A rare day of sunshine on back to back days was extremely welcome among the group. The morning started with a drive to Des Moines to meet with the Iowa Environmental Council. This meeting was unlike all of our other meetings with groups like Iowa Corn or Iowa Soybeans. The major difference was this group was made up of all women and were very to the point when talking about the issues that mattered to the council. They also had a very different view than the other groups we talked to. They were fed up with the farmers because they believed they were not doing enough to help save the environment, especially the water. They thought the only way they could fix the issue was through regulations by the federal government to get what they needed to be done. Another major difference, that should be called into question when looking back at their discussion was none of them still work on a farm and two of them grew up as “city kids.” With no experience on the farm, they have no direct knowledge of how some of the policies they are trying to implement may affect the farmers. The conversation as a whole was probably one of the best ones we have had on the trip so far.
After, we had another drive to get to Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge to meet with Omar de Kok-Mercado. Here we learned that Iowa had been all prairie before the settlers came and tiled the land. The refuge is making efforts to restore the prairie on its land with the indigenous plants. Omar’s job on the refuge is applying prairie strips to fields to help with runoff and to restore wildlife habitat. His view was similar to the Iowa Environmental Council but he does not think it should not be done through legislation and the government because it will not get enforced. The change needs to come from the farmers and especially the bigger corporations.