Commentary includes installments of Letter from the Land, a regular LSP column on the land and its people. Also included is Other Opinions—commentaries, essays and letters on food and farming issues written by LSP members, staff and others.

To find a particular subject, click on Search at the very top of any page.


Letter from the Land

• May 3, 2004: Time to Update Our View of Dairy Farming Profit
• March 23, 2004: Let's Put More Livestock on More Farms
• June 10, 2002: The Security Threat to End All Security Threats
• April 8, 2002: 10 Tons of Graphic Material
• April 1, 2002: The Dirt on Corn & Soybeans

Other Opinions


2006

• November 1, 2006: "Let's make the biofuel boom an environmental boom" is a commentary written by George Boody, Executive Director of the Land Stewardship Project. It describes how cellulosic biofuels based on perennial plant systems could benefit rural communities and the environment.

• October 1, 2006: "Smithfield Buyout Poses a Threat on Many Fronts" is a commentary authored by several livestock producers who are members of the Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment, including Paul Sobocinski of the Land Stewardship Project. The commentary raises concerns about Smithfield Foods' proposed buyout of Premium Standard Farms.

2005

• November 3, 2005: "Conservation efforts can't fall by the wayside now" is a commentary that appeared in the Nov. 3, 2005, edition of Agri News. It was authored by Land Stewardship Project staff member Caroline van Schaik, and it explains why conservation programs like the Conservation Security Program are needed now more than ever.

• Oct. 5, 2005: "Sustainable Agriculture Coalition Statement on Chambliss Budget Reconciliation Package" calls for an even-handed approach to cutting the federal agriculture budget.

• Feb. 11, 2005: Internationally respected activist and author Frances Moore Lappé spoke about food issues during a special Land Stewardship Project event in southeast Minnesota. She talked about the relationship between lack of democracy and hunger, and cited several examples from around the world of communities that are injecting values into the marketplace. For an MP3 audio clip of Lappé describing two such examples from Brazil, click here. For more on Lappé's talk, see the January/February/March 2005 Land Stewardship Letter.
  
  
• March 8, 2005: "A Proposal for Farm Program Payment Limitation Reform" is a white paper drafted by the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. It provides an analysis of the Rural America Preservation Act of 2005, which has been proposed in the U.S. Senate.
  
  
• March 5, 2005: "Making a point about Bush's budget cuts" is a letter to the editor that ran in Agri News on March 3, 2005. It was written by farmer Dave Serfling, a member of LSP's Federal Farm Policy Committee.

2004

• July 1, 2004: "Cementing democracy's building blocks" is a commentary written by farmer and Land Stewardship Project organizer Paul Sobocinski for Agri News.
  
• March 17, 2004: Q & A with Bill Heffernan: ‘There’s nothing inevitable about this system…’
  
• February 26, 2004: "CSP Statement of Dan French" is testimony given by French at a USDA Conservation Security Program listening session.

2003

• June 24, 2003: Campaign for Family Farms Statement on Country of Origin Labeling
• April 21, 2003: Don't Let Our Environmental Rights Be Taken Away
• February 28, 2003: A Tale of Two Farms
• February 14, 2002: Do the Math-Proposed EQIP Rule Change a Factory Farm Handout

2002

• July 31, 2002: A Modest Proposal for removing the burden of animal wastes upon the country and making them beneficial to the public
• July 16, 2002: LSP Member Testifies in D.C. on Packer Ban
• May 10, 2002: Farm Bill: LSP makes a difference at the national level
  

2001

• November 22, 2001: Des Moines Register editorial: The slow poison of farm subsidies
• September 27, 2001: COMMENTARY: Intensive corn-soybean agriculture is not sustainable
• LSP Board Member Testimony before the Senate Agriculture Committee Field Hearing Worthington, Minnesota, August 4, 2001
• July 31, 2001: Testimony for the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Hearing on Conservation on Working Lands July 31, 2001
• March 1, 2001: Oral Testimony Given by Land Stewardship Project Member Dan Specht to the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry Committee
  
  

• August 16, 2000: COMMENTARY: Let's vote down the pork tax