Renewing the Countryside is a nonprofit organization that strengthens rural areas by championing and supporting rural communities, farmers, artists, entrepreneurs, educators, activists and other people who are renewing the countryside through sustainable and innovative initiatives, businesses, and projects.

In 2022-23, CURA partnered with Renewing the Countryside and a student researcher to study agricultural easements as a policy tool to preserve agricultural land in Minnesota. Agricultural easements protect the long-term viability of the nation’s food supply by preventing conversion of productive working lands to non-agricultural uses. Land protected by agricultural land easements provides additional public benefits, including environmental quality, historic preservation, wildlife habitat, and protection of open space.

In order to build awareness of what this policy is and how it works, CURA's Public Policy Design Lab connected Renewing the Countryside with illustrator Khou Vue to create a graphics-forward one-pager that visually conveys important information about agricultural easements in an inviting, easy to understand way. The visuals were shared at an exhibit at this year's State Fair.

Download a print-ready PDF of the "Understanding Agricultural Easements in Minnesota" one-pager