Seated in Southeastern Minnesota’s Driftless Area, the Winona area is surrounded by bluffland carved during the last glacial period. The nutrient-dense, loess-heavy topsoil found here is highly desirable for agriculture, but its karst topography provides limited natural filtration, leaving the watershed especially vulnerable to agricultural, industrial, and residential contamination. The three institutions of higher learning in the area provide an influx of new residents and support a growing arts community.
A participant from the Winona County Climate Dialogue, Shona Snater, emphasized the challenges of sustainability in the Winona area. Action on land and water stewardship has moved slower than she would like, because “our average farmer is 56 years old, so trying to convince them to go into a more sustainable method of farming, which involves a lot more equipment purchasing and completely changing farming practices, is hard to do for someone who is looking to retire. It’s something, I believe, that people know needs to be done—it’s just that there may be a bit of delay before we can see new farmers coming onto the land that can invest in the land and start using more sustainable practices.”
For Snater, the question is now “what can an individual person do; and, to me, it doesn’t matter what your day job is: you could work for a mining company, whatever. I think it’s what you go home and do. If you can support your local co-op or go to the farmer’s market and support that local farmer, the fact is that you’re keeping that money in the community and it’s circulating right there. The more we can do that sustains the local communities, supporting your own local community and your own neighbors—I think that is the biggest change we really need to see to start turning things around.”
While Snater sees barriers to action on sustainability issues for farmers, she is troubled with younger citizens’ capacity to act on an individual level: “I think that a big concern now is that we have our young people so wrapped up in trying to find jobs and pay off student debt that we’re going to have a really hard time even having the time to focus on these issues.”
Read the profiles of a Stevens County participant and an Itasca County participant, or go back to the Rural Climate Dialogues.