Thinking back on all the vital information that we soaked in today, I realized that I learned more about agricultural production in one day than I had expected to learn in our entire trip. Today we made the trek over to Iowa Falls to meet with Mr. Kevin Butt, a professor at the Ellsworth Community College. He gave us amazing advice and instruction on behavior and safety requirements in and around farming industry and livestock holdings. Being a horseback rider, the animal safety tips weren’t entirely new to me, but I found the other advice regarding tractor and equipment safety to be very useful. His explanations of the evolution of farming equipment was so interesting, as I can honestly say before today I couldn’t tell you the difference between using John Deere (green) versus Case IH (red). Now I can tell you it’s just as controversial as donning Houndstooth in Tigertown, Al. BAD IDEA. Those of y’all from above the Mason-Dixon, just look up “Auburn v Alabama” and “football.” From planters to combines, I feel I grasped the gist of modern farming technology. And modern it most certainly is. Any tractor that is connected to a GPS system and a satellite allowing it to drive itself, measure the topography of the land, know what land has already been planted, and stop itself on a dime is fairly modern in my book. But this comes from the girl that when handed the basic handheld video camera this morning, stared blankly for a few moments and asked how to turn it on…let’s just say that even after leaving it in the van twice and forgetting to video even whilst in my possession, Ryan somehow became the new videographer. To say that I am anti-technology would be a slight understatement. This trip to Ellsworth was supplemented by another documentary tonight by the name of Ocean Frontiers. I don’t have much experience with oceanography or ocean sustainability, but I am eager to learn more. I definitely have seen the ramifications of a lack of careful precautions taken to protect our oceans. I can still see litigation in my hometown from the oil spill in the Gulf. Today was quite the productive day, so I definitely look forward to a day of reflection and contemplation over our past few busy days.