June 3rd, 2019
To start off our last week in Iowa, some of the group went to the Brent Friest Farm to slide into the driver’s seat of a tractor, see their pig operation, and learn how to artificially inseminate their pigs. The tractor is equipped with precision farming technology, including touchscreens and remote steering that has become an important part of farm management. Earlier in the trip we talked about precision agriculture and how farmers use GPS to map their farms and make sure seeds are planted in the right place, with proper spacing and depth. After our brief tour of one of their tractors, we headed into their pig confinements to feed them. After the pigs were fed we learned about the process of artificial insemination (AI) and proceeded to inseminate five of them. To entice the sows, a boar is brought in. After the pigs notice the boar is present, they are ready to be inseminated. This involves sticking the tube into the rear off the pig at an upward angle. The AI took about five minutes. After the process was finished, I was happy to text my mom that I officially got a pig pregnant.
Today we also went to the University of Iowa’s Hydraulic Laboratory to meet with Connie Mutel, who is a retired plant ecologist and science writer. For 30 years, she worked at Iowa’s Hydroscience and Engineering Laboratory. Mutel’s discussion covered climate change and the history of Iowa’s natural environment. She mentioned that there is little nature land left as a result of the most rapid land transition in the last generation. In the past, 80% of Iowa’s landscape was prairie grass and now most of the state has become agricultural land. Regarding the future, Mutel thinks that the major environmental issues are water in regard to quality and quantity, climate change, soil erosion, and pollution. In her opinion, if we don’t change our current ways of dealing with climate change, by 2100 temperature rise will increase by 3-5 degrees, carbon dioxide will increase to above 800 ppm, and the melting of Antarctic ice melts will cause sea levels to rise by 200 feet. While she mentioned these issues, she also mentioned different solutions. Mutel proposes letting our temperature increase then level off and start declining by 2040. She also recognizes the importance of restoring Iowa’s landscape to prairies since they are more sustainable and capture carbon as well as energy, whereas cornfields require fossil fuels and are considered less sustainable. Lastly, to become carbon neutral Mutel supports the switch to renewable energy. Another anectode she mentioned was the issue about runoff of phosphorus and nitrogen from Iowa farms into the Mississippi River that create dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico. This has been a recurring issue mentioned at many different organizations throughout this trip, including the Iowa Environmental Council.
To end our day, we had a dinner at Orchard Green in Iowa City with Rep. Mary Mascher (D-Iowa City), a member of the Iowa House of Representatives. During dinner we discussed what we have been doing in Iowa, our favorite parts of the trip and our views on the current presidential candidates. Although it was a long day, the presentations and activities were very interesting.