I want to start with the end of the day.

I am truly infatuated with the sky. At home in South Carolina I admire how the bright white light of the sun illuminates the dark sky and fills it with oranges and pinks. I also wonder how the green leaves of the trees seem to pair effortlessly with the light blue afternoon sky. Here in Coon Rapids, Iowa I got to see the ultimate beauty of the evening sky. Never have I seen such tremendously bright colors light up the sky. There were fierce oranges paired with vibrant pinks all being topped off with a soft purple hue only to introduce the dark clouded blue sky.

There will never really be words to describe the beauty I experienced today. I was truly overwhelmed and it was great to just let go of apprehensions and let them fade just as quickly as the colors in the sky did today.

It’s more than a little sad to think that so many people have overpowered all the grace and beauty of the Iowa landscape with huge fields of agriculture. Very seldom has there been balance. Either there is not enough environmental conservation or there is not enough farming. Where is balance? One place to find it is at the White Rock Conservancy. While there are fields of green and natural landscape there is also fields designated for crops. At the conservancy they perform the conservation reserve practices such as the restoration of Prairies like mentioned in a previous blog. There is so much to admire here the vast amounts of fields for grazing cows, the RV camp sights for travelers, the work to restore ecosystems like Oak Savanna (forests that leave room for smaller plants like diverse groups of grasses.). It probably also helps that all of this sits on 6000 acres of land.

It is unfair to judge the entirety of state off a single location, but the bigger picture is, Iowa has a unique geological history and the lasting affects of that history is the beauty of the land. At the end of day, the land is being exploited by the greed of profit and productivity. From my perspective it seems outrageously unfair to not only violently take land from native peoples and to turn around and destroy it by means of monopolizing the planting of two main crops, chemical technology, by planting nearly every inch of the state. Big agriculture is destroying the land and the people. We need more time for sunsets. We need more appreciation for the beauty. We need more respect for the practice of agriculture.

I hear all the time farming is a family tradition and the art of farming is dying. Treat the practice, the lifestyle like the fine art that it is, and make people appreciate the beauty of farming.

How practical is vegetable farming in Iowa? To me very practical and very necessary. We had the opportunity to go to two farms, the Grinnell Heritage farm and the Red Earth farm in the Meskwaki settlement. Both farms work toward providing fresh produce to the communities in which they reside. Grinnell Heritage practices organic farming and some of its acreages produce thousands of dollars in vegetables. Red Earth farms feeds the people of the Meskwaki community, these are native peoples who have bought their own land back to start building services specifically for them. The Meswkakis have their own health clinic, school, and senior living program. What both farms had in common is that they did not need a lot of land to provide all the food they produce. I cannot remember the exact acreage of Red Earth, but I remember that Grinnell Heritage sits on 25 acres.

One significant factor that farmers must have to thrive here in Iowa are huge amounts of land. The average farmer tends to about 1000 acres of land. These two farms go against the most important thing average farmers have in Iowa. So, what does that say about Iowan farmers? Are they doing it wrong?

Well not exactly. Farmers who grow the Iowa prize of corn and soybeans are doing what is best for them and their crop, but the idea of big agriculture seems to fall apart when those same farmers fall into believing the rhetoric that they are participating in feeding the world. The bottom line is they are not. Sure, their grain feeds livestock, but all that’s really doing is getting the animal big and quickly. Also, I haven’t heard anyone talk about the animal agriculture feeding America. All the world hunger talk is about the corn.

When following the history of this rhetoric a good place to start is with Norman Borlaug and the Green Revolution. Borlaug wanted to use science to increase the productivity of seeds. He did achieve this goal; he found himself now being able to increase the output of commodity crops. It is this same science and technological advances that seed manufacturing companies use to make and sell their hybrid and genetically modified seeds. In the text Food Politics, Robert Paarleberg, discusses how the Green Revolution did not reach long term success in many areas around the world. Some places where the Revolution did have a lasting positive impact included Latin America and countries in Africa where is was attempted to be implemented. Looking at Latin America specifically, Paarlberg writes about how the revolution could not sustain because the feudal system already in place due to colonialization. Profitable farmland was reserved for those with more economic and social class.

As we see the continuity of the Borlaug rhetoric to promote scientific advances it is imperative that we also recognize what already disenfranchises these global communities, and understand that a seed which produces a little more corn is not going to fix the problems that already inhibit development.

In my opinion there needs to be fewer commodities and more food.  People can’t live off of grains, and it seems unfair that grain is the only option Iowa seems to want to offer.

We visited the World Food Prize today. The World Food Prize is an award of prestigious honor presented to those who have made significant advances scientifically and technologically in agriculture. I had the capacity to appreciate the work that has been done and the steps that were taken the move closer to ending world hunger. I start to things get a little problematic with the presentation of the founder of the award, Norman Borlaug. Borlaug was an American Agronomist who dedicated his research and work to find ways to bring better agricultural practices that would in turn help feed people who suffer from starvation. Borlaug was being painted as man who just came in and fixed all the food problems in these nations full of Black and Brown people. As an English major I love rhetoric and symbols. The imagery that recognition of powers like this do is inherently make solutions to the global problems like this white. It can be very toxic to outsiders who do not have full access to entire histories or bodies of work that recognize all of the powers at work. The World Food Prize does a little damage control because they have a whole room dedicated to other winners of the prize. This is an award that has international reach, so there are people from all over the world that get recognized by the organization. There was also beautiful art that recognized other individuals of color that have played a role in the World Food Prize. There were two amazing mosaics of World Food Prize Laureates; Dr. M.S. Swaminathan of India who won the first prize and Dr. Evangelina Villegas of Mexico the first female laureate.

The most problematic, to me, was the huge recognition of George Washington Carver while also having a tip of the hat to Thomas Jefferson in the same building. Carver is a famous Black agriculturalist that had success in growing and making products out of peanuts. What is also significant about Carver is that he was a former slave who eventually found freedom and had the opportunity to attend Iowa State University. The homage to Thomas Jefferson is so small that many could possibly miss it. In one room of the World Food Prize there were the notable names of people from distant history who would have been recognized for their agricultural achievements had the award been around then. I find extremely insensitive for the organization to recognize a slave owner, Jefferson, while simultaneously appreciating the work of Carver, a former slave. The brutal history that Jefferson holds is harmful to the history and impact of Carver. Besides, after Jefferson returned to America from France with new seeds for crops, who was really doing the planting?

I say all of this to simply say, stories and narratives are important, and how we tell them are even more crucial. It is the responsibility of historians and scholars to present fair and equitable history. I say equitable because there have been some voices that have be silenced for long times. It would be enough at this point to just start adding in the lost voices. These stolen voices deserve there own books, there own museums, their own guides/specialists. That is when recovery happens and representation is obtained. It is not just a matter of telling the story, but letting those who have experienced the erasure have the space to step into their truth, their story and tell it.

How does this fit in with farming? Well there are issues surrounding agriculture practices, soil restoration, and environmentalism that all use the power of narrative explain why their perspective should be the deciding factor on the issue. How do we know all stories are being heard and if there are people out there who have more power or capital than another to project their story further and louder, how can we as consumer advocate for the redistribution that power/capital?

“We have become ninety-nine percent money mad. The method of living at home modestly and within our income, laying a little systematically for the proverbial rainy day which is due to come, can almost be listed among the lost arts”

George Washington Carver

Heirloom seeds. What are they?

Heirloom seeds are seeds that have been passed down through several generations and carry the traits of the parent plant. They are grown to preserve plant diversity and deviates from the uniformity of plants that are produced for commodity. Heirloom seeds are intended to track the heritage of the seed. Neat right?

This is truly where narrative and farming meet. The importance of each seed can be measured by both it’s genetic traits and by the story it can tell simultaneously. Who planted this seed? Where did it come from? Did it immigrate over oceans and mountains? Who did it feed? How does it grow now? These are all the questions that the plant could answer.

I learned about these specialty seeds at the organization, Practical Farmers of Iowa, because of Steve Carlson and his passion for the seeds. After leaving I could not stop thinking about them. I just became fascinated about all the many historical secrets that the seeds hold, and what unlocking them would look like. Well initially, I was thinking about writing historical logs for the different kinds of seeds and creating cool little profiles for them in database, but then I realized that this idea actually already kind of exist because of seed banks that hold heirloom seeds. Today though, I got a chance to see heirloom seeds in action. We visited the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge. This refuge falls under the US Fish and Wildlife Services and here in Iowa they have focused a lot attention on restoring parts of Iowa to it native habitat, prairie!

The indigenous lands of Iowa were covered for miles and miles of tall grass prairie lands and some plants have the capacity to grow up to ten feet tall. One reason the refuge has taken so much time to study and restore the lands was because prairie actually works as a great tool to reduce field run-off of top soil and different pesticides that are used on fields. On our tour of the prairie one of our guides asked us to imagine what the land would have looked like before the European settlers came, to the now state of Iowa. I loved this comment because it gave recognition to the lost land of Native Americans and also recognizes some of the lasting effects of colonization. Even though the prairie lands probably don’t exactly count as heirloom seeds, one can understand how conservation and agricultural diversity go hand in hand. The conservation literally brings history to life, they show how the land used to be. Not only do they restore the plants, but they restore the wildlife bringing some of the first inhabitants of the land. The gateway between the conservation efforts, environmental protections, and of historical reckoning is amazing (the best of three worlds).

I want to begin to investigate and this heirloom seed could be used to study the history of American slavery. When I imagine this research I imagine the results could function as a way to connect the painful history of slavery and how that affects how young Black adults view agriculture as a profession. Also maybe heirloom seeds could function as a form of reparations; tracing the genetics of cash crops and produce crops to specific regions in America and giving descendants of slaves the opportunity to buy a share in cotton stocks, tobacco, rice, or sugarcane. This would definitely start shifting agricultural dynamics.

Heirloom seeds. What are they? Plant heritage, history books, prairie fields, and justice.

“You know back when I was growing up we lived on a farm and everything we ate grew and raised ourselves”

– My Grandfather

Unlike the 1000 acres farms, the farmers who grow produce don’t need as much space. We heard today that one of the bigger growers of produce in the state has about 20 acres of farm land. This small news gave me tremendous hope. There are more farmers out there who do care to set out for small acreage farms.

What is a little worrisome to me is, do these small farmers have the resources they need to make sure they are able to sustain; the environment, markets, and labor. One resource that smaller farmers have available to them is the organization, Practical Farmers of Iowa. They have two sectors in this organization; one that caters to the needs of those in commodity farming and another side that focuses on the needs for those in horticulture. The organization achieves balance by providing services to both types of agriculture, but the services, I feel are better fit for the small farmers of Iowa.

One issue that really struck me as having huge affects on small farmers was pesticide drift. Pesticide drift is just as it sounds, when herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides, “drift” due to wind, rain, or other factors on to other crops. I was completely blown away at the fact that produce farmers don’t have many options for compensation if their crops are negatively affected because of the drift. One protection that could help these small farmers is adequate crop insurance. For big agriculture producers of commodity crops there are many federally funded insurance options to protect the value of their crop of something were to happen. Small farmers do not have these same protections. Out of the few options available to the small time farmers there is something called the, “Whole Farm Revenue Protection.” Even though this program seems like a great option for specialty farmers there are a few problems. This biggest problem is, “is this worth the time and record keeping?” For farmers one part of insurance is keeping record of their crops and the yields they produce every season. This becomes a problem because for some horticulture farmers they produce several types of crops. Once you get over five types of crops then record keeping can become overwhelming. Adding to the stress of record keeping farmers also have to constantly be working on marketing and getting their product to the consumer. This juggling act can prove to be too much for the small farmers.

Where can the small farmers catch a break? One solution for small farmers could be in shape of having their own central market for product. Luckily, for the commodity farmers they have the elevator. It’s a central place in towns all over Iowa where farmers can take product and sell it all out once. There is no special marketing tactics, finding shelf space in stores, or any other hoops that horticulture farmers find exclusive to themselves. I think it would be a good idea for Iowa to start looking for food companies that would be readily available to process the food that is grown here versus risking having to ship food so it doesn’t spoil before it gets to a consumer or a processing company. Another great option is for citizens to invest more into local markets for produce and meat. Smaller farms seem like they would thrive in local economies. Downsize the way Iowans and others around the globe think about food. The most successful way to end hunger could be to feed those around you.

Coming from a small town myself, I see so much value in small markets. Local gardens and small farms really bring life to a community. I have also learned to appreciate fresh food options and I value knowing exactly where my food comes from. I also live near and have family members that live in communities where grocery stores are becoming scarce and/or only cater to one type of customer. I just think about the what a local market would like in those communities and try to think about how they would help or hinder the citizens living there.

Who represents the small farmers? Who represents the big farmers? Is their equitable representation?

Who could have a bigger role in feeding the communities that go without fresh food options? How do we as a developed nation better contribute to ending hunger right in our back yard?

There should be call to shrink how we think. We need to start thinking small. Small Farm.

Today we spent most of the day listening to Iowa Corn and Iowa Soybean Association. To be completely honest with you, if I hear Iowa is number one in corn one more time, I might explode. We get it, trust me, we do, Iowa makes a lot of corn. So much corn in fact that there is actually a surplus of the crop. Iowa Corn explained that Iowa makes so much corn that there is an over flow of the crop and all of it is not being used right away. This fact was also briefly mentioned last week at Poet, an ethanol plant, when I raised a question about a possible lack of crop production for this season. Both sources say that there is enough corn to sustain if something were to go wrong for a season and yields are not as high as they have been in the past.

Reflecting on the idea and use of crop diversity, I started thinking, why don’t farmers grow something else? Then I really started thinking, WHY DON’T FARMERS GROW SOMETHING ELSE? There is so much corn that the value per bushel (farm unit of measure) has slowly decreased. But, what really fuels my question is the want for world hunger to end. When I picture farms, I picture them as one thing, food sources. As farming has industrialized over time, I find it frustrating that there are people still without food. As a state that produces so much of one crop that isn’t for human consumption, I find it almost irrationally irresponsible that they continue year after year to plant the same things. I could understand, maybe, if Iowa was the only state in the corn business, but they are not. Surrounding states, like Illinois, come in a close second or third for corn yields.

Iowa Corn did mention that the surplus of corn is not as stable because, “we are about one drought away from an international disaster.” Regardless, I am off put by the fact that farmers refuse to grow anything else. Tomorrow we see the, “World Food Prize,” organization, and I would love to see their take on Iowa’s role in world hunger. Also, I want to investigate more on crop rotation/diversity and see how farmers find themselves investing time trying to grow other crops, like the green pea example at the Neubauer Family Farm. I think that Iowa farmers have room to grow produce producing crops. I also hypothesize, after getting more understanding of the geography of Iowa that if it was consistently warmer year round, like in the south, it could even be a good place for rice crops. Many areas of the state used to be wetlands and actual lakes, before they were drained. After drainage there are still significant places especially in the smaller towns in and around Jewell that can hold a lot of water and create wetlands that can support vastly different ecosystems than what you would typically find on an Iowa farm.

There is a larger role for produce in Iowa. I believe it. There just needs to be more incentive to make it happen!

Lastly, we had the best opportunity so far (yes this was better than the goats and the bees)! We met the President of Des Moines University, Dr. Angela Franklin. What makes this so significant is that she is a Furman Alum! What added to this opportunity even more for me was the fact the she was a Black woman and a South Carolina native. She grew up in McCormick, SC which is not far from my hometown at all. One message that resonated with me was to never be anyone’s second choice. The people who want you and who treasure your input and value will seek you out and make room for you. I feel that here in Iowa. I was nervous that this trip was not going to be the best experience, but I am seeing that as our conversations increase and we begin to breakdown the things we are learning, that my perspective and curiosity is unique and valuable!

05/19/2019

“Well if you have a queen and a group of independent-minded bees that split off from the rest of the hive and look for another place to live, then you’ve got a swarm.”

– August from The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk KIdd

So, we saw the bees!

It was way more emotional than I was expecting. I was truly taken aback by everything. The beekeeper was Mark Tintjer, and his whole property was absolutely stunning. The best part, in my opinion, was the location. Around the back of the house were these intense hills. There were just so many trees and as my classmates have heard one of the most jarring things about the Iowa landscape has been the lack of trees.

Back to the bees. On the ride back from the bee farm I was thinking about the colony and how it functions. The worker bees, nursing bees, and the queen bee are all females. The bees work their whole lives, endlessly, building cities of honeycomb. Perfect hexagons. How is that in nature animals and insects find structure and order to make these strong functioning infrastructures? What can we learn from the bee? How are our infrastructures set up? Do they help or hinder our honeycomb cities?

I have been on an avid search for diversity. Even if I haven’t found exactly what I am looking for, there has been a different talk of diversity happening around me. That is crop diversity. In Iowa corn is number one. It shapes the way farmers grow, but unfortunately it keeps them on a narrow path from which they rarely deviate. The biggest critique of the Iowan farmer is their lack of diversity in crops. For the bee to thrive they need diversity. Luckily for the Tintjer bees, they have plenty of foliage to choose from; lilac trees, a home garden, dandelions, and the few flower patches around the house. Because the diverse nature of the bee diet, they are able to produce specific honeys, and offer an array of products.

If farms were to seek more crop diversity they could find a number of advantages, and open their narrow field of corn farming into something way more expansive. A good example of crop diversity takes place right on the Neubauer family farmer. Denny and Scott Neubauer have started growing sweet corn (very different from the bitter grain corn that Iowans are know for) and green peas. One of the biggest advantages to this crop diversity, or crop rotation, is that essentially it gives the soil a break. When a farmer grows the same thing over and over it pulls all of the nutrients out of the soil. When something different is grown its gives time for the soil to restore itself and the new crop could even offer some new nutrition.

If the bees taught me one thing, it is to continue seeking out diversity. Diversity in crops offers great environmental benefits! If this is a trend that continues I am sure it could have big economic impact as well. I also see this diversity possibly branching out into animal nutrition by giving farmers options besides just corn to feed to the livestock.

05/18/2019

The highlight of today was definitely watching the kids. We had the coolest opportunity of going to local farm and helping its residents, the Fiscus’, vaccinate and de-worm a few of their kids, as in their baby goats!

A downer from the past two or three days has been the incoming rain. It is exceptionally daunting because I am really wanting to see the bees, a bee farm, but if the rain keeps coming and the clouds don’t clear we might have to skip out on that adventure. I have faintly heard talk of pollination while here in Iowa, but I know that it is an unspoken story because everyone knows that it needs to happen, and happens naturally. The bees, butterflies, and other critters come in do there pollen dance with plants and fly back out.

I am really invested in the bees because I am attached so strongly to my first introduction to bee farms. It was through the novel, The Secret Life of Bees. The novel tells the fictional story of three Black women in South Carolina (my home state), and how they fought against the wrath of racism through spiritually, maternal-ism, and honey bees. What made there honey so amazing is that they labeled there product, “Black Madonna Honey.” It was the sense of ownership not only of their bees, but of themselves that made this story shine. They stood in truth and did not waiver, even in the face of tragedy.

These days I just associate bees with blackness. I associate bees with beauty. As the first week is coming to a close I look towards what I want to challenge myself to think about and what I want to challenge others to think about. When some visualize farming one image that comes to mind is the famous American Gothic painting. The older white man with a pitchfork, and what can be assumed, his wife standing beside him. Farming does not look as muted or as stiff or as white. The tradition of farming for Black Americans traveled with them over the Atlantic and aided them in survival throughout all of slavery. Farming offered refuge during the era of sharecropping. Today Black farmers are barely recognized, let alone celebrated. I want to show others that there is a place for Blackness in farming.

“Most people don’t have any idea about all the complicated life going on inside a hive. Bees have a secret life we don’t know anything about”

– August from The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Ethanol is a fuel produced by corn, but in the ethanol production process there are some by-products that are also made. One of those by-products include DDGs. DDGs are dried distillers grains. This is used as animal feed for all types of livestock like, cows and pigs. It’s super high in protein and can easily get animals up to weight for market. Lots of farmers are users of the grain, but some farmers are not quite as quick to pick up the grain. For the few dairy farmers in Iowa some may choose to let their cows eat grass. This makes a big difference in how quickly cows grow. Talking to Kevin Dietzel of Lost Lake Farm, a small dairy farmer near Kamrar, he explained that when it is time for some of his cows to be sold off to market for meat his cows are not top sellers because of weight in comparison to other cows who get fed grain, which in turn bulk up in size quickly.

I have always been under the impression that grass fed cows, for meat, are better. I was shocked to hear that his cows were not top market. But, I began to wonder; why “beef” up a cow with corn? What is so great about these DDGs that they make them take over and monopolize the feeding menu for animals? I surely want to investigate more on the subject of animal nutrition while I am here. My logic, right now, is that healthy animals make healthy people. Why confine animals to a singular diet? I am ready to find out how farmers diversify their animals’ diets to make sure the animals are happy and healthy.

We also had the great pleasure of meet Brain Wosepka, who is a young person starting to farm using the practices of Joel Salatin.  This kind of agriculture is done on few acres of land, which makes Brian’s operation quite different than many we’ve already seen and discussed.  To give some reference most farms here easily run a 1000 acres of land. That’s a lot, right? But Wosepka’s farm is only 100 acres, a big difference than those around him. His smaller scale operation has allowed him try out different feeding options on his cattle. He too grazes his cows, making them grass fed, and employs a type a rotational grazing. This constant movement of the cows not only mimics what grazing looks like in the wild, making it more natural for the cattle, but also helps nurture the soil making his land more valuable and nutritious when it is time to grow crops. This is great example of diversifying an animal diet, and proves that not all agriculture in Iowa has to be “Big Agriculture.”

To finish off the evening I was so intrigued to hear about Wosepka’s personal philosophy of farming. His values really familiarized Iowa with me. His value for the health of his environment and the animals creates a ripple effect for things around him. This kind of agriculture strengthens the local economy because his smaller farm means he can sell locally. His values also increase accountability, if people buy from you they know you, so all reviews, good and bad, will all lead back to the source, and finally to retaining a rural population. For smaller, rural communities it’s not rare to see people leave and never return; whether it be because of school, better jobs, or simply because there is nothing to enjoy or do, when people leave their original homes it makes some towns desolate and crumbling. His farming can easily become a framework for younger people to get their hand into farming. It is less intimidating and way more accessible than conventional agriculture.

It is only day three, and Iowa seems a little more recognizable with each passing day. Even though the Iowa way of farming is way different than the South Carolina way, the similarities are beginning to reveal themselves. I am hopeful that there is a small acreage out there for me one day, so I can get my hands a little mud covered.

Small agriculture lives on even in the great jungle of corn stalks here in Iowa.

Farming is the eighth most dangerous job in the US. That’s why it is always important to employ proper farm safety. Although there wasn’t much farming done today, I still wait in great anticipation to pull out my good ole steel toe boots.

Something I am a little less eager to get a taste of is Precision Agriculture. Precision Ag is the use of software, added technology to existing equipment, and information technology in farming practices that aim to make farming more efficient. Better efficiency includes things like applying fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides more efficiently. There are even self-driving tractors and satellite imaging maps. My enthusiasm extinguishes because I am concerned about losing the people behind the crop. I have always known and associated farming as a talent, a skilled trade, and not something everyone can do, but I guess that is the problem. Talking with Professor Kevin Butt, Professor of Agriculture at Ellsworth Community College, who specializes in precision agriculture, I learned that one reason farming is becoming more technologically advanced is because there are no farmers. There are simply no people to do the work anymore, so to keep up with the demand farmers have to start picking up some of the precision ag practices.

So what happens if all the farmers run out? Will we be dependent on robots to grow and collect crops? Sure this may be the worst case scenario, but apocalyptic charged questions generally get people thinking. Where does our commitment to farming begin as a consumer? There isn’t room for everyone to grow there own corn or raise there own livestock, but what is our role in creating and retaining farmers over time? These are big questions I am grappling with, and hopefully over the course of three weeks I can discover more roles for all types of people in agriculture.

Farmers are biologists mechanics, veterinarians, business people, and so much more. There is space for everyone here, it’s just the task of finding your place.