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 surprise. The occasion was testimony around the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s presentation of its “Nitrogen in Minnesota Surface Waters” report, which showed among… Read more »
Posts Tagged: livestock
Making Diversity on the Farm Pay its Own Way
Long term sustainability of our soil requires farming systems that can not only keep soil in place, but also help it build its own resiliency. Such systems can’t just work on paper—they need to prove themselves agronomically and financially. And they need to prove it in places like western Minnesota’s Redwood County, a place where… Read more »
Mob Rule in Livestock Land
What do you do when a resource becomes increasingly scarce? One option is to use it more efficiently. That’s a key point livestock producer Greg Judy is going to make Sept. 9-10 in Alexandria during what promises to be a fascinating set of workshops (there are still a few spots remaining). In this case, the… Read more »
Introducing the Free Market to Animal Ag
In June the USDA released a proposed rule to bolster the ability of the federal government to protect farmers against abuses by corporate meatpackers—in other words, inject a little free-market mentality into an industry that’s been just the opposite for far too long. The public has until Nov. 22 to comment on the proposal. But… Read more »