Our third day in Iowa was very eventful! We spent most of the day with Professor Kevin Butt from Ellsworth Community College. Professor Butt was a great instructor on farm safety. Before his safety lessons, I was ready to drive a tractor. Afterwards, I was definitely scared straight into taking every precaution. He punctuated his PowerPoint slides and lectures with a large number of personal stories. His hair-raising narratives of near-death experiences from his tractor engine catching on fire to almost hitting a power line with his combine, demonstrated the numerous everyday dangers that farmers face.  Moreover, he was very excited about the GPS and other high-tech devices being employed to use on various farm implements. We even got to drive in his GPS-automated mini-car – it was pretty cool! For lunch, we went to a really cool little soda place and got to walk around the town and visit a coffee shop. As a self-proclaimed caffeine addict, the Coffee Attic on Washington Street in Iowa Falls was pretty amazing!

After dinner, we saw an intriguing documentary, Ocean Frontiers, on four stories from across the nation about cooperative efforts to protecting the oceans. As a Floridian, I am very interested in coral reef conservation in particular, and one of the case studies centered on efforts to protect the coral reefs in the Florida Keys.  Of course, as a sustainability sciences major, I’m interested and intrigued by sustainability practices for all waterways. During the movie, the filmmakers also touched on noise pollution found in the Boston port channel. I had no idea how much underwater noise ships emit and how that noise affects the communication of every living organism under the water, but especially the whales that live in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Also, due to different chemicals (particularly nitrogen fertilizer) used in Iowa farm fields draining into the Mississippi River, the run-off has caused a massive dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Remarkably, a group of Iowa farmers are changing their farming practices to improve a body of water located hundreds of miles away from their business.  I think these farmers are incredibly inspiring for their desire to help restore wetlands in Iowa and champion new environmentally sensitive and cost effective farming practices.  In fact, the state of Iowa has embarked on a significant endeavor to reduce nutrients (notably nitrogen) in its waterways, and we’ve heard about this strategy a great deal during our time in Iowa.  We were fortunate to have the author of the agriculture portion of the strategy in attendance at our film viewing.  Ocean Frontiers was such an inspiring movie because people with different backgrounds, even states apart, can work together for a common good. Luckily, this good will positively affect humans and animals. With Iowa farmers being more careful about chemical runoff, maybe the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico will lessen allowing life to again flourish in the area. In addition, with just changing the route of ships the number of whales killed in the Boston Port has decreased significantly. Inspiring stories likes these leaves no doubt that we can restore ecosystems and environments.