Today we visited the Glen Hodnefield farm, which uses no till practices and is enrolled in the Conservation Stewardship program (CSP). According to thefreedictionary.com, no-till is “a system of planting crops without plowing, using herbicides to control weeds and resulting in reduced land erosion and the preservation of soil nutrients.” No-till seems like the logical way to farm, but many farmers swear it is not as productive as the tilled land. To counteract that, Hodnefield has used no-till methods since 1991, and his crops have produced just as much or maybe even greater yields than conventional till farming. In our readings, we discussed the many requirements necessary to enter the CSP program; farmers must practice soil protection (no tiles on farmed wetlands), clean water (use of buffer strips), be energy efficient (use E85 and bio-diesel fuels), and reduce pesticide use (by strip tilling). The farm today capitalized on all aspects CSP: the no-till method was incredibly efficient at reducing soil erosion. Furthermore, we got to drive down to another farm in the Hodnefield empire to see an example of a buffer strip. Buffer strips hold the sediment and chemicals in the ground instead of allowing them to move into the waterway. They are incredibly important in keeping the water supply clean and leaving the farmer with the soil and costly nutrients on his land for him to farm the next year. More farmers need to build buffer strips to help reduce nitrogen levels in the Gulf. If every farmer utilized these nitrogen- reduction practices, then the hypoxia zone would diminish in size by a significant factor. Even more important, these conservation practices gave land back to the animals. Since most of Iowa is used in agriculture, many of the native plant and animal species have no place to live. Under the CSP program, the farmers participating in the program must have some land set-aside as a designated prairie or some other natural habitat. Mr. Hodnefield even has a section of land he lets the deer and peasants live on during the winter and when it is planting season, he converts it to corn land. The land used for CRP and CSP was breathtaking – birds chirping and rolling grasses: the Iowa the first settlers saw. Mr. Hodnefield does these practices because he cares about the land and conserving it. His practices are very inspiring, and I hope other farmers will see how productive his land is and will practice no-till or even convert some land to growing native species.

Unfortunately, with many cuts to governmental budgets, some of the first things to fall under the budget axe is environmental programs like CSP. Under CSP, the farmer has monetary incentives to practice conservation methods including setting aside land for wildlife. But, if this program gets cut, will some farmers stop to convert that land into farmland? Farmers like Mr. Hodnefield do this out of the goodness of their heart. But, what about farmers in an unstable economic situation who need to convert that land to corn or soybean production to receive higher remuneration? Environmental groups should not be the first thing cut from the new farm bill. If anything, they should receive more money. If we do not take care of our land now, there will be none the future.

Also, a very valuable point made today was how every farmer knows every inch of his or her land – they know the best environmentally friendly practices for the land. It would be hard for an individual to come in and tell them how to change their practices. As someone interested in sustainable agriculture, it is a very important life lesson for me to never tell someone how to do their job, like farming their land.  I hope to coax farmers into sustainable practices on their own.