Terra Madre Delegate Profile -
Audrey and Richard Arner,
Moonstone Farm, Minnesota

In western Minnesota, along the upper reaches of the state's namesake river, acre after mind-numbing acre is planted to one of two annual crops: corn or soybeans. But outside the town of Montevideo, past the bald eagle's nest and up the hill from the river bottom, there is an island of grass and trees called Moonstone Farm. For the past dozen years Moonstone's Audrey Arner and Richard Handeen have worked to prove that farming the rich soils of the Minnesota River Valley can be done in a way that respects the earth, the farmer, the local community and an eater's taste buds.

"Perennialize and diversify-that's really been the guiding principle for us," says Arner during a break from fencing chores.

Moonstone is one of the premier organic farming operations in the region, and its main product, grassfed beef, is praised by local residents and big city chefs alike for its quality and healthfulness. It wasn't always this way: Richard's family homesteaded the farm in 1872, and he and Audrey have been farming it since 1973. For the first several years they did what many western Minnesota farmers do: raised bumper crops of corn and soybeans. But they became concerned about the soil erosion and chemical runoff created by such a system, not to mention the lack of wildlife habitat and the razor thin profit margins connected with raising monocultural bulk commodities. They began looking at ways to produce food on the land using perennial plant systems.

Through her work as an organizer with the Land Stewardship Project, a nonprofit organization that promotes sustainable agriculture and family farming, Arner came in contact with livestock producers who were using a technique called "management intensive rotational grazing." This system rotates cattle through a series of grass paddocks, making efficient use of perennial forages while spreading manure on the land in a way that is environmentally sound. Such a system prevents overgrazing, is not reliant on energy-intensive cropping equipment, and provides critical grassland bird habitat. It also produces a top quality meat product: lean, high in healthy elements such as conjugated linoleic acid, and free of antibiotics and hormones.

In the early 1990s, Moonstone began the conversion to grass-based livestock. Today, Arner and Handeen market their beef straight off the farm, as well as to restaurants in Minneapolis-St. Paul, a two-and-half hour drive down the Minnesota River. They've been focusing on feeding their neighbors in the local region as well. Working with other farmers, nonprofit groups, educational institutions and government agencies, Moonstone has been a main player in Pride of the Prairie, an initiative to promote the production and consumption of local foods in the Upper Minnesota River Valley. Through community meals, buying guides and educational programs, Pride of the Prairie is getting Moonstone beef and other local food products on the plates of people who live in the midst of farm country, but assume their sustenance can only come from a supermarket or McDonald's. Arner concedes that getting people to buy grassfed beef in the land where corn-fattened animals are king has taken some doing.

"We had to re-educate our taste buds not only about what tasted good, but about what benefits family and farm, social structure, the economy and the natural world."

In recent years, Arner and Handeen have taken the idea of "perennial diversity" beyond their pastures. They are working to improve the ecological health of some woodland on the farm, and this spring they decided to join the valley's embryonic wine culture by planting grape vines on a hill overlooking their pond. The couple is excited about this new venture-it's yet one more way to produce high quality food using perennial plants. The first grapes won't be ready for three to five years-a lifetime in an area where annual crops mature within a matter of weeks. But Moonstone farm long ago left behind the short-term, annual-crop mindset.

"We've grown accustomed to becoming more patient," says Arner. "That's part of perennialization."

Written by Brian DeVore of the Land Stewardship Project