The Leopold Center was our first stop today at Iowa State College. There we met with Fred Kirschenmann and Matt Liebman. Fred was the former head of the Leopold Center and in the movie, My Fathers Garden, where he was featured as an organic farmer. He spoke with us today about the problems arising from and the negative effects of human choices on planet Earth. His main points were that we are robbing the soil of its nutrients, draining the Earth of her water, and consuming all the cheap energy. In 1987, the Iowa legislature passed The Ground Water Protection Act, creatingthe Leopold Center as well as set aside funding for research on the effects of pollutants on health, and exploring issues related to farming and water quality. This was passed after the scare of Blue Baby syndrome that hit two families in Iowa, and as Fred said, the legislation would probably not pass today. The Leopold Center cannot be advocates for a particular position, but it can make its research readily available for either side to argue. They have not solved all the problems with the water quality, which was something the Environmental Agency was working on as well, but is too complex to be easily fixed. Another thing that tied to what we talked about yesterday (with members of the Iowa House) is that farmers need incentives to change their practices and with a demand for corn high, they do not want to take acres out of production, especially if they still get paid with the insurance coverage. Fred was also focused on the crisis coming that lies down the road–when we will be out of fresh water. But as he says, “sometimes moments of crisis are moments of grace” because they wake us up and give us reason and incentives to change the way we have been acting in the past years with farming techniques. We need to treat the soil well and keep it healthy, so we can continue to get life from it, without spraying chemicals all over it. Although he had a more doomsday view on the limited water we have left and the poor soil we are creating, he was positive when it came to the fact that young people are getting into farming and that this new movement of farmers are largely focusing on farming organically. He mentioned how well Nebraska has done because the legislature there (with help from the Center for Rural Policy) created a tax benefit for farmers who sell their land to new farmers. Again with proper incentives, positive changes happen.

Matt was a bit more on the optimistic side. His background was more on the science (agronomy) side, and he was confident that whatever happens in the future, science will find a way to fix it. There will be different attempts and new ideas, but nothing will be completely gone. His focus was on re-integrating livestock, conservation of un-farmable land, and returning native vegetation to Iowa. I prefer the optimistic view for the future.

The next thing we did was go to Monsanto. There we met with Rachel and Dave who were less on the science side and more focused on taking our questions and explaining what they actually do, and discussing what they termed the misconceptions about Monsanto. I really liked that we had a lot of time for questions because that focused the conversation how we wanted it to go. What I did not know was that even though they do sell GMO seeds, they also sell organic seeds to farmers. I also liked that when thinking about their products, they begin with first with the farmer in mind. They were thinking about what they could do best for the farmer, not informing the public that it was okay, because it was known to them that if they made it and sold it to their community, it was safe. I think they are at the disadvantage of the uninformed public who just hears Genetically Modified and thinks its automatically bad. They have now created a place for people to call in or email questions about GMOs to clear the air that they are safe, but at the same time they have not lost focus on the farmer. They now have an app that is called ClimateCorp and it tells the farmer everything about his field from rain fall to heat index without him having to even walk outside. I really like that they keep the farmer at heart because it is the farmer that matters. Also, I think they relate to the argument that we talked about earlier in the day that we are running out of water. Well, if you have a plant that adapts to use less water and is safe, by all means use it! There is no need to waste resources when we do not need to. I did like visiting the Monsanto group and find nothing wrong with GMOs. That is finally the stance I have taken on them. I understand that insects will evolve, but so will the seeds they are currently making. I look at it as evolution. We evolved as humans and nobody is complaining and wishing to go back to being a homo-habilis because that was safer, so why are they complaining about seeds that we have helped to evolve? I think if the people who just buy the non-GMO label because they think it sounds better came out to Iowa to farm, they would change their mind quickly when they were out there on their hands and knees picking weeds from their non-GMO plants.