state constitution that is to be put before Minnesota voters Nov. 6. Why is an organization whose mission is stewardship of the land speaking out on this… Read more »
Interested in farming? Consider Morris Farm Beginnings
By the time he was 20, Nolan Lenzen had already completed a dairy management course at a local college and launched a farming career in partnership with his father and grandfather. They were milking 90 cows in a tie-stall barn and cropping 300 acres near the south-central Minnesota community of Watertown. Some might say it… Read more »
Senate Listens to Public & Makes Crop Insurance More Accountable to the Environment
The U.S. Senate passed its version of the 2012 Farm Bill this week. While it’s far from perfect, specific amendments related to conservation and accountability that were passed during the floor vote give one hope that the voices of average citizens can be heard inside the Beltway. Let’s hope this is a sign of things… Read more »
Battling Diabetes on the Street & in the Garden
One can almost detect the longing in Denise Crews’ voice when she describes what foods she misses the most since she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. “The hardest thing to give up was the fried chicken—Popeyes, Kentucky Fried Chicken. Their biscuits. The grease,” Crews told me during a recent LSP podcast interview at a… Read more »
Rolling Our Land To Death
I sat in a farmhouse one afternoon last month as a hot wind lifted rich topsoil from surrounding fields. On the drive in, I’d noticed a surprising amount of rill erosion on newly tilled cropland—surprising because recent rains had not been all that intense and the fields were not unusually steep. Out of the blue… 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 »