For 12 years, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture has been providing grants for farmers, researchers and educators to experiment with new and innovative farming practices and systems through the Sustainable Agriculture On-Farm Demonstration Grant Program.

The definition of sustainable agriculture has evolved in that time. In the early years, the focus was primarily on the direct environmental and economic aspects of farming. Today, the sustainable agriculture community looks at the broader impacts of farming both on and off the farm, in watersheds, and in local and international markets.

The essays in this year's Greenbook expand this discussion to farm marketing and its impact on communities, with several thought-provoking essays on the creation of regional food systems, with examples from around the state and around the globe. While these systems require producers to take on additional responsibilities for processing, distribution and marketing, they also may provide producers with greater profit - a key component of sustainability.

The annual Greenbook highlights the innovative work of farmers, researchers, and educators who represent the vanguard of sustainable agriculture. They are testing new and innovative ideas, and in the process expanding our understanding of what sustainable agriculture means.

Download/view the Greenbook 2000: Marketing Sustainable Agriculture (PDF: 8.40 MB / 166 pages)

Table of Contents

Essays

• Sustainable Agriculture Marketing in Action: Where the Sticker Meets the Scanner
• Conversations with the Land: The Relationship Between Livestock and the Land
• Collaborative Marketing Groups: Working Together to Meet New Challenges
• Collaborative Marketing Groups: Working Together to Meet New Challenges

Alternative Crops

• Dry Edible Beans as an Alternative Crop in a Direct Marketing Operation
• Managed Production of Woods-grown and Simulated Wild Ginseng
• Native Minnesota Medicinal Plant Production
• Establishing Agroforestry Demonstration Sites in Minnesota
• Propagation of Native Grasses and Wildflowers for Seed Production

Cropping Systems and Soil Fertility

• Increasing Red Clover Seed Production by Saturation of Pollinators
• Cereal Rye for Reduced Input Pasture Establishment and Early Grazing
• Applying Manure to Corn at Agronomic Rates
• Surface Application of Liming Materials
• Living Snow Fences for Improved Pasture Production
• Biological Control of Alfalfa Blotch Leafminer
• Forage Mixture Performance
• Using Nutrient Balances to Benefit Farmers and the Environment
• Legume Cover Crops Inter-seeded in Corn as a Source of Nitrogen
• Phosphorus Mobilization and Weed Supression by Buckwheat
• Inter-seeding Hairy Vetch in Sunflower and Corn
• Agricultural Use of Rock Fines as a Sustainable Soil Amendment
• A Comparison of Frost Seeding to Impaction Seeding on CRP Land and Wooded Hillsides Using Sheep
• Growing Corn with Companion Crop Legumes for High Protein Silage
• Increased Forage Production Through Control of Water Runoff and Nutrient Recycling
• A Low-cost Mechanism for Inter-seeding Cover Crops in Corn
• Reducing Chemical Usage by Using Soy Oil on Corn and Soybean

Fruits and Vegetables

• Integrating Livestock Profitably into a Fruit and Vegetable Operation
• Bio-based Weed Control in Strawberries Using Sheep Wool Mulch, Canola Mulch, and Canola Green Manure
• Cover Crops and Living Mulch for Strawberry Establishment
• Flame Burning for Weed Control and Renovation with Strawberries

Learning Systems

• Midwest Food Connection: Children Monitor on Farms

Livestock

• Working Prairie - Roots of the Past, Sustaining the Future
• Viability of Strip Grazing Corn Inter-seeded with a Grass/Legume Mixture
• Increasing Quality and Quantity of Pasture Forage With Management Intensive Grazing asan Alternative to the Grazing of Wooded Land
• Grass-and Forage-based Finishing of Beef, with Consumer Testing
• Low Input Conversion of CRP Land to a High Profitability Management Intensive Grazing and Haying System
• Five Steps to Better Pasture in Practice: How Does it Really Work?
• Dairy Steers and Replacement Heifers Raised on Pasture
• Supplement Feeding Dairy Cattle on Pasture with Automated Concentrate Feeder
• Learning Advanced Management Intensive Grazing Through Mentoring
• Reviving and Enhancing Soils for Maximizing Performance of Pastures and Livestock
• Using Annual Snail Medic (Medicago scutellata) as a Protein Source in Grazing Corn
• Low Cost Sow Gestation in Hoop Structure
• First and Second Year Grazers in a Year Round Pasture Setting Served by a Frost Free Water System
• Establishing Pasture Forages by Feeding Seed to Cattle
• Managing Dairy Manure Nutrients in a Recycling Compost Program

Whole Farm Systems

• Converting a Whole Farm Cash Crop System to Sustainable Livestock Production with Intensive Rotational Grazing: A Case Study and Demonstration of Process and Whole Farm Profitability
• Whole System Management vs. Enterprise Management
• Keeping an Eye on Quality of Life and the Bottom Line in Sustainable Agriculture by Using Key Farm Economic Ratios to Aid in Decision-making
• The Introduction of Feed Peas and Feed Barley into Whole Farm Planning