Editor’s note
As we enter the new year, I can’t help but reflect on the past 366 days and ponder what’s next.
In 2024, I had the privilege of traveling to six new-to-me states—all east of the Mississippi River. While driving windy mountain roads, two-lane highways, and through small towns, I noticed one common factor: small businesses. Some had customers while others had for-sale signs in their windows.
What is clear to me is that in the next year, I need to focus more on supporting our small businesses. I admit it’s easy to pick up my phone and order something with one click. But, how much more fulfilling is it to walk into a shop located in a historical building, across creaky wooden floors, and be greeted by a smiling proprietor. That person likey does it all, including donating to local causes.
With 2025 full of unknowns, I know there is one thing I can control—my choice of shopping locally and supporting small businesses.
-Rhea Landholm
In this issue:
- Fifth-generation farmer finds new ways to care for the land as a conservation fellow - Originally from northeast Nebraska, Corinne is a fifth-generation farmer, a heritage of which she is very proud. Her grandfather and his siblings all farmed, as well as several of their children.
- Grants available to farm and food entrepreneurs - The window for the second round of Business Builder Grants will open mid-January. Food businesses can apply for the reimbursable funds that could promote business expansion, job creation, business capacity building, and increase local products in the local market.
- Double cropping: connection between field and grid - Combining row crops and solar energy has been relatively uncommon, but in Olivia, Minnesota, forward-thinking farmers John Baumgartner and Rolly and Larry Rauenhorst are demonstrating how solar power generation can be integrated into a corn-soybean operation, creating what they refer to as a “double-cropping” system.
- Rural Iowa grocer determined to overcome adversity - The locally owned Mulholland Grocery store had been a fixture on Malvern, Iowa’s Main Street for nearly 150 years before a fire on Dec. 13, 2021, inflicted severe building damage, including a collapsed roof.
- Business owner offers a fresh way to get caffeine fix - Pham’s Coffee & Boba in Grand Island, Nebraska, is not a typical coffee shop. From placing an order to taking the first sip, customers are in for an immersive, educational, and delicious experience.
- On the road with Erin in Iowa - Jillian Linster, the Center’s policy director, and I don’t get a chance to see each other often. But we both know how valuable it is to build connections with colleagues and within the communities we serve. Last spring, Jillian and I put our heads together to develop a packed and productive mid-summer road trip through Iowa.
