I awoke this morning to the smell of fresh bacon again. Honestly, that scent really never gets old. But, waking up at 7 is starting to get somewhat tiresome. We were up early to head down the road to help two of the five Fiscus siblings with their morning chores. One wouldn’t think that a large-scale Greyhound dog breeding operation would be located in north-central Iowa, but somehow there is one. The two Fiscus (or Fisci, as we like to call them) wake up early nearly every morning to feed, play, and care for the many dogs at the kennels. Upon pulling up at the farm, my weary eyes met the eyes of some of the cutest little puppies I have ever seen. I have a small weakness for puppies, and particularly playful ones. So, after feeding the larger dogs their rations of raw meat and dry food, we got to play with as many puppies as we could get our hands on. I took a particular liking to one of the brown greyhound puppies that couldn’t get enough of my lovin’. However, I got a little muddy in the process. That prompted us to return home and change into some nicer clothes as we were about to head to the Iowa Soybean Association to hear their pitch on conventional agriculture. The presentation was geared more toward the “feed the world” concept; a very familiar motif we have encountered over the past few weeks. The presenters focused on the importance of foreign markets and global influences on the market for soybeans. They preached on the growing number of people around the world, and not necessarily in the United States. China, which was the centerpiece for their discussion, is growing more rapidly than we can possibly imagine here in the US. They preached that nearly half of the soybeans produced in Iowa were being exported to China and around the world. Carol Balvanz, the director of government relations for Iowa Soybean, focused mainly on the impact of government policy on the soybean industry. I found her arguments for lobbying Congress on the new Farm Bill to be especially convincing and interesting. Overall, I felt that their argument was compelling but redundant. It also lacked clarity in offering the other side of the argument, which was the sustainable and small scale organic farm argument. After our “feed the world” seminar, we retreated back toward Ames, where we had a quick tour of Iowa State. We then had dinner at a local restaurant called Hickory Park BBQ. It was absolutely magnificent; I’m pretty sure I ate a pound of meat. Afterward, we headed to Wheatsfield Cooperative to take a cooking class that focused on preparing baklava and Tabouleh, a Middle Eastern salad.