This morning we went to the Leopold Center at Iowa State University, which focuses on research and education related to ecological preservation and sustainable agriculture. While there, we were able to have a conversation with Matt Liebman and Fred Kirschenmann about a lot of the stuff we had been learning and more about what each of them were doing with the Leopold Center. I was especially excited to be able to meet Dr. Kirschenmann after we had watched My Father’s Garden and Symphony of the Soil because I really liked a lot of the philosophies he had espoused in those movies. Matt Liebman did a lot of the talking at first because he had to leave early, and most of the stuff he had to say revolved around the research he was doing at the Leopold Center. I found his ideas regarding the farming of mixed native perennial crops to be really interesting. He told us that because of the carbon bonds in plants, basically any form of biomass can be harnessed and used as fuel. Therefore, because a lot of corn crops are grown right now in order to make ethanol, these could be replaced with polyculture native perennials instead, which could still be used for fuel. Changing much of the landscape back to native perennials could help with soil health, and it could decrease the amount of nitrogen runoff. Dr. Kirschenmann was significantly more negative about the future than Matt Liebman, but I thought he was realistic about a lot of the warnings he was giving about what the state of the Earth will be in the future if conventional farming practices are maintained. I also enjoyed talking to him about how he applied the Garden of Eden story in the Bible to modern day farming. We have to be careful to not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, which would be thinking that we can dominate the Earth and that we can consume endlessly without suffering any consequences for doing so.

In the afternoon we went to Monsanto to do a short tour of the facilities and talk with some representatives about some of the controversies surrounding the company. The representatives did a good job defending the company, and I do think that some of the arguments against Monsanto and GMOs are not very good, but the representatives were not able to convince me to begin supporting their company. I am still philosophically opposed to large corporations owning patents for certain seeds and genes. Plants and the seeds that they produce are supposed to be gifts from the land for all humanity to benefit from. The highlight of today however was seeing my new phrase and philosophical movement, “Life is Life”, start to gain traction in the Des Moines community. When the representative from Monsanto used the phrase, I realized it was truly a universal movement that would be unstoppable. I’m looking forward to seeing where the “Life is Life” philosophy goes in the future.

P.S. I also got Joan of Arc’s “A Portable Model Of” LP on clear vinyl at a Des Moines record store, so I was very excited about that find.