The sustainable agriculture community lost a true friend this week when Bud Markhart passed away after a courageous battle with cancer. I had the opportunity to interview Markhart last fall for an LSP podcast. He was a professor of horticultural science at the U of M, and so it’s no surprise that he made his… Read more »
Posts Tagged: sustainable agriculture
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 »
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 »
Conversations with the Land
Many good arguments can be made for supporting a type of agriculture less reliant on energy, technology and Wall Street, and more on soil, communities and people: it’s better for the environment, produces good food and keeps more Main Street businesses open, to name a few. But after reading Jim Van Der Pol’s just-published collection… Read more »
How Gov. Dayton Can Keep Pheasant Openers Part of Minnesota’s Future
Minnesota’s first ever Governor’s Pheasant Opener next week couldn’t come at a better time in terms of highlighting the need for supporting working lands conservation. After Gov. Dayton has a chance to enjoy some of western Minnesota’s finest bird hunting, he should take part in an Oct. 15 Land Stewardship Project tour at nearby Moonstone… Read more »
Riding the Storm Out in Dairyland
A few years ago, Brad and Shelley Schrandt faced a dilemma: should they keep their dairy herd at around 20 cows for a few more years while working off the farm, or should they expand enough to justify quitting those town jobs? They went for the expansion in an attempt to simplify their life. Shelley,… Read more »
MDA Sustainable Ag Program Under Siege (Again)
Remember the financial punch to the stomach the MDA’s Sustainable Ag Demonstration Grant Program took in 2009? Well, the Senate is attempting to finish the job with a budget proposal that provides no funding for the program—zilch. And final decisions on the program’s fate could be made as early as Monday. Click here to learn… Read more »
Enabling a New Kind of Ag
It’s been argued that promoting a type of agriculture that is more environmentally friendly threatens the food security of poor people all over the world. But a special “right to food” report submitted to the UN General Assembly comes to quite the opposite conclusion. Research like this could not come at a better time— it’s… Read more »
Ag Conservation’s Unfair Burden
At a time when the budget mantra “we must all share in the pain” is being repeated ad nauseam, it doesn’t take much searching to find some hypocritical exceptions. Take, for example, the Congressional proposal to cut $60 billion from the federal budget: farm conservation programs are practically eviscerated, while commodity crop subsidies remain untouched…. Read more »
Sustainable Farming’s Most Critical Conversation
What is the most critical discussion that needs to take place to ensure a sustainable food and farming system long into the future? Is it one on policy, farming techniques, green technology, consumer preferences or soil fertility? No. It’s the conversation that takes place between Nettie and Gerald in LSP’s most recent Ear to the… Read more »