May 17

We woke for the usual slew of eggs, pancakes, sausage, and pineapple this morning at 7:45. HN herded us to the van just before 9:00 am for our trip to Frontier Cooperative in Norway.  On the way we learned that, like any co-op, Frontier’s costumers are share-holders in the company and hold the right to vote and benefit from company profits. They offer high transparency on their webpage, citing specific examples of community engagement in the areas from which they source their products, including installing wells in Madagascar where they source their vanilla, and establishing homes and schools in Vietnam where they acquire the cinnamon they sell, among several other projects. We were greeted at the Frontier headquarters by the animated, personable Patly Konvent. Jake, the purchasing manager, gave us a presentation on the sustainability initiatives of the company, including their long-term vision of economic and environmental benefits their products promote. We met Tony, the CEO, and Ravine, the Quality Assessment and Quality Control coordinator. Patly took us on a tour through the childcare center and the gym facilities, both of which are offered to their employees at a heavily discounted rate. Afterward Ravine took us back to the analytical lab where organoleptic testing was performed, evaluating product color, size, and aroma. He said that they use microscopy to detect adulteration in the products (i.e. the addition of materials other than the pure substance). Ravine also addressed the interesting fact that Frontier resisted the Non-GMO Project label for a while because GM technology has not been developed for the production of many spices and herbs. After a tour through the packaging plant we had lunch (or dinner, depending on where you’re reading this from) at the employee rate and departed for the Neil Smith Wildlife Refuge at around 1:00 pm.

Just outside of Norway we passed through Amana, a collection of utopian communities known for their woodworking and refrigeration plants. HN pointed out that it was a much older and hillier part of Iowa. We arrived at the nature center in Prairie City just before 3:00 pm and were welcomed by Dr. Schulte-Moore, the cofounder and co-leader of STRIPS, or Science-based Trials of Row-crops Integrated with Prairie Strips, an Iowa State faculty member in the Natural Resource Ecology and Management department. She took us to the reserve research plots on which they had planted prairie strips among no-till soybean-on-corn fields. In the first plot, a soil collecting channel was situated at the bottom of a cultivated slope in a watershed. She pointed out the abundance of erosion along the watershed and the large accumulation of soil in the channel and that which they had shoveled out. In the second plot, the channel was situated below a restored prairie and showed much less erosion. Dr. Schulte-Moore added that she has the privilege of working with a variety of experts on the project to understand the entire system, including ecosystem functions, potential economic returns, and biogeochemical flows.

At around 4:30 pm we headed back to Radcliffe in a thunderstorm, had lasagna for supper, then went to the barn to ruminate on the day’s events.