Friday morning we arrived in Storm Lake and had a meeting with Police Chief Prosser about the town. He described his career history and how he never believed he would stay in Storm Lake as long as he has, and how it has become his home. Storm Lake is a small town in Northwest Iowa where the community has grown while many small towns in the Midwest have become depressed and abandoned. Storm Lake’s economic vibrance is due to its two Tyson plants and large immigrant population. The Chief then discussed an ICE raid he helped to organize at a local food hog processing plant, and how it is the biggest regret of his career. It destabilized the trust the community had in law enforcement, and the feds had, unbeknownst to the chief, contacted national news to be on site during the raid to get front page coverage.
Reaching out to the community and showing involvement, care, and compassion has been a key to integrating the community according to Chief Prosser. Instead of punishing those who are not maliciously breaking the law (ex. slaughtering a pig or lamb in their yard and cleaning the carcas within city limits), the police will talk to the individual, explain how it is wrong, and issue a warning.
Later in the day, we met with city council member Jose Ibarra, who echoed much of what Chief Prosser had said, and then spoke about the city council. He is the only minority member of the council and ran under the encouragement of a few friends. He ran to encourage those who do not think they have a voice in the community or are not focused on civic engagement to look at him and see it is possible. Mr. Ibarra also discussed voter turnout as an issue that seems to harm Storm Lake.
Saturday morning, the group met with Pulitzer prize winner Art Cullen and discussed many issues ranging from big agriculture to Storm Lake immigration. Art was extremely concerned with representatives within the government being in the pocket of big money. He showed less concern that the research being produced at land grant universities such as Iowa State, should be dismissed out of hand, despite his concern that big corporations were having an undue influence there. For example, he expressed some concern about the pro-big agriculture perspective at ISU, as he has been told by some professors to keep up the work (such as advocating for the Des Moines Water Works perspective on clean water) that he is doing because the professors cannot say what he is saying. According to Art (and enforced by others on the tour), the Farm Bill has resulted in practices that harm soil health. Planting fence row to fence row is not sustainable. He constantly criticized Nixon’s Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz, for bringing the “feed the world” mentality to US agriculture in general and Iowa in particular. Art also agreed with the police chief and Councilor Jose Ibarra with their statements on immigration, and that the Storm Lake community has done a good job coming together and embracing their diversity. He believes that Storm Lake is a model of what future American small towns will look like in the future. As immigrants move up the economic ladder, they will move out of small towns where their advanced degrees result in jobs that are less prevalent in small towns. Finally, the most interesting point I took away from Art Cullen during this meeting was that farmers don’t want to be told how to farm by the government (relating to the Des Moines Water Works lawsuit) have all kinds of people who are telling them how to farm. Cullen contends that farmers are being told how to farm by the bank; they are being told how to farm by Monsanto; they are being told how to farm by John Deere; and they are being told how to farm by ISU extension. But, when it comes to government telling farmers how to farm, that is viewed in a different light. It is interesting when the government gets involved how people’s views shift. Even though farmers constitute about 2% of Iowans, everyone in Iowa is related to a farmer and knows the impact and implication of any political decision involving agriculture.