The list of Twin Cities area CSA farms that are sold out for the 2009 season is growing ever-longer, but there are still a few spots left for adventurous localvores. Check out LSP’s list (we’ve marked the SOLD OUT farms) and start counting the days toward that first delivery of fresh produce. And if you really want to whet your appetite for local, sustainable farming, attend one of the screenings of the new movie Fresh in Minneapolis June 2-3. Yumm.

This week’s Update from lobbyist John Tuma:

“When we ended our cruise and our canoes grated on a sandy beach for the last time our hearts were heavy and yet how happy.”
- Sigurd Olson, The Nashwauk Herald, July 22, 1921

(more…)

As anyone who’s visited it knows, Minnesota’s North Shore harbors singular beauty. And visitors and artists from all across America take note of it. Here is a poetic example in a recent issue of the Christian Science Monitor. As Congressional debate heats up on a proposed $475 million federal investment in the Great Lakes this summer, the North Shore can be cited as one of the national icons worth celebrating and conserving. So far, no one has put a number on how much of the $475 million will be put to work in Minnesota’s Lake Superior watershed, but it’s likely to be substantial. Minnesota’s Congressional delegation will benefit by hearing from those who cherish the North Shore.

It was no surprise that the overall budget for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture had to be cut 8 percent during the recent legislative session. But by the time the final gavel fell, budgets for two key sustainable/organic MDA programs ended up being slashed by a combined average of over 75 percent. When a few successful programs are singled out for such disproportionately rough treatment, it’s not exactly a “we all share in the pain” situation. It’s beginning to smell like the folks on high don’t like any type of food and farm system that threatens the status quo. (more…)

This week’s update from lobbyist John Tuma:

“Twins 4, Cardinals 2. The Twins’ Magic carpet took Minnesota to the moon Sunday night. It was born by the sound of 55,000 exploding voices in the Metrodome and hundreds of thousands more from border to border in one floor-stomping, chest pounding declaration: We’re No.1.”

- Jim Klobuchar, Star Tribune, 10/26/87
(more…)

Kudos to President Obama and his administration for taking an important step toward fulfilling his campaign pledge to fund Great Lakes Restoration by including a $475 million down payment in his fiscal year 2010 budget. (more…)

It’s been a good couple of weeks if you’re a farmer looking for federal programs that help integrate conservation measures on an organic operation or get involved in a “value chain” that makes your production more lucrative before it leaves the land. The USDA just announced two such initiatives. The downside is the application window is ridiculously tight for these programs, so don’t blink. (more…)

This week’s update from lobbyist John Tuma:

“When I reached the brink of the hill overlooking the surrounding country, I was struck with the picturesque beauty of the scene.”*
-Henry Hastings Sibley

(more…)

The Minnesota House and Senate are now in conference over first-time appropriations from the Clean Water, Land and Legacy constitutional amendment. With just five days left before the scheduled session end and the state budget far from resolved, overnight changes to all funding bills are possible. That raises the possibility that more of the Legacy money could end up substituting for steep cuts in existing conservation programs, rather than funding new and overdue initiatives as the Amendment promised.

This morning Conservation Minnesota asked Minnesotans to contact the Legislature and Governor about this issue and especially to insure water cleanup funding is protected.

Cheap tadalafil
Cialis cheap
Cialis fast delivery
Cialis fedex
Cialis female viagra
Cialis for sale
Cialis for sale uk
Cialis free samples
Cialis from india tadalafil
Cialis generic brand name differences
Cialis generic rx
Cialis generic viagra
Cialis in greece
Cialis in pulmonary hypertension
Cialis istanbul
Cialis jokes
Cialis levitra viagra vs vs
Cialis lilly icos
Cialis liver disease
Cialis name brand cheap
Cialis next day
Cialis no prescription best online pharmacy
Cialis no prescription needed
Cialis no rx
Cialis on line erectile dysfunction pill
Cialis overnight pharmacy
Cialis patent expiration wikipedia
Cialis paypal
Cialis pills manufacturer
Cialis prescribing
Cialis que es
Cialis retin-a ortho-evra patch
Cialis review
Cialis sale overnight shipping
Cialis soft fast shipping
Cialis tabs
Cialis tadalafil cialis tadafil tal
Cialis tadalafil free sildenafil rx-partners
Cialis tadalafil reviews
Cialis taken by women in europe
Cialis usa
Cialis usa pharmacy
Cialis viagra canada
Cialis viagra heartburn
Cialis viagra sampler
Cialis vs levitra
Cialis vs levitra faq
Cialis with no prescriptiona
Cialis without a prescription
Cialis without prescription
Generic tadalafil
Tadalafil softtabs

One would be hard put to find anything positive about the recent outbreak of swine flu. However, it has generated a healthy discussion—first via blogs and later, after being goaded by those same blogs, by the general media—over the price we are paying for allowing large-scale factory meat companies like Smithfield Foods to have their way in communities here and abroad. Swine flu may have faded from the headlines for now, but swine factories remain a nightmarish presence for all too many rural residents. (more…)