I specialize in covering various aspects of agriculture, including policy, innovative production practices, and rural economic development issues. Below is a sampling of my work:
• Can Taller Cover Crops Help Clean the Water in Farm Country? (Civil Eats, 2/27/24): In Minnesota, a local water quality program might serve as a model for incentivizing the next steps in regenerative farming.
• It’s Not You, It’s the Climate
(Land Stewardship Letter, No. 1, 2023): The human element of building resilience on the farm.
• Pay Dirt
(Land Stewardship Letter, No. 1, 2023): Viewing profitability through a soil health lens.
• Solar Powered Land Access
(Land Stewardship Letter, No. 2, 2022): These beginning farmers are trying to prove energy and food production can co-exist — one megawatt at a time.
• Digging Deep, Taking Control
(Land Stewardship Letter, No. 2, 2022): A report on how nine different farms are putting soil health in the driver’s seat.
• Patchwork Quilt Stewardship
(Land Stewardship Letter, No. 2, 2022): John Ledermann’s rental relationships are built on healthy soil.
• Myth Buster Series
I have developed a series of deeply researched “Myth Busters” to address some of the misrepresentations circulated by supporters of corporate-controlled industrial agriculture.
• The Crop Insurance Conundrum
(Land Stewardship Letter, No. 1, 2022): More evidence that a “safety net” has weaved its way into a web of destruction.
• A Season of Field Days
(Land Stewardship Letter, No. 2, 2021): A ground-level peek at the challenges (and promise) of regenerative ag.
• Hybrid Rye is Helping Farmers Fight ‘Superweeds’ Without Herbicide
(Civic Eats, 8/10/21): An in-depth article on how a hybrid version of a small grain — virtually unheard of in the U.S. — could help diversify the corn-soybean duoculture economically and ecologically. Despite its great potential, hybrid rye faces significant barriers in the form of farm policy, the markets, and a row crop-based transportation/storage infrastructure.
• The Farmer Who Went Underground (Minnesota Conservation Volunteer, May-June 2020): A profile of farmer Martin Larsen — his exploration of wild caves in southeastern Minnesota is revealing the connections between clean water and healthy soil.
• A Raw Deal on Farmland (Land Stewardship Letter, No. 1, 2021): A profile describing how a young couple launched their agricultural enterprise on open land far from “farm country.”
• Seeing Whiteness in the Food System (No. 1, 2021, Land Stewardship Letter): In this feature, veteran journalist and documentarian John Biewen describes racism’s roots and its impact on American agriculture.
• Water contamination: In Minnesota, we must reconsider which crops we plant (Star Tribune, Jan. 20, 2020): A commentary on how climate change has made it imperative to consider alternatives to the corn-soybean system of farming.
• Public Research, Public Benefits (Land Stewardship Letter, No. 2, 2019): A feature on how Kernza and other “Forever Green” innovations represent the power of agricultural policymaking that looks beyond corn and soybeans.
• Farm Beginnings, MOSES Conference key to setting new farmers on path to success (Organic Broadcaster, September/October 2019): The role cross-generational connections can play in farmland transfers.
• A Hilltop View of the Land’s Potential (Land Stewardship Letter, No. 1, 2019): How a farmer who rents has rooted his relationship with landowners in healthy soil.
• From Crisis to Community (Land Stewardship Letter, No. 1, 2019): When neighbors in one Iowa community were threatened by a CAFO, they responded by launching a new, regenerative farm.
• Protozoa, Pastures & Profits (Land Stewardship Letter, No. 2, 2018): A dairy farmer utilizes managed rotational grazing, manure and diversity to cash in on soil carbon.
• Soil Health, Water & Climate Change: A Pocket Guide to What You Need to Know (Land Stewardship Project, Oct. 2017) This guide, which is available as a paper booklet as well as an online app, describes the latest science related to how soil-smart farming systems can help society deal with two of its most vexing environmental problems: sustainable water use and climate change.
• A Hub of Soil Health Activity (Land Stewardship Letter, No. 1, 2016): How Indiana is using cover cropping and early adopters as “gateways” into a deeper understanding of sustainable soil management.
• The King of Cover Cropping (Land Stewardship Letter, No. 4, 2015): How an innovative partnership in Indiana is bringing together farmers, scientists, agribusinesses, and government conservationists to build soil health in corn-soybean country.
• Everyone’s Farm Bill (Minnesota Conservation Volunteer, September/October 2012): It may be the most poorly-understood federal policy initiative in existence, but anyone who cares about everything from the health of the land to what food they put in their mouth should pay attention to the Farm Bill.
• The Seed Money of Destruction (Star Tribune, 3/26/12): Over the past several decades, crop insurance has quietly transformed from a basic safety net for farmers to one of the biggest drivers of how cropping is carried out in this country.
• Healthy Soils, Healthy Farms, Healthy Communities (Land Stewardship Letter, No. 3 & 4, 2012): The Burleigh County Soil Health Team is showing people around the world what happens when farmers, scientists, and conservationists join forces and stop accepting soil as a “degraded resource.”
• Creating Habitat on Farms (Anthropocene, 7/29/08): Farmers and ecologists walk the land together and develop a way to create a meeting point for environmental and economic sustainability.
• Redesigning Agriculture (BioScience, Vol. 56, Issue 10, October 2006): This review article, co-authored with George Boody, summarizes books and other writings that address the need to remake agriculture ecologically.