The official newsletter of the Land Stewardship Project
Whole farm planning can help families separate the wheat from the chaff...and then bring it all back together again.
By Brian DeVore
In farm country, field days are an agrarian version of show and tell. These events often involve a look at an experimental crop planting, a new type of livestock facility or some other single innovation. A few questions are asked, refreshments are served, and everyone heads home to think about whether what they've seen is worth replicating.
But on a bright afternoon in July, the field day being held on the Dennis and Sue Rabe farm has a different flavor. It starts with a front porch discussion of the southeast Minnesota farm's diverse cropping operation. Then there is a tour of the swine finishing system as well as a passing gander at the beef grazing enterprise. The day wraps up in a pasture, where the sounds of nursing pigs arise from several scattered farrowing huts.
Throughout the field day, it's not the enterprises themselves that are emphasized so much as the connections between them. Producing cattle on hay and grass provides a use for marginal land, thereby reducing the need for row crops, which cuts machinery requirements. That allows the family to focus more on hogs. Those hogs, in turn, demand straw bedding for winter production. That straw must come from small grain crops, which help protect the soil and provide a rotation system that naturally breaks up pest cycles, reducing the need for intensive weed and insect control in row crops. Less time running field equipment provides a few free hours for adding value to those cattle and hogs via direct marketing of meat to consumers. It also means more time with Dennis and Sue's three daughters.
That's it. There's no individual test plot to look at here. No single production breakthrough to mull over on the drive home. It's all part of a big picture, one that has to be considered as a complete whole, or not at all.
Dennis is unapologetic about his inability to think in isolated boxes: "There are too many relationships here that we can't split up."
Digging the whole
Blame it on a concept called "whole farm planning." Dennis and Sue started using this planning and decision-making model a few years ago when it became evident some of their enterprises were working at cross-purposes, threatening to undermine the entire farm's foundation. Whole farm planning is a process families use for balancing the quality of life they desire with the farm's resources, the need for production and profitability, and long-term stewardship. Whole farm planning is more than seeing the forest instead of just the individual trees. It's a way of looking at the areas in the forest where the roots and branches of different trees touch and interact. What influence is that oak having on that maple, and vice-versa? And what influence are both trees having on the overall health of the forest? An increasing number of families like the Rabes are showing an interest in this planning and management system. Sustainable agriculture advocates are excited by its increasing popularity because it allows a farmer to tie everything together in a "whole" not unlike a complete ecosystem, one where a tweak here or there can affect everything -- for better, or worse.
"Farmers start to see things in a different light when they use whole farm planning," says Wayne Monsen of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's Sustainable Agriculture Program. His program sponsored a series of whole farm planning workshops for farmers this fall. "They see things as a whole system, rather than enterprise by enterprise. They're trying to see and understand relationships both on and off the farms."
A new chapter
When asked how he farmed during his first decade of crop and livestock production, Dennis Rabe has a simple answer: "Pretty much by the book." No surprise there. He was a vocational agriculture teacher for seven years before he and his wife Sue began farming in 1980. So they planted their fertile land to corn and soybeans, invested in the latest farrow-to-finish hog production equipment and fattened beef cattle in a feedlot using silage and grain.
But in the early 1990s, it became clear to the Rabes that the book they were farming by was made up of disparate chapters not adhering to a central theme. That theme, they decided, needed to be the economic and environmental health of a farm that provided a good quality of life for their family.
For the Rabes, the realization that they needed to tie everything together in a "whole" started with the pursuit of a straightforward, somewhat isolated, goal: How to reduce erosion and still farm profitably. Seventy percent of the 310 acres they farm is considered "highly erodible," so keeping soil in place has always been a challenge for the conservation-minded family. In 1991, heavy rains made erosion in the area particularly severe. This was frustrating to Dennis, who over the years has taken several steps to restrict runoff.
"I was doing everything the experts said I should do -- terraces, contour strips -- but I was still having erosion, he recalls. "This wasn't supposed to happen."
This set in motion a series of events that prompted the Rabes to take a big picture view of every nook and cranny of their farm, and beyond. It became clear that engineered erosion control structures were limited in their effectiveness if the soil behind them was left exposed by annual row crops like corn and soybeans. The answer seemed to be to put more perennial grasses and forages on the land. Such plant systems can cut erosion and nutrient runoff on even the steepest of land. But simply planting the farm to grass and hay wasn't enough. Such a system would protect the environment, but it wouldn't necessarily generate a livable income, defeating the family's goal of wanting to make a living on the land. (Sue is a part-time nursing instructor; Dennis doesn't work off the farm).
So they cast about for ways to turn grass and other perennial plants into money and that couldn't be done with feedlotted cattle raised on row-crop based feed. A few years ago, the Rabes began using a technique called "management intensive rotational grazing" (MIRG) to help them produce beef using stocker cattle. Used from early spring to late fall, MIRG moves cattle frequently from paddock to paddock in carefully managed grazing pastures, spreading manure evenly across the land and allowing plants to recover quickly. It can dramatically extend the grazing season, providing low cost beef production with minimal economic investment.
The Rabes have also made their 60-sow farrow-to-finish system more reliant on soil-saving plants. Those sows now farrow pigs on pasture during the warm months in individual huts. Two years ago they started placing those huts in a large pole shed during the winters where oat straw is used as a warm source of bedding. This system, loosely based on the Swedish deep straw method, allows the hogs to socialize and follow their natural nesting instincts in the dead of winter. The bedding system also serves as a base for composting the swine manure, making it into a biologically active source of fertilizer come spring. Such a system provides economic justification for raising soil-friendly small grains like oats. An added bonus is the low investment involved: the huts run about $200 each; a confinement crate costs many times that and is reliant on expensive gas or electricity to maintain a comfortable environment for the hogs.
Getting cattle and hogs out of confinement has reduced the Rabes' need for row-cropped land. The result? A farm formerly planted to two-thirds row crops and one-third grass and forage has done a complete flip-flop. Perennial plants now dominate and the expenses associated with energy- and equipment- intensive farming have plummeted. Almost all the corn and soybeans that are planted on the farm go straight to the livestock, completing the nutrient cycle. An Asian economic flu on the other side of the globe doesn't have as much of an impact on a farm with such a closed system.
What must be kept in mind is that when penciled out as a separate enterprise, grass-based beef production, for example, doesn't always translate into a financial winner. But the picture changes when one considers the contributions such an enterprise can make to soil erosion control, nutrient recycling and value added uses of resources present on the farm.
"Enterprise by enterprise financial analysis told me to raise corn, beans, hogs. It disregarded environment. It disregarded quality of life," says Dennis. "Cattle don't pencil out with enterprise analysis, but they do with whole farm management. Whole farm considers the environment. It considers quality of life."
So was soil erosion cut? The spring and summer of 1998 has been a good acid test: it was a time of severe rainstorms in southeast Minnesota. Downpours scoured soil off farmland, making county road departments sudden proprietors of ditchfuls of black gold. But Dennis is proud of his farm's lack of erosion.
"You know, I didn't have any soil erosion this year," he reports. "Our water comes off this farm pretty darn clear, and not much of it comes off in the first place." A walk across the Rabes' land proves he isn't exaggerating. Dennis is obviously relieved. "You never get that land back."
The economic results
But to stay on the land as good stewards, the Rabes need to make a living. Dennis says whole farm planning is allowing them to attain that goal as well. Whereas a farm that does budgeting based on individual enterprises may count profits based on "income per bushel of corn" or "income per pound of milk," farmers who do whole farm planning are more apt to measure profitability on the entire farm. Each acre of a farm has the potential to produce income from various sources, goes the whole farm philosophy. The income potential of an acre of corn isn't just based on what the cash grain price is or what bin-busting yield can be wrestled from that piece of real estate. Under a whole farm system, one must consider what value was added to that corn by livestock that ate it and the value of the manure produced by that animal, as well as the cost that corn imposed on the land in the form of erosion and nutrient loss. Dennis is a fervent pencil-pusher and he and his family aren't shy about setting solid goals for what they want to make off the land: $45,000 net income per year, or $150 per acre. That's a far cry from 1991, when they netted $51 per acre. But these days they are on track for meeting that goal. In 1996, the farm produced a net income of $110 per acre; last year that figure was $122.
Dennis makes it clear their income goal is a means to an end, not an end in itself. They need that level of income so they can stay on that land and maintain a fulfilling life for the family.
"I put environment and family ahead of that income goal," he says.
That 's why the Rabes are particularly excited about the income their direct marketing of meat is generating. It provides a way for the family to raise livestock profitability in a sustainable way, even when the conventional market isn't willing to support such a system. It also means they don't have to keep increasing livestock numbers ; such increases bring with them environmental and management headaches just to maintain the same income levels. Dennis says he's not opposed to raising half as many hogs for twice as much income. That 's not as far-fetched as it sounds.
In 1997, their direct market sales of pork and beef amounted to almost $20,000. The Rabes sell about 60 pigs and a dozen beef cattle annually to people who want fresh meat raised with a minimum of antibiotics and chemicals. Direct pork sales alone amount to 10 percent of their hog production. This is the fourth year they 've made the half hour drive to Rochester, Minn., once a week to sell meat at the farmers ' market that runs between May and October. On a typical Saturday morning, Sue and Dennis will sell $700 worth of pork out of an old postal van fitted with two freezers. They have gone from selling halves and quarters to offering some 20 different prepackaged products, including wild rice brats and hamburger patties. The Rabes are even in negotiations with local grocery stores and restaurants about getting their products in retail outlets. Dennis estimates that a hog which fetches $90 at the packing plant will net around $225 once it is broken down into specialty products.
All of this fits into the whole farm plan of making money using livestock, which helps make putting perennial grasses and forages on the land profitable. It 's also a recognition that the community at large plays an important part in keeping the Rabe farm sustainable.
"The customers don't pay attention to what the farm price is," says Dennis, who obviously enjoys socializing with consumers. "All they care about is quality meat at a fair price. "
Life on the land
Again, financial and environmental sustainability means little to the Rabes without a meaningful life to go with it. Ask Dennis how many of his daughters' volleyball games he's missed in the past few years, and he'd be hard put to remember. For one thing, the outdoor hog farrowing system is much less labor intensive. Their old crate-based confinement farrowing set-up, which the Rabes still use in a pinch, can be energy intensive, requires a lot of chores, and is a dusty, unhealthy place for humans to work.
But when one visits the farm, the life-style change that is most in evidence is its relative lack of dependence on heavy metal.
"I hate machinery," says Dennis. He considers hours spent on a tractor valuable time away from the hogs and cattle, or, even more importantly, the family. His hatred of equipment has transferred into action: within the past few years, the Rabes have purged themselves of a combine, a haylage chopper, a square baler, a green chopper and a stock chopper. He still has field work to be done, but more likely than not it 's hired out.
"I figure, hire the guy who enjoys it, " quips Dennis.
Not that he's adverse to buying and maintaining equipment -- as long as it pays for itself and doesn't create more stress for the family than it 's worth.
In fact, when he and Sue sit down at the kitchen table to adjust their whole farm plan, quality of life issues often drive any changes made. Their youngest will graduate from high school next year. That graduation will undoubtedly bring on shifts in life-style, which will lead to changes in the whole farm plan.
Shift happens
Dennis talks a lot about the importance of being able to adjust to change. That also means realizing when an experiment has resulted in a flop, and not allowing that misstep to pull the entire operation under. One of the Rabes 'd5 smaller mistakes: trying to raise popcorn as silage. A bigger one: their five-year-old, $12,000 swine confinement system.
Dennis points out that whole farm planning isn't so much about experimenting until a farmer finds the silver bullet solution to sustainable production. It's more about implementing a planning and decision-making system that allows a family to see all the possibilities simultaneously. That prevents getting into a single enterprise production rut that places iron chains on an entire farm's possibilities.
That becomes clear as Dennis points out one corner of the farm or other that he has been able to derive value from by adjusting things here and there. For example, he gets $70 to $100 of beef grazing gain from a half acre spot in the farm yard where he parks his machinery. Another spot that 'd5s too wet to crop and would be expensive to drain with tile lines offers a corner pasture for his bulls. Oats downed by wind can be salvaged as forage. Soybeans that don't reach maturity can still be harvested and extruded as high protein livestock feed.
"The livestock are making me money on acres that normally would show a loss," Dennis says. "If you have all feedlot cattle or hogs, you can't take advantage of those situations. That 's what I really strive to have in my system --- flexibility."
| It's not just a sum of the parts |
| The four steps in whole farm planning include setting goals, making an inventory and assessment of farm resources, developing and implementing an action plan and monitoring progress toward one's goals.
Several different tools are used to help with the whole farm planning process, including computer programs that can help measure nutrient cycling of various enterprises as well as take financial planning beyond enterprise-by-enterprise budgeting. In fact, this type of planning isn't just a matter of calculating the financial returns for all of a farm's separate enterprises. All aspects of each enterprise, from the amount of nutrients it brings onto the farm (and the amount it takes off) to labor requirements must be considered. That was recently shown graphically by a computerized spreadsheet developed by AGSTAT, an independent consulting firm in Verona, Wis. In an example outlined in The Whole Farm Planner newsletter, the program, called Crop Rotations Options Program (CROP), was used to compare the profitability of alternative production strategies for a 1,000-acre cash grain farm. In this example, annual net returns to operator labor, management and land ownership were negative $4,500 for continuous corn, negative $32,100 for continuous soybeans, and plus $23,400 for a corn-soybean rotation. Rather than taking a partial budget or enterprise-by- enterprise approach to analyzing farm resources, CROP views the farm as a whole unit with most input and output expressed "per farm per year." This approach accounts for the interactions between legume and non-legume crops, or between livestock and crop enterprises. These kinds of relationships are often ignored or handled poorly in partial budgets or enterprise analyses. If a simple sum of parts formula worked, then the corn- soybean rotation should net one-half of the continuous corn (negative $2,250) plus one half of the continuous soybean (negative $16,050) results, which totals negative $18,300. But a different picture emerges when one factors in a corn-soybean rotation's effects on legume credits, reduced pesticide needs and lower drying costs. In this example, the interactions of all these factors help create a net income of positive $23,400. |
| Jumping into the WHOLE |
A slew of excellent resources related to whole farm planning are available these days. Books, courses and newsletters can help get one started:
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EDITOR'S NOTE: The Monitoring Tool Box is being used by a variety of people to monitor changes on the land. Uli Koester has been using elements of it as part of his work with Twin Cities grade school children. Koester is a long-time Land Stewardship Project member and has served as program director of the Midwest Food Connection for the past two years. He temporarily resides in Valparaiso, Ind. The Minnesota Food Connection can be reached by calling (612) 871-0317, extension 345.
By Uli Koester
In general, grade-school aged children are naturally inquisitive, take nothing for granted, and love to be outside. In other words, they have many of the traits required to observe what's taking place on the land.
A new pilot project begun this year by the Midwest Food Connection has set out to prove that children can monitor changes taking place on land being used to produce food in a sustainable manner. By matching up classrooms with local sustainable farms, providing in-school instruction, and then guiding trips out to farms, we at the Food Connection are seeking to educate children and simultaneously assist growers in their monitoring activities. The three-year undertaking is funded by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's Energy and Sustainable Agriculture Program.
The Midwest Food Connection, a Twin Cities educational nonprofit specializing in grades K-5, hopes this project will serve as a model for joint ventures by schools and farms around the state.
Already, after one growing season of using children as "junior monitors," it is clear that the younger set can play a meaningful role in observing the land's comings and goings. Certainly, they are not experts in ornithology or soil science, but with clear instructions and careful organizing, the many hands, eyes, and ears combine with eager spirits to generate useful information.
Add to that the excitement of a child as he or she discovers the diversity of life that can be present on a farm. On a hot day last July in Delano, just west of the Twin Cities, there was nothing more meaningful to 35 kids from a Minneapolis school than a garter snake that quietly crept alongside the tool shed looking for lunch. They talked about it for days.
"I like having this snake here," Greg Reynolds, owner-operator of Riverbend Farm, told the children that day. "It eats things that I'd rather not have on my farm."
This was perfect inspiration for the children, who were on their way to the fields to count pesky cabbage worms and learn about the parasitic wasps Greg, an organic vegetable producer, is introducing to control them. These children, from Armatage School in southwest Minneapolis, had the specific monitoring task of checking on cabbage worms in their different stages of life. They collected data during two trips in July and one in September. In this year's second school/farm match-up, the Midwest Food Connection brought a group of fourth graders from Galtier School in central St. Paul to Red Cardinal Farm, which is north of the Twin Cities near Stillwater. There the junior monitors studied soil characteristics and the influence of the different cover crops and mulches which the farms uses. Brain food
For the board and staff of the Midwest Food Connection, this is the perfect way to educate children about alternative agriculture: They learn by doing, they learn by interacting with food and seeing how it grows. The organization was started in 1993 by two Twin Cities food co-ops: the Mississippi Market in St. Paul and the Wedge Community Co-op in Minneapolis. The managers of these two stores felt that dynamic participatory lessons, presented in classrooms by a visiting teacher, would excite children about new possibilities for their eating. At the same time, the teacher would introduce city children to the importance of caring for the land that creates their food.
Both co-ops have provided considerable funding for Minnesota Food Connection through the years. It is now an independent nonprofit and grown to service nearly 5,000 children per school year, both in the city and in suburban areas. In 1996, Minnesota Food Connection began a program of farm trips to complement its in-school lessons. These trips bring children out to farms within an hour's drive of the Twin Cities, where the young ones actively participate in the work of the season -- transplanting, harvesting, watering, even cleaning buckets! In this venture, the Food Connection has partnered with farms that have a sustainable or organic focus; most specialize in produce, some grow grains.
For the children, familiar only with stereotyped depictions of farms, these trips are an eye-opener: There are no Old McDonalds with straw hats and prancing pigs. Instead, the students meet people much like themselves and their teachers, while they see and work with plants that are making real-life foods -- many of which kids love and recognize.
The monitoring work takes these field trips one step further. Not only do we show children working farms and involve them in the planting and harvesting there, we make them partners in the continuing work to develop chemical-free, low-input methods of farming. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture stepped forward to fund this newest idea over a three-year period. The Food Connection is coordinating the pilot project during the 1998 and 1999 seasons, and then will devote a year to outreach and education. We know that many elementary teachers around the state would love to give their classes hands-on encounters with nearby farms. Meanwhile, many growers are looking for ways of hosting school children that are useful but do not disrupt the work at hand. In about a year, the Midwest Food Connection will produce a manual that will generate ideas for joint monitoring projects and lay out ways of organizing the children as well as the tasks. In addition, we hope to be instrumental in matching up schools with farms and offer personal assistance on-site.
Children are fascinated with numbers. They love to identify plants and insects. They enjoy encountering life on a farm, be it a snake, a clump of soil full of nematodes, or a fresh ripe radish. Put them on your farm or garden, in the far reaches and nearby corners, have them dig in the dirt or turn over leaves in search of bugs. Let them count grasshoppers or toads or your favorite invasive weed. They will learn more than we can imagine. We as farmers and consumers may learn a thing or two as well.
To order the Tool Box
The Monitoring Tool Box is now available to the public. Packaged in a three- ringed binder, this guide was developed in the field by the Monitoring Project over a three-year period and has been tested by crop and livestock farmers throughout the Midwest. This 115-page guide covers the monitoring of quality of life, farm sustainability with financial data, birds, frogs, soils and streams. In addition, the Monitoring Team has developed Close to the Ground, a 24-minute companion video that describes how a team approach to monitoring can bring energy and creativity to the process.
For a copy of The Monitoring Tool Box, the Close to the Ground video and a one- year subscription to a new Close to the Ground newsletter, send $35 ($31.50 for LSP members) to: Land Stewardship Project, P.O. Box 130, Lewiston, MN 55952. Add $7 for shipping and handling. There are discounts for bulk orders. Call 507/523-3366 for information.
Dear Editor:
On page 7 of the July/August Land Stewardship Letter, you leave out some very important facts that may lead a reader to make incorrect assumptions. As you know, University of Minnesota agriculture college dean Michael Martin withdrew his support for Dr. Robert Morrison as head of the Swine Center.
Morrison consequently resigned. Martin's proactive stance should be applauded but instead it is subtly inferred that he is leaving the University in the midst of some kind of scandal. Further, no one believes that any of the "key players" (Martin, vice president for research Mark Brenner, and veterinary college dean David Thawley) are leaving as a result of the Morrison case. So please do what you do best -- support the land -- and avoid compromising anyone's integrity.
-- Dann Adair
Dept. of Plant Pathology
University of Minnesota
St. Paul, Minn.
Dear Editor:
Thanks for Brian DeVore's excellent critique of the corporate takeover of our land grant college system in the April/May/June Land Stewardship Letter. Here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, another well known research think tank, campus activists and family farmers have been criticizing agribusiness' steady corruption of the land grant mandate for years. As state and federal budget cuts reduce public support for university research, the temptation to accept corporate money (with all the insidious strings attached) has steadily grown. Worse yet, these private "donations" leverage much MUCH more in the form of public subsidies -- state-of-the-art laboratory access, graduate student work force, convenient library databases, etc., etc. A 1996 study at the University of Rhode Island revealed that on average nearly 10 percent of tuition was bankrolling research -- to the tune of $410 per student per year. That's something to seriously contemplate as higher education becomes increasingly unaffordable to most Americans.
The fallout from all this corporate-induced R & D is downright frightening. First of all, it generates "shoddy science" skewed in favor of private interests so it can be easily patented and expropriated. Believe it or not, but at a recent UW-Madison seminar on "intellectual property rights," a director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) actually stated, "We do not care about the scientific value of your work, only its market value." Dozens of "top-flight" professors at UW now earn well over $100,000 per year, buying their way out of teaching to devote all their energy to corporate-funded research/consulting activities. The result is poorer quality undergraduate education as teaching assistants must fill the void, and graduate student frustration as upper level degree requirements disappear. Lastly, corporate influence compromises freedom of speech and intellectual inquiry on campus, as scientists acquiesce to contractual "gag rules" and watch their fundings "embargoed" and/or censored by their private "sponsors."
Here's but a few recent concrete examples (gleaned from published reports as well as records obtained through public information requests) from the University of Wisconsin.
Citizens and taxpayers alike should be concerned by this disturbing perversion of the land grant college mandate. Not only is it a gross waste of public money on corporate welfare, but the "scientific" results and "marketable" products are often of dubious social value in an age when more pressing problems persist for want of public interest and academic research. Sustainable agriculture will never get a fair shake on the UW- Madison campus, or elsewhere, as long as corporate dollars dictate the research agenda. As a member of Family Farm Defenders told me at an anti-Kraft rally a few years ago, "no business will every want to pay for a study that might save a farmer money." The public's voice needs to be heard once again within the "hallowed" halls of our land grant colleges, and loud enough to remind the researchers involved that they are -- first and foremost -- public servants, not private mercenaries.
-- John E. Peck
Graduate Student
Land Resources Program
University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wis.
We want to hear from you. Send letters to the editor and commentaries to: Brian DeVore, Land Stewardship Letter, 2200 4th St., White Bear Lake, MN 55110; phone: 651/653-0618; fax: 651/ 653-0589;.e-mail: bdevore@landstewardshipproject.org. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity. All letters and commentaries must be signed and accompanied by a mailing address and telephone number.
Since 1988, the Sustainable Farming Association (SFA) of Minnesota has grown from one chapter consisting of a few farmers to a statewide organization with 12 chapters and approximately 1,000 members. The growth and development of one of the country's leading farmer-based sustainable agriculture organizations has been documented in a new publication, A New Dawn of Farming: The Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota's Formation and Growth.
This book, a joint project of the SFA and the Land Stewardship Project, tracks the many accomplishments of the various SFA chapters since the first ones were started by LSP in the late 1980s. It also describes the challenges these chapters face as this grassroots organization begins its second decade of existence. The book includes special sections on how the SFA -- it is now an autonomous organization independent of LSP -- is structured, as well as member survey results. It also includes a copy of the organization's chapter charter.
"This is a good resource for anyone who may be interested in starting up a grassroots sustainable agriculture organization of their own," says George Boody, LSP's executive director.
DeEtta Bilek, an Aldrich, Minn., farmer who serves as state coordinator of the SFA, says this publication provides a good description of how farmers can network with other producers and consumers who are interested in sustainable agriculture.
"At a time when a lot of the news about agriculture is bad, a publication about the SFA's ability to bring people together to find creative and fun solutions is well-timed," she says. "We're offering hope for the future right in our own back yards."
For a copy of the 24-page book, send $4 to cover postage and handling (Minn. residents add 26 cents for tax; make checks payable to Land Stewardship Project) to: Louise Arbuckle, LSP, 2200 4th St., White Bear Lake, MN 55110; phone: 651/653-0618.
Catherine Velasquez Eberhart has joined the Land Stewardship Project as its new membership and outreach coordinator. Recently, Velasquez Eberhart worked as an operations manager and researcher for Twin Cities RISE! She has also worked for the South Hennepin Regional Planning Agency, Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and C.R.O.S. Urban Ministries.
Velasquez Eberhart holds a master's degree in public affairs, with concentrations in public sector management and economic/community development, from the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute. She also holds a political science and religion degree from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., and has volunteered for LSP on various occasions.
Velasquez Eberhart lives in St. Paul, Minn., and is based in LSP's Twin Cities office. If you have any questions about membership, contact her at: LSP, 2200 4th St., White Bear Lake, MN 55110; phone: 651/653-0618; e-mail: cathye@landstewardshipproject.org
LSP & Kerr Center hold joint meeting
The Land Stewardship Project and the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture held a joint meeting in St. Paul, Minn., on Oct. 12. Staffers and board members from the two nonprofit groups discussed a range of issues, including livestock concentration, grassroots community organizing, marketing of sustainable food, media relations and on-farm research.
Established in 1985, the Kerr Center is a nonprofit educational and research foundation headquartered on 4,000 acres near the southeastern Oklahoma town of Poteau. At its Oklahoma location, the Center conducts research related to sustainable livestock and crop production on the High Plains, including alternative enterprises such as shiitake mushrooms. The Kerr Center also does research on sustainable citrus fruit production at its subtropical station in Vero Beach, Fla.
The Center has publications available on subjects ranging from agroforestry and cover crops to controlling industrial hog operation emissions. For more information, contact: The Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture, P.O. Box 588, Poteau, OK 74953; phone: 918/647-9123; fax: 918/ 647- 8712; e-mail: mailbox@kerrcenter.com; home page.
LSP forming farm groups
The Land Stewardship Project's Richard Ness is organizing four farm management groups for established and beginning dairy and swine farmers in southeast Minnesota.
These groups will assist farmers in goal setting, management assessment and exploring alternatives. LSP's southeast Minnesota office is also producing new informational packets and organizing winter workshops to demonstrate environmentally sound and profitable dairy and swine production methods and to inform farmers about assistance they can seek through the USDA's Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).
For more information, call Ness at (507) 523-3366; e-mail: rnlspse@rconnect.com.
Sustainable marketing book published
Marketing Sustainably Produced Foods: International Examples and Lessons for the United States, is a new publication prepared for Food Choices, a project coordinated by the Land Stewardship Project, Cooperative Development Services and the Organic Alliance. This report provides numerous examples of marketing programs that stress environmental and social attributes of food and non-food agricultural products.
This 51-page report is written by E.G. Nadeau, director of research, planning and development for Cooperative Development Services. Food Choices is working to develop a food system among farmers, processors, distributors, retailers and consumers in the Midwest that is based on sustainably and regionally produced foods. The Minnesota Sustainable Farming Association, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, the Minnesota Food Alliance, the Twin Cities Natural Food Cooperative Association, Erickson's Diversified Corporation and other organizations are part of the project's implementation team.
For more information on the Food Choices project, contact: Darcy Klasna, Food Choices, 30 West Mifflin St., Suite 401, Madison, WI 53703; phone: 608/258-4396; e- mail: darcylk@inexpress.net. Copies of Marketing Sustainable Produced Foods are available for $22 (that includes shipping and handling) from the above address. Make checks and money orders payable to Food Choices.
Iowa
On Sept. 24, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in a 7-0 decision that nuisance lawsuit protections for agricultural operations are unconstitutional. This decision came out of lawsuit filed by a group of residents in Iowa's Kossuth County. They argued that designating 960 acres a special "agricultural area" took away their right to enjoy their own property, thus violating the state and federal constitutional prohibitions of government takings without compensation.
In the past, designating certain agricultural zones -- also called "right-to-farm" areas -- immune to frivolous lawsuits has provided needed protection to farms that suddenly find themselves neighbors to non-farm residents. The original logic behind such protection was that farms should be allowed to carry on practices that were acceptable before non-farm residents moved into the area, such as hauling manure and doing field work at night. But in recent years, factory farm boosters have used these laws as a legal shield when building and operating industrial facilities in a community. In many cases this has tied the hands of neighbors when factory facilities, masquerading as "farms," move into an area.
The Iowa Supreme Court cited concerns that right-to-farm laws amount to an illegal "taking" of the property value of land next to agricultural areas immune to nuisance lawsuits. Iowa appears to be the only state to have declared its agricultural- protection statute to be unconstitutional. The Des Moines Register reported: "The Iowa Supreme Court...concluded that when an agricultural operation is empowered by the Legislature to freely create a nuisance that robs its neighbors of the right to enjoy their property, it has created Îa privilege without profit...by which the servient owner is obligated to suffer...for the advantage of the dominant owner.' "
Minnesota
Until recently, Hancock Pro Pork seemed to be on the fast track to establishing 15 hog barns in Minnesota's Pope, Stevens and Swift counties. Despite protests from local residents, including a group called Pope County Mothers and Others Concerned for Health, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's (MPCA) citizens board issued a permit to the hog company in October 1997. However, on Sept. 15, a district court judge ruled that when it issued that permit, the board failed to take into consideration the "cumulative" effect of hydrogen sulfide emissions from all those facilities. Recent MPCA studies have shown that several individual manure lagoons in a region can add up to a larger air emission problem.
The judge has required the project to be put on hold until an environmental impact statement study can be done.
This ruling brings to a head citizen complaints that the MPCA citizens board has not considered environmental safety when issuing permits for large livestock operations. Some board members have financial interests in factory livestock operations.
"The alacrity in which the Board has granted permits by ignoring existing environmental protection laws, and careless disregard of basic concepts of earth stewardship... reinforces the court's conclusion that the MPCA Board has been asserting its will rather than its reasoned judgment," the judge said in his ruling. More spills
Renville County, Minn., factory hog producer Roger Kingstrom seems to be in the wrong business. On Sept. 15, he was responsible for the leakage of 3,000 gallons of hog manure into Beaver Creek, according to the MPCA. The incident occurred when a coupler failed while Kingstrom and his employees were pumping manure from a storage facility to a field. Ironically, besides raising hogs for Christensen Farms and Feedlots, Inc., Kingstrom works as a professional manure hauler. A "minor" fish kill occurred as a result, according to MPCA officials.
This occurs a little over a year after Kingstrom spilled more than 100,000 gallons of manure into Beaver Creek. This caused the largest documented manure-caused fish kill in Minnesota to date -- 690,000 fish. Kingstrom, failed to report the spill for three days (see Aug./Sept. LSL, p. 1).
Meanwhile, during the past year Christensen Farms climbed from 19th to 18th in Successful Farming magazine's annual rating of the largest hog producing companies in the country.
By Jill O'Neill The dairy industry in the Upper Midwest is undergoing tremendous change. While dairy herd sizes are escalating, the number of dairy farmers is rapidly falling and the average age of surviving farmers continues to climb. It is tremendously difficult for young people to begin farming because of prohibitive land prices, high machinery costs, restrictive loan requirements, deteriorating community support and lack of training opportunities, especially in sustainable techniques. Fortunately, the Land Stewardship Project's Farm Beginnings program has successfully begun to address some of these issues.
This past winter 10 eager adults hunkered down for a three-month series of workshops to gain insight into beginning a profitable farming operation. Participants heard from a variety of speakers and were exposed to a wide array of ideas and advice. Workshop topics included: goal setting, visioning and communication techniques, principles of management intensive rotational grazing, whole farm planning, nutrition and quality pastures, financial planning, animal and soil health, milking center design, and financing options.
Perhaps one of the most positive aspects of the workshop series was that participants were able to form relationships and connections with local established farmers as well as other beginning farmers. A span of 20 years in age, and equally as many in farming experience, did not inhibit the participants from becoming a closely knit group. Ongoing networking with beginning and established farmers is an invaluable tool to starting a successful farming operation. The only complaint about the workshop series is that the group should have met more often!
After the workshops series wound down, participants were matched with farms where they could learn about and improve on various techniques. Apprentices milked, managed paddocks, did some number crunching and in general learned what it takes to make a farm work on a daily basis. The apprenticeships were designed to be flexible, allowing participants to maintain full-time employment and not alter family situations. Many Land Stewardship Project members served as farm mentors.
Throughout the winter and summer, participants were also encouraged to begin developing a business plan for their proposed farming operations. They were exposed to a variety of planning and record keeping methods. Those who completed plans were able to have them reviewed by a variety of experts who then offered feedback and advice. Several of this year's participants are currently pursuing rental opportunities and/or working arrangements with established farmers.
While Farm Beginnings is off to a successful start, we realize that there are still many obstacles new farmers face.
It is increasingly difficult for young people to purchase or profitably rent land and dairy set-ups. Even farm transfers within families are becoming rare. There are scattered resources to help with land transfers, but most deal only with transfers between families, not between unrelated parties. And there are almost no resources for developing equity building partnerships between beginning and established farmers.
Farm Beginnings recognizes the need to develop new, creative, and financially sound methods for assisting young people in successfully beginning their own farm operations. We are planning to expand our efforts in a number of ways to help establish beginning farmers. For example, the program is in the process of establishing four facilitated farm management group.
We are also actively raising funds that will allow us to work with a skilled team of individuals to develop some equity building partnership models. These models will provide a framework that gives established farmers, church communities who own land, and land conservation groups the opportunity to help beginning farmers build up much needed equity.
Lastly (for the time being), Farm Beginnings is excited to announce that we will soon begin a collaborative effort with Heifer Project International (HPI). HPI is a 50- year-old nonprofit organization that provides funds for livestock, training, and technical support so that limited income families can help themselves and their community by producing agricultural products. HPI recognizes the financial struggle involved with getting family-sized dairy operations started in the upper Midwest and is enthusiastic about the Farm Beginnings program. We are currently working out the details that will allow HPI to provide no-interest livestock loans to each beginning farmer that enters into one of the above mentioned equity building partnerships. If new farmers are able to bring a certain number of livestock into their partnership, they will build equity more rapidly.
After years of work on the tough issue of getting beginning farmers established, we know that there are no easy answers. Fortunately, we already possess the most important ingredient in the answer: enthusiastic and determined people who recognize the potential that sustainable farming holds for them and their families.
Jill O'Neill is an organizer in LSP's southeast Minnesota office.
| Are you interested in farming? Farm Beginnings is now recruiting for its 1999 class. We're looking for anyone who is interested in learning about how to get involved in farming. People with all ranges of experience are welcome. For more information, contact Jill O'Neill at 507/523-3366; e-mail:.lspse@rconnect.com. |
By Lee Ronning
This will be the last office update from the 1000 Friends of Minnesota. It has been a long time in the making, but it's official: we have jumped through all the necessary hoops, filed all the proper papers, set up a board of directors and are now officially a separate nonprofit organization. Up to this point, 1000 Friends of Minnesota has been operating as a program of the Land Stewardship Project. 1000 Friends could not have had a better launching pad than LSP. Since I joined the organization in 1989 I have worked to raise awareness of the serious ramifications of suburban sprawl. I never cease to be amazed at what LSP -- a small, understaffed organization with a extremely small budget -- accomplishes in the fight for promoting good stewardship of land. I'm proud to have been associated with LSP for nine years. My only hope is that 1000 Friends can be half as effective at making the world a better place as LSP has.
Because of LSP's work, people are beginning to understand the tremendous environmental and economic costs associated with sprawl, as well as its even greater social consequences. 1000 Friends believes it is time to start actually implementing practices and policies to grow in smarter ways. To do that, we need to be an independent organization. It all started on Nov. 16, 1993, when smart growth guru Henry Richmond told a standing-room-only crowd in St. Paul, Minn., that sprawling patterns of development are connected to a majority of the social, economic and environmental concerns in America. This was scary, overwhelming stuff. But it sparked the creation of a citizen-based effort to confront the issue of suburban sprawl in Minnesota head-on. Through what seemed liked an endless round of public meetings and wordsmithing during the next two and a half years, a mission and vision statement was created. In addition, a set of guiding principles and goals evolved and were agreed upon. These beliefs are the foundation of 1000 Friends of Minnesota. They are worth reporting:
1000 Friends of Minnesota envisions a sustainable landscape made up of more compact, diverse, pedestrian-oriented cities and healthy, productive farms and forests. The cities do not sprawl into the countryside but are concentrated around existing infrastructure and offer transportation choices to the automobile. Planning and zoning are done on the local level and under the umbrella of a statewide framework. Finite natural resources are protected, cities are vital and livable, and all Minnesotans have access to jobs and housing, and clean air and water.
1000 Friends uses education, training, research, coalition building, advocacy and community organizing to achieve our goals. For communities and citizens who seek help with local land-use decisions, we can provide the following:
This is a very exciting time for our brand new organization. Although we have a list of accomplishments under out belts, we are just getting started... . p
Lee Ronning is the executive director of 1000 Friends of Minnesota.
New 1000 Friends address 370 Selby Ave., Suite 300, St. Paul, MN 55102; phone: 651/ 312-1000; fax: 651/312- 0112; home page.
Far From Tame Reflections from the Heart of a Continent
Laurie Allmann
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis
1996
176 pages
$16.95
Reviewed by Rebecca Schon Kilde
When I consider going on a trip, I pull out the bright and glossy travel guides, the road maps and the brochures and start planning where to go. But, once I get to that vacation spot, where am I, exactly? Fodor's and AAA give me plenty of information about good restaurants, hotels, and enough shopping malls to cause vertigo. Road maps accurately guide me to my intended destination, and even name rivers, national forests and wayside rests.
But there usually isn't much information about the land. I could travel all around the Upper Midwest, see the sights, be pleased with bucolic landscape flashing by at 60 miles per hour (or even stop to walk through it) and still be a virtual stranger to the place.
Laurie Allmann's Far From Tame is a different kind of guide. She writes with grace, humor and intimate knowledge about the unique ecology of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. Her essays can transport you from your armchair to the sights, sounds and smells of woodland havens, sloughs or rare patches of prairie:
I am but one generation removed from a farm. It is a heritage of which I am proud. Yet, as I look at the palms of my hands, I will always see with regret the trace of prairie earth caught in the lifelines. I know from whence it came.
Held up against the past the native grassland preserves on the Coteau des Prairies are so small as to be nonexistent, inconsequential as veins of northern Minnesota gold. But we do not live in the past. Neither, clearly, do these swallows that I watch making their generous loops in the summer sky, loops that remain for a few seconds, transparent over blue, suspended in the birds' wake. Neither in the past is the badger or coyote whose claws dug the gaping hole that takes my leg to the knee as I traverse this steep hillside, nor the Mexico-bound monarchs I see clustered in the joe-pye in the valley below.
So we begin the only way we are able. We begin not with what was, but what it is. And like the wind in the grasses, sometimes the next pass we make is one that mends.
Allmann divides her book into eight sections which correspond to eight eco- regions mapped by ecologist Denny Albert. Each section begins with descriptions of the lay of the land, the native communities, and special qualities and notes related to each eco-region. Then, with descriptive and detailed essays, Allmann introduces us to particular rare and precious places, wild places, that reflect what was once here. She also illustrates the importance of maintaining them. Evan Cantor's beautiful artwork rounds out this ecological atlas nicely, providing yet another excuse to pick it up over and over again.
"Maybe" writes Allmann, "a stranger needs to learn how to see a new landscape...Maybe the distance between looking and seeing is time." A book like this helps shorten that distance.
Rebecca Schon Kilde was the Land Stewardship Project's membership coordinator from 1994 to 1997.
Minn. sustainable ag grants due Dec. 15
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture's Sustainable Agriculture Program is accepting grant applications through Dec. 15 to research and demonstrate innovative solutions for sustainable agriculture. Individuals and teams of farmers, as well as researchers and educators, are eligible for up to $25,000 in grants to help get projects started.
For more information and application forms, contact: Wayne Monsen, Grant and Loan Program Coordinator, Sustainable Agriculture Program, Minnesota Department of Agriculture, 90 West Plato Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55107; phone: 651/296-7673; home page: http://www.mda.state.mn.us.
Want to work in a natural foods store?
Valley Co-op, a 20-year-old natural foods grocery store in Stillwater, Minn., is looking for "dynamic people" who aren't interested in just another "McJob."
The co-op has several positions open to fit a variety of schedules: full-time or part-time; customer-service or behind-the-scenes; entry-level or management. Specifically, the store needs a full-time floor manager, and part-time produce assistant, storekeepers and cashiers.
Applications and job descriptions are available by calling Ann or Lynn at 651/ 439-0366.
Volunteer at your local stream Minnesota may be the land of 10,000 lakes, but consider this: there are 92,000 stream miles in the Golden Gopher State. To say the least, it's virtually impossible for government environmental officials to keep tabs on the ecological health of all those stream miles. That's why the new Citizen Stream Monitoring Program is looking for volunteers willing to devote some time and energy to conducting simple stream checks on a regular basis.
This program is combining the technical expertise of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and the local knowledge of citizens to develop a more comprehensive and effective statewide network for monitoring streams, says Laurie Sovell, who is with the MPCA's Water Quality Division. Sovell is an original member of the Monitoring Project, a joint Land Stewardship Project-Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture initiative that set the standard for citizen-monitoring. Sovell says the Citizen Stream Monitoring Program wants to provide as many people as possible an opportunity to participate in water quality assessment. MPCA officials also want to support existing volunteer monitoring programs through this initiative.
There is a one time fee of $20 to cover the cost of a transparency tube, rain gauge, data sheets, instructions for taking measurements and a copy of the annual report on stream conditions in a volunteer's region.
For more information, contact Sovell at: Water Quality Division, Monitoring and Assessment Section, MPCA, 1230 S. Victory Drive, Mankato, MN 56001; phone: 1-800- 657-3864, or 507/389-1925.
Cover crops 101 During the past 10 years northwest Minnesota farmer Jaime DeRosier has brought almost 1,000 acres of land under organic production using a sophisticated system of cover crops to build fertility and naturally break up pest cycles. He has now written a 39- page booklet on this system.
My Cover Crop Rotation Program takes the reader step-by-step through how to establish a diverse system that improves soil quality, reduces weed and insect problems and in general makes it possible to raise crops without chemicals in the short growing season of northern Minnesota.
For a copy, send $15 to: Jaime DeRosier, Rt. 1, Box 310A, Red Lake Falls, MN 56750.
Manure odor report
Controlling Odor and Gaseous Emission Problems from Industrial Swine Facilities: A Handbook for All Interested Parties, is a comprehensive, easy-to-read look at the technical, political, environmental and human health implications of a hog production system that produces bad odors and toxic gases. Researched by Yale University Law School students, as well as master's degree candidates from that institution's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, this report includes information from all the major hog production states, as well as several countries.
For a copy of the 65-page publication, send a check or money order for $5 (that covers shipping and handling; make the check or money order payable to the Kerr Center) to: The Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture, P.O. Box 588, Poteau, OK 74953-0588; phone: 918/647-9123;.e-mail: mailbox@kerrcenter.com. Get involved in ag policy
If you'd like to help mold federal agricultural policy into a more sustainable shape, sign up to receive action alerts from the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture. The National Campaign is a network of diverse groups, including the Land Stewardship Project, whose mission is to bring about policies that foster a sustainable agricultural system.
To sign up for the free action alert mailing, send your name, postal and e-mail addresses, phone and fax number, and a list of agricultural issues you are interested in to: National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture, P.O. Box 396, Pine Bush, NY 12566; phone: 914/744-8448; fax: 914/ 744-8477; e-mail: campaign@magiccarpet.com.
Cluster development fact sheets
A series of four fact sheets on residential cluster development is available from the University of Minnesota Extension Service. Cluster development is seen as one method for constructing housing without destroying valuable farmland and open space through sprawl.
The series covers several topics, including: overview of key issues; alternative.wastewater treatment systems; storm water management; and management options.
The series is available through the Extension Service's home page at: www.extension.umn.edu. To order the entire series, send $7 (that covers shipping & handling; Minnesota residents add 7 percent for sales tax; make checks payable to the Minnesota Extension Service) to: University of Minnesota, Minnesota Extension Service, 20 Coffey Hall, 1420 Eckles Ave. St. Paul, MN 55108-6069. Credit card orders can be made by calling 1-800-876-8636; 651/624-4900. Ask for the "Residential Cluster Development Fact Sheet Series" when ordering.
The Land Stewardship Project has a variety of items that would make perfect gifts for all your stewardship-minded friends and relatives. All of the prices listed here include postage and handling. Minnesota residents should add 6.5 percent onto the price to cover state sales tax. To order through the mail, contact: Louise Arbuckle, LSP, 2200 4th St., White Bear Lake, MN 55110; phone: 651/653-0618. Some of these items are also available from our offices in the Minnesota communities of Lewiston (507/523-3366) and Montevideo (320/269-2105).
NOV. 20 -- Tax Strategies in Land Use Conservation Transactions Workshop, Ramada Inn, Roseville, Minn.; Contact: 1000 Friends of Minnesota, 651/312- 1000.
NOV. 21 -- Center for Rural Affairs 25th Anniversary Celebration Meeting, Columbus, Neb.; Contact: 402/846-5428; e-mail: mariep@cfra.org.
NOV. 20-21 -- A conference entitled "Population, Consumption, & Sustainability: Infinite Growth in a Finite World?" featuring Anne Ehrlich, co-author of The Population Bomb, Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul; Contact: 651/221-9444; 1-800-221- 9444.
NOV. 30 --LSP workshop on how townships can fight factory farms, featuring Nancy Barsness, publisher of Township Tips (location to be announced); Contact: Marsha Neff, LSP, 507/523-3366.
DEC. 3 -- LSP transfer & equity building workshop, noon-3 p.m., Sawyer Inn, Goodhue, Minn.; Contact: LSP, 507/523-3366 Midwest Small Farm Conference & Trade Show, featuring Gene Logsdon, author of The Contrary Farmer, Noblesville, Ind.; Contact: 765/463-9366; e- mail:sbonney@iquest.net. Pre-gathering for people interested in participating in February workshop on "Advanced Organic-Biodynamic Vegetable Production," Wilder Forest, Marine on St. Croix, Minn. (see Feb. 23-25 item).
DEC. 3-5 -- Stockman Grass Farmer's Western Grazing Conference, Mesa, Ariz.; Contact:1-800-748-9808.
DEC. 4-5 -- "Citizens using Science: Challenges for Grassroots Organizing" -- a conference for citizen leaders involved in watershed issues & other similar initiatives to protect the integrity of natural resources in the area, Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center, Lanesboro, Minn.; Contact: Julia Frost, Citizens Science Partnership, 612/603-1224.
DEC. 4-6 -- Workshop on "Making Biodynamics Work," Viroqua, Wis.; Contact: Michael Fields Institute, 414/642-3303.
Î DEC. 8-9 -- Manitoba Grazing School, Winnipeg, Canada; Contact: Fraser Stewart, 204/268-6014.
DEC. 10-12 -- Acres U.S.A. Annual Eco-Agricultural Conference, Minneapolis, Minn.; Contact: 1-800-355-5313
JAN.-FEB. -- Whole farm planning workshops, southeast Minnesota; Contact: Wayne Monsen, Minnesota Department of Agriculture, 651/282-2261; e-mail: Wayne.Monsen@state.mn.us.
JAN. 22-24 -- Midwest Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (MSAWG) annual gathering, Madison, Wis.; Contact: Dana Jackson, LSP, 651/653-0618; e-mail: danaj@maroon.tc.umn.edu
Workshop on "Soil Building with Organic Matter & Farm Planning for Sustainable Ag," Viroqua, Wis.; Contact: Michael Fields Institute, 414/642- 3303.
FEB. 5-6 -- Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society annual winter conference, Bismarck, N. Dak.; Contact: Theresa Podoll, 701/883-4304.
FEB. 9-10 -- "Tools & Rules for Adding Value on the Farm: Value Added & Marketing Conference," Holiday Inn, Eau Claire, Wis.; Contact: Larry Swain, Rural Development Institute, University of Wisconsin-River Falls, 715/425-3083; e-mail: swain@wisplan.uwex.edu.
FEB. 12-14 -- Workshop on "Farm Planning for Sustainable Ag," Viroqua, Wis.; Contact: Michael Fields Institute, 414/642-3303.
FEB. 16-17 -- "Through the Farm Gate to the Dinner Plate: The Minnesota Organic Conference, Kelly Inn, St. Cloud, Minn.; Contact: Jan Gunnink, 507/237- 5162.
FEB. 19-20 -- "2nd Annual Minnesota Grazing Conference," Victoria Inn, Hutchinson, Minn.; Contact: Jan Gunnink, 507/237-5162.
FEB. 23-25 -- Workshop on "Advanced Organic-Biodynamic Vegetable Production," Wilder Forest, Marine on St. Croix, Minn.; Contact: Michael Fields Institute, 414/642- 3303.
MARCH 4 -- The Land Stewardship Project's southeast Minnesota office annual gathering, St. Charles, Minn.; Contact: Fran Bockenhauer, LSP, 507/523-3366; e-mail: lspse@rconnect.com
MARCH 4-6 -- 10th Annual Midwest Organic Farming Conference, featuring the theme "Organic Works -- At Home & Around the World" as well as 40 workshops, Sinsinawa, Wis.; Contact: Faye.Jones, 715/772-6819; e-mail: fjeoc@win.bright.net; home page.
MARCH 20-21 -- Workshop on "Cutting Chemicals without Cutting Profits," East Troy, Wis.; Contact: Michael Fields Institute, 414/642-3303.
Check the Calendar for the latest on upcoming LSP events.
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