Today we drove to Des Moines for a meeting with the Lieutenant Governor, who had set aside about ten minutes of her day to meet with us. I did not enjoy putting on my suit but realize that the costume is usually required for meeting important people. When we got there, she was extremely charming and personable as all good politicians should be and we had a short conversation about why we were all taking the farm class. I told her that I was interested in learning more about where my food comes from and she “commended” me for being interested in something that many people my age are not. However, had she known me better I’m sure I would not have received a commendation from such a high- level politician, given her recommendations as to where the important places to visit in Iowa were to learn about agriculture and her support of Annette Sweeney.

After visiting the Lt. Gov, we went to the Henry A. Wallace Country Life Center, which is both an organic farm and a farm-to-table restaurant. The cook prepared delicious vegan food for Cecily and me and then we all went outside to be given a tour of the farm. While there, we helped by thinning out rows of green beans that had been planted too close together, which I really enjoyed doing. The best part of this specific visit was talking to Mosa, who is in charge of the farm part of the Country Life Center. He graduated with a liberal arts degree in economics and philosophy from Simpson College but then decided not to work in that field and instead became an organic farmer. It encouraged me in that there are still many different options of different things I can do after I graduate from college next year.

Today we visited the Iowa Environmental Council and learned about how agricultural practices in Iowa are affecting the water quality both in Iowa bodies of water and in the Mississippi river, which flows all the way down into the Gulf of Mexico. Basically, Iowa has a lot of regulations for point source pollution but it does not have those same regulations for pollution from fertilizers spread on crops because that would be considered non-point source pollution. Non-point source pollution is more difficult to regulate.  Because the Iowa government does not regulate how Iowa farmers apply fertilizer to their land or how much of it they apply, the only thing they can do to lessen water pollution is to encourage better farming practices on a voluntary basis through subsidies, which is not working according to the Iowa Environmental Council. They are working towards creating policy changes that would regulate the methods that Iowa farmers use to apply fertilizers to their crops to decrease  pollution.

In his chapter on agriculture and the environment, Robert Paarlberg talks about a lot of the same issues as did the people from the Iowa Environmental Council. In Paarlberg’s chapter, he presents the conflicting views of the agricultural scientists and the environmentalists about various topics, but I’m not sure that the Iowa Environmental Council would have fit clearly into one of those two viewpoints from what I heard in its presentation. Paarlberg presents the environmentalists as those who encourage more small-scale farming and think that sustainable farming should attempt to imitate nature as much as possible. On the other hand, agricultural scientists tend to argue that to farm sustainably, farmers should try to use as many technological advances as possible to grow higher yields in smaller plots of land, therefore leaving the wilderness areas intact. While the presentation at the Iowa Environmental Council recognized that there were many problems with the conventional agricultural system and the way that many farmers applied fertilizers, they did not encourage a return to small-scale farming either, as they recognized the fact that farmers still need to turn a profit on their crops.

One of the arguments heard frequently from consumers who think that we should be buying our food locally is the environmental one, which claims that if food travels fewer miles to reach its consumer, then this results in fewer greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere. One of the issues that Robert Paarlberg has with this argument in Food Politics is that food transport usually only makes up about 11% of the total greenhouse gases that are created to make a food product and ship it to us. Therefore, those who are interested in reducing the carbon footprint of the foods they eat should be more focused on how much energy is being used to make the food instead of how much is being used to transport it. James E. McWilliams calls this approach to eating sustainably the “hub and spoke system” in his book Just Food. The hub is in reference to finding the areas of the country or world where each type of food can be grown the most sustainably. For example, growing a vegetable in season and shipping it across the country might use less energy than growing it locally inside a greenhouse.

The other part of the hub and spoke system is the spoke, which references finding the most sustainable way to transport food to the consumer, even if it is over a long distance. When local food advocates talk about the environmental effects of transporting food long distances, Robert Paarlberg claims they also many times fail to realize that the load size of an amount of food being transported is just as important as the distance traveled. A local farmer transporting a small amount of vegetables for a short amount of distance in a pickup truck may be using more energy per food unit than a large amount of vegetables being transported for a large amount of distance in an eighteen wheeler.

Today we went to visit the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates in Des Moines. What used to be the public library in Des Moines has been renovated to serve as the Hall of Laureates to the World Food Prize. The World Food Prize was established by Norman Borlaug, who was a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and wanted to establish a different award that specifically rewarded innovation in food. While touring the Hall, we learned about the World Food Prize, which I discovered was in line with the types of ideas that surround conventional agriculture. The World Food Prize rewards innovators who are able to find ways to grow larger quantities of food to feed more people. Therefore many of the winners of the Prize are involved with genetic modification of foods. Robert Paarlberg, who wrote Food Politics, seems to be in agreement with those behind the World Food Prize, in that he believes that conventional agriculture is the correct way to do agriculture to grow increased yields from crops. In one chapter in his book, he outlines the Green Revolution, which was led by Norman Borlaug, and ultimately decides that it was what needed to happen given the increasing world population. While he does recognize some problems that the Green Revolution caused and continues to cause, he says that without it, there would be many more starving people in the world and a much smaller food supply. While I understand the argument behind the idea that there needs to be innovation in agriculture (that may mean genetic modification) to feed a growing population, how far will we go to keep feeding our parasitism on this earth? Maybe the fact that we are having to genetically modify the food that the earth gives us to survive should be a warning that we are growing too much as a species and consuming too much. This definitely is not my final stance on things, but it is just a thought that I am considering at the moment.

I was excited to go to Iowa Corn and DuPont Pioneer Seed Company today because corn is by far the most prominent crop in Iowa, and I wanted to learn more about it. One thing that really bothered me while the representatives were speaking to us is how much they referred to the corn industry as bearing the large burden of feeding the world. While the corn industry does feed a lot of people all over the world, especially in the United States, the representatives were making it seem like they do what they do mainly because they wish to feed the world, and that the reason they do not choose other alternatives is that everyone would not get fed. I think it’s ridiculous to suggest that any of these large scale agricultural operations are not first and foremost motivated by profit. There may be those who work for the companies that are concerned with feeding the population, but the companies don’t tend to want to begin feeding the world until they are paid for their product.

Also, watching King Corn was a nice change of pace after hearing from two separate groups that are definitely supporters of large scale corn farming. While I had some qualms regarding large scale corn production prior to watching the film, it really put the corn industry in Iowa into perspective, pointing out some of the negative aspects of the industry. For one, the reminder of how much corn goes into feeding livestock, even though livestock such as cows are supposed to eat grass and not corn, made me proud to be vegan. It was really alarming how much corn is in the processed foods all over America. Farmers, who are traditionally thought of as self-sustaining individuals, can not even live off of the food they grow in Iowa, because in many cases all they grow is the field corn that cannot be used for immediate consumption.

This morning was the first time we’ve gotten to sleep in since we’ve been here so I was very grateful. I was slightly unsure what the plans were going to be today, but the first thing I was called on to do was to pick up large rocks in the field with Hedley. Rocks have to be removed from the fields because they will do damage to the farming equipment. I really enjoyed doing that chore actually because I got to drive the Gator around the fields which was fun. There was this one really big rock that I wanted to pick up but Hedley sadly couldn’t lift her side, so Kris and Scott had to get it with the loader.

My favorite part of the day and possibly my favorite part of the trip so far was going over to Dalona’s house to meet her family and to learn about the things they do around their farm. The cool thing about their farm was that everything that they produced was for their own consumption, so they were not making money off of it. The diversity of crops that were being grown and animals that were being raised really impressed me and made me want to have the same types of operations on my property whenever I am fortunate enough to own a house. We planted lettuce, green beans, and tomatoes in the garden, and I got to try raw rhubarb for the first time, which I really enjoyed. It was refreshing to plant something by hand because I feel like that really gave me a connection with the land. We also helped feed their cows and gather eggs from their chickens. I have been vegan for 10 months and haven’t eaten eggs since, but I think I would eat eggs again if I raised chickens like them on my own property and was collecting the eggs myself. While all of the different things going on around Dalona’s property were very impressive, what might have been the most impressive was how amazing her family was. Both her husband and all of her children made me feel very comfortable and were really enjoyable people to learn from, work with, and just talk to.

Today we woke up early and went to the Des Moines farmer’s market. I have been to farmer’s markets before but each one has something different to offer and Des Moines is a fairly big city, leading me to believe that the farmer’s market would be extensive. I bought some kettle corn from a local vendor who I didn’t interact with much which was very tasty. Next I went over to a vendor that was making all raw vegan food, which I was especially excited about. While I was there, I ended up buying some raw vegan tacos, some beet lemonade, and an aronia berry cup. I had never actually heard of aronia berries before, and learned that they were native to North America and were a health food that is on a current rise in popularity. After eating at the raw vegan place, I went over to Big Daddy’s barbecue sauce stand and bought some barbecue sauce from Big Daddy’s grandson himself. The last thing I did at the farmer’s market was talk to a man selling nettle tea about how he grew nettles and had just cut the tops of them the night before so the tea that he allowed me to sample was made with extra fresh nettles. I think overall I really like the idea of purchasing my food from farmer’s markets and would like to do more of it in the future. As far as safety of the food goes, I do not really trust the government to tell me what is safe to put in my body so the fact that there might not be as many government regulations on food sold at farmers’ markets does not bother me. The only downside I could see to them is that the food could be more expensive than that at a conventional grocery store, thus making it harder for those in the lower economic classes to shop at something like a farmers’ market.

I think the other thing I really enjoyed about today was riding in Mr. Friest’s tractor with him while he planted soybeans. We learned a lot about how farm equipment works and precision agriculture on our second day so it was really interesting to see a lot of that information in action on the farm. It really amazed me how complicated and precise farming has gotten, compared to what it used to me. While I knew that more technology was utilized in the farming industry, I did not know that it was utilized to the extent that it is.

This morning we went to the Iowa Pork Producers Association to learn about pork production in Iowa. I was excited to go because I had mostly only heard the side of those attacking the meat industry, and this was the first time I had heard anyone really defending any sector of the meat industry with extensive information about what happens in pork production. While they gave a very good presentation and tried to explain how the hogs were being treated humanely, it did not change my overall opinion on the pork or overall meat industry. I am still opposed to the production and consumption of meat products. What really concerned me was how Tyler Bettin talked about the hogs as if they were commodities, which is what can happen to everything, including animals, in a capitalistic system. While I understand this mindset for manmade products, I think that it can be dangerous for animals to be thought of in this way. They should be allowed to be their own autonomous beings and should not be viewed the same way that a t-shirt or other type of product would be viewed.

In the afternoon we took a tour of the Cargill Biofuel plant, where Scott’s girlfriend Becky works. While most of the chemistry that Kaitlyn talked to us about went way over my head, the things that I did understand about the production of the biofuel were very fascinating just because of how much complexity went into creating the product. I was also equally surprised by how many processes went into making vegetable glycerin, which is in many of the food products that I eat. Getting the chance to taste the glycerin kept things interesting for those of us who weren’t as scientifically minded.

Today we learned about an interesting combination of topics that seemed to be largely philosophically opposed to one another, those being precision agriculture and the local food movement. During our visit with Kevin Butt, we discussed farm safety which is definitely important, but what really got me thinking about things was his obvious fascination with any new type of agricultural technology. The most impressive one by far that he discussed is not currently used but he seems to believe that it will be used in the near future. This would be a drone that is able to locate weeds in fields and kill them with lasers. While this was the most outlandish technology we discussed, there were many more examples that were both impressive but also concerned me in that they seemed to be further degrading the relationship between humanity and the land. Many argue that this is the only way to feed the ever increasing human population. I’m not sure that this is the case and that claim could probably be debated, but even if it is, then maybe the entire human population should not continue to be fed.

On the other side of the argument was the man who we talked to at the Wallace Center who was in charge of the local farmer’s market. He was an advocate for the return to local food economies and Kevin Butt would have most likely been opposed to his views. It was interesting to see how passionate both he and Kevin were about the different work that they did even though their work was so drastically different. I wanted to ask him about how he would respond to the argument that his method of feeding the population would not actually feed the entire population, but I never got the chance.

I have to admit that I was somewhat apprehensive about going on this trip as I made my journey to Iowa this morning. I had some idea of what to expect as far as specific things we would be doing but was uncertain about the trip’s overall vibe, which is important to me. Other than knowing Cecily very well and talking to Rachel a couple of times because she was friends with Cecily’s roommate, I did not know any one else going on the trip nor did I know HN very well beyond the interview for Farm.

After the first day, I am super excited about going on the trip because of all the positive interactions and conversations that happened today. Starting during the ride from the airport to the farm and including our lunch, I began to realize that everyone on the trip was very easy to get along with and that HN is one of the funniest professors I’ve had. When we got to the farm, I was happy to find out that I also equally enjoyed the company of HN’s brother Denny and Dalona. When Denny took us on the tour around the farm, it was really cool to see how much knowledge he had compiled over many years as a farmer, and I appreciated his willingness to help us learn more about the many things that happen around a farm. Other than being a fabulous cook as evidenced by our first meal, Dalona was as nice as can be and I feel like she was a great addition to our group as we ate dinner tonight. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and the next three weeks.