Today was nothing if not a summation of our entire trip. A whirlwind of exhibits, tours, meetings, and 15–minute meals, we stayed true to our style. We began our day at the World Food Prize Foundation, a converted library building dedicated to Norman Borlaug and his accomplishments in battling world hunger. The World Food Prize is annually given to a person who the organization sees as being greatly influential in improving food security just as Borlaug had done in leading the Green Revolution during the 1960s.

From there, we were off to the Biocentury Farm in Boone, Iowa. They are a research and demonstration facility focused on biomass production and processing. They partner with Iowa State in growing their own crops, and using them to conduct their research. One of their main focuses is ethanol production from cellulosic matter. We had learned a bit about cellulosic matter at Lincolnway, but had not seen how exactly they process it. At Biocentury, we saw how it is broken down into its simpler forms. One of the main issues I previously had with this method was that removing the corn stover from the field would deplete the soil of the organic matter left from the stalks. But as we were informed today, by removing only a part of the stalks, the vital part of the stalks for fertilization is left, and the other is converted to ethanol.

Straight out of the lab and into the board room, we headed to the hallowed, or some would argue villainous, halls of Monsanto. We met with Dave Tierney, a lobbyist for the company. I had been hoping to pay a visit to Monsanto, seeing as just about every documentary that we watched or farmer that we had spoken to had chosen a side on their seed patents and GMOs. Going into this trip, I was fairly mistrusting of GMOs in general, but I knew I didn’t have much knowledge or understanding of them. So, I kept an open mind, and listened to everything that was said and argued. Whether it was “feed the world” or “eat what is good for you,” I listened intently and tried to see from both sides. And on this last day I’ve come to the conclusion that my mistrust of GMO’s hasn’t yet changed. Do I like the fact that Tierney told us today that the majority of their staff is made up of biologists and chemists? No, I certainly do not, because in my head, altering the chemical makeup from how it was originally created can’t be a safe thing. So many tests and experiments have been previously rejected as not having sufficient evidence that GMOs are harmful, but where are the tests and experiments that prove they have zero chance of harm? I understand the FDA and the USDA  regulate these products to a great extent, but I remain skeptical. Measuring the morality of engineering GMO’s is a tough concept. Somehow I don’t think that genetically altering life and God’s creation is the way to solve global problems.

Today our travels took us to Table Top Farms in Nevada, Iowa. Not a far cry from the farmstead, we arrived at Table Top’s 30-acre vegetable farm. Table Top is a small scale farm devoted to local agriculture while focused on community involvement and sustainability. We met with the Grans and the Corbins, the two families that own and manage Table Top, and we spent a few hours with them talking about how they are managing their business. We actually spent a great deal of time speaking with them about their 5-year business plan, and their expectations for growth and expansion. Our past excursions have touched on the business side of things, but never focused on it so extensively. Hearing their expected setbacks and methods of recovery in their finances fleshed out the reality of the life of a farmer. Our group has discussed farmer subsidies and direct payments at length, so I had felt we had a firm grip on the financial aspect to farming. Yet, to hear their financial plan for now and for the near future truly cemented my understanding of the instability and insecurity of farming. The survival rate of any small business is low, but putting together a successful business plan for a small-scale sustainable, organic farm strikes me as particularly precarious.  As a non-farming consumer, especially one who is in college, I don’t always keep in mind that these small, organic, and sustainable farms are businesses, and have to make a profit to sustain themselves. There are so many moving parts for which these organic farmers must contend, and a small, but competitive, market in which they operate. Because their crops are so diverse and small-scale, some simply don’t have the finances or staff to expand and improve efficiency.

Their CSA is growing exponentially, they report, which is undoubtedly a sign they’re doing something right. Additionally, they participate in the Des Moines Farmers’ Market. Hearing about these things surely led to a local foods discussion, and Chris, one of the co-owners, explained his theory of regional foods, which was new to me. He claimed that “regional” foods, not “local,” were the most feasible way to provide people with food that also had a low carbon footprint, while still providing farms with an acceptable profit margin. These small-scale farms would send their food to regional “food hubs” that would hold the food until ready to be transported to consumers. This, he says, would allow the farmers to focus more on growing financially and productively. These hubs benefit both the producer and consumer in a symbiotic way. The small scale producer that would not ordinarily have access to traditional food wholesalers now could have a central outlet for their goods along with the infrastructure to get it there. The consumer would now have access to products typically not found in those traditional food wholesalers. Seeing as I had never heard of this method previous to our visit, despite all my research and interest in the local food movement, tells me that this concept has not been widely spread. Perhaps with more time, the concept will grow and more steps will be taken to enact it.

Remembering all the way back to the Field Day that we attended in McGregor, Iowa last Wednesday, we were able to witness something powerful. These farmers truly did care about their land. Despite the bad rap that much of the American public has given them, their concern for the soil and crops go beyond making a worthy profit. The men that attended the Field Day all had something to learn and something to contribute. Each brought different knowledge and answers for one another. I found it beautiful having a 90- year old man sharing what he knew about farming to a group of twenty-somethings. Cover cropping was the theme and preventing runoff was the issue. We learned all about wheat rye and the dangers of over-tilling the soil. All very instructive, we got to see another side of the cover cropping story today with Mr. Glen Hodnefield. He actively participates in CRP, and sets aside portions of his land to other conservation uses. He utilizes buffer zones, wetlands protection, and cover crops as a part of his conservation efforts. The buffer zones are a method of strategically placing native grasses next to waterways to catch nutrient runoff from the fields before they leak into the water. Wetlands are, in a sense, a return to the prairie land that once dominated this part of the country. Between the 1990s and the 2008 Farm Bills, many incentives existed to motivate farmers to actively participate in CRP, but since have declined greatly. The safety net features of the recent Farm Bill like crop insurance and disaster assistance in addition with the flourishing biofuels industry has detrimentally affected these land stewardship programs. All of these factors lead to more farmers planting fence row to fence row, rather than participating in programs that would convince farmers to participate in the conservation stewardship programs.  We also were able to compare and contrast till and no-till fields. By not tilling, the corn plants stay in the ground after harvest, allowing the roots to hold the soil intact. The corn prevents erosion and goes back into the soil and acts as a fertilizer. While each method has its own disadvantages, it is an undeniable fact that his yield from the no-till field were significant and in some cases exponentially higher than his regular till field. I don’t pretend to be a field or soil expert, but numbers don’t lie.

I believe that God made this land to be fruitful and productive, and with the knowledge of how to manage it, humans can manage and profit from it. I also think that to a point, micromanaging and manipulating God’s provisions can lead to bad results. I think there is something to be said about the mere fact that American health has seen a steady decline since our obsession with altering the genes of our food. While I don’t think that living a fully all-natural lifestyle is realistic, I’d like to think that I’ve made steps to make be more cognizant of the food I’m eating and what has been done to it. After visiting the Cory Family Farm, it would seem though that I have a lot left to learn.

Tom and Mary Cory are proponents of Joel Salatin’s farming methods. The Cory’s employ paddock grazing and and mobile chicken coops, methods popularized by Joel Salatin in Food, Inc.  Salatin’s presence was everywhere on the Cory farm. They utilized everything the land had to offer, but replenished it back in another way. The farm’s mobile chicken coops benefit the land greatly, and we were able to help move them ourselves. In moving the coops, the grasses under them are not destroyed, but rather improved. As the chickens scratch the ground, cow manure patties are torn apart and dispersed to fertilize the soil. Also, by migrating, the grasses have time to recover from the concentration of chickens on that particular spot of land.

Like Salatin, Mr. Cory says he has no interest in exponentially expanding. Though it seems to me that their family business is highly profitable at its present scale. They have a sizable goat industry from which they market both meat and milk products. In fact, we even had the opportunity to milk a few goats. The Cory’s sell their meat, which also includes sheep and beef, and dairy at local farmers’ markets and directly to customers. With great ingenuity, they seem to cater to every need of a customer. They sell everything from a sirloin steak to pig ears for dogs. Their business is a fine-tuned machine, with each of the children participating in a share of the company. It is businesses such as there that are so important in the food economy. With the food system being manipulated by huge commodity industries, we need smaller, higher-quality producers like the Cory’s. I think that it is important to that balance in supporting local producers while at the same time recognizing that many can’t afford these higher-quality products. Furthermore, as all the commodity producers and associations keep telling us, these smaller farms simply can’t produce the volume needed to feed everyone. We need the diversity to thrive.

     It’s no surprise that today was my favorite excursion to date. The Ubben Farm didn’t disappoint with its tiny chickens, strutting turkeys, and strange-looking African birds. They, however, were not the objects my interest. My long-time obsession with sheep was only intensified after spending time with Ubben’s herd of sheep. Only born two months ago, the lambs were still quite small. Curious and trusting, they would come right up to us, some even letting us hold them. One in particular followed me around until we sadly had to leave. Despite wishing I could spend all day with the precious lambs, I did want to see the rest of their animal facilities. Their farm was so unlike any other animal production farm that we had seen up to this point. Every animal is free-range, with space to walk and roam as they please. After touring so many confinement facilities, it was incredibly refreshing to see conditions in which the animals were able to simply walk around, and even have the opportunity to move from inside a structure to outside. The Ubben’s version of a four-letter word is hog barns, and I definitely understood why after seeing their gestation field. That’s right, I said field…not stall…not crate…not room. After asking Mr. Ubben about the rate of piglet mortality due to being rolled on by their mothers, he replied with an answer that shocked me.  I asked this specific question because confinement farmers use this danger as a justification for placing sows in the gestation stalls…to protect the piglets. Yet, when I asked Mr. Ubben if there was any increased danger since their gestation “huts” that he provided didn’t have any rigging to keep the sows upright. He replied that yes he has lost some to rolling, but the numbers are actually quite low. They had only lost one piglet in the last farrowing rotation. Remembering the Friest’s farm, the numbers seemed to be much higher. By now, we have seen just about every form of pig farming available – from the Friests’ to hearing from the Pork Association all the way to the Ubben’s free-range style. On the one hand, the confinement had made perfect sense when Mr. Friest  explained the inner workings and disproved the misconceptions. His hogs showed no inkling of discontent or unhappiness. Regardless of the pigs’ happiness, I’m of the belief that they are animals, and should be treated as such. I certainly believe there is a respect animals deserve, but it isn’t quite to the level that many animal activists attribute them.

      But on the other hand, upon visiting the Ubben’s farm, we saw the sprawling fields for widespread grazing seemed to almost argue for itself. Surely living out in nature like they were created to do seems better for the animals. So, which method is better? The Friests are most certainly in it for the money. Their sheer efficiency and systematic operations prove their motivation. And the Ubbens? Well, according to them, they’re making money as well. Their hog market contract with Niman Ranch demands the free-range style, and they even shared with us that they’re barely keeping up with demand. More and more people these days, they said, are wanting free-range animal products. While I love this concept, is it feasible for large scale production? Everywhere we go, we constantly hear “Feed the World,” but could the Ubben’s, and farmers like them, feed the world?

I love to cook. And even more so I love knowing where my food comes from. I’ve been exploring community supported agriculture (CSA) farms and farmers’ markets around my home and Furman to learn more. So when we had the opportunity to visit the Wallace Center today, I was excited to compare it with other CSA farms. Working on the Furman Farm the past year has allowed me to see sustainable and organic practices first hand. For the first time, I was able to literally cut a piece of lettuce from the ground, take it to my kitchen, wash it in the sink, and eat it. The taste was so gratifying, and by far better than any salad I had eaten from a store or restaurant. That is, until we visited the Wallace Center and Gathering Table Restaurant. They prepare entirely local foods from local farmers and meat producers. Furthermore, almost everything on the menu was grown there right on the property. The produce was grown right out back, and most of the meat was provided from local farmers.

I think finding local foods is so vital because you are not only eating food provided with minimal processin,g but also supporting local businesses. I fully understand the ease of simply defaulting to Walmart for any and every need, but supporting local businesses is so vitally important to the community, not to mention healthier and more sustainable. Promoting a lower carbon footprint and using less-processed food products is a concept taking off in Greenville, and I truly hope the movement continues to flourish. While I do not think our food system can wholly rely on small farmers such as these, customers need the choice to decide for themselves. I think a healthy balance can be achieved in between those two extremes of large scale, mass production agriculture and smaller, organic practices. Neither is adequate on its own, and must be supplemented by the other.

With all this corn talk naturally comes the subject of ethanol. Especially considering the price of gas at the moment, its no wonder ethanol is a popular topic. So far, almost every group we have visited has either mentioned ethanol or made an argument regarding it. Coming into this trip, I’ll admit that I knew very little about it, especially the fact that it comes from corn. Our trip to Lincolnway Energy certainly answered those questions, but it also raised some new ones. To make ethanol, corn is highly processed through fermentation, chemical processing, and distillation to produce a 200 proof alcohol that can be rationed with gasoline to produce fuel. Today, most ethanol is used in the form of E10 (about 10% of the gasoline is comprised of ethanol), and some as E15 (about 15% of the gasoline is comprised of ethanol) for cars made after 2001. Here in Iowa, it is also common to see higher blends like E85. Many opponents in the food v. fuel debate argue that using ethanol is taking food out of people’s mouth to put it in our gas tanks. But, we learned today that our recent increase in ethanol use has not affected the amount of corn used for food use.  Our corn supply has continued to grow exponentially to keep up with the ever-increasing demand. We also learned more about the options of utilizing cellulosic ethanol as a biofuel as well. Cellulosic ethanol is produced from plant matter like corn stovers, switchgrass, and wood chips. While it would seem that these products would be found plentiful in nature and human trash, the problem lies with the availability of these corn stovers here in Iowa. While Iowa does not lack in corn stalk waste, the removal of these stovers would be depleting the soil of nutrients, and thus requiring more nitrogen to be added to the soil during the next planting season.  Futhermore, removing other cellulosic resources from the environment can be indescribably damaging to the ecosystem and biodiversity of the land. Despite these issues, we should be utilizing these alternate sources of fuel energy and taking advantage of ways to stretch our fuel use. In our Imhoff reading, he suggests that simply by becoming cognizant fuel consumers and car owners we can improve our fuel efficiency. He claims that “sensible driving” and regular car maintenance can improve the estimated miles per gallon anywhere from 1.0 to 6.6. 

I think by now everyone on this trip knows I’m not a particularly cheery morning person. For me, a coherent Haden is solely reliant on a large intake of coffee. But now, I think we’ve found a new source of morning motivation for me. Groggy and sleepy-eyed, we arrived at the Hill’s property. Upon seeing those precious Greyhound puppies, our level of alertness certainly rose. We helped the Fiscus girls make their rounds of feeding and playing with the dogs. Needless to say, it didn’t take long to forget our 6 AM wake up call.

From there, we returned to spiff ourselves up for our later meeting with the Soybean Association. We spoke a lot with them on the subject of local foods, which is a concept I have been very interested in, and have heard so much about on this trip. Their concept was quite different than any I have ever heard, and raised a few concerns in my mind. Hellmans Mayonnaise and McDonalds, they argued, could be considered local food to Iowa. Soybeans, after all, were mostly all grown here, so, of course, it could be considered local. I was immediately skeptical of their definition of local food, if it included Hellmans and McDonalds. Doesn’t the transport of these soybeans to various manufacturers in far away locations only to be stripped of their soybean form negate their status as a local food?

Another claim was that super markets contributed fewer carbon emissions than farmers’ markets, thus making them more economically sustainable. They believed that all the farmers individually driving their products to market causes a heavier carbon footprint than massive food producers shipping their food product over large distances with multiple other products. But I don’t accept this view of local foods. While yes, the individual farmers making their own trips does cause quite the footprint, I am of the understanding that these huge mass food producers and transporters sending their product all over the country and back again most definitely could give the farmers a run for their money. From the huge tractors in the field all the way down to the semi that drops the food off at Walmart, surely that has to make quite a carbon footprint of its own. To believe that supporting local farmers and businesses is actually more detrimental to our environment than shopping at a supermarket will require much more evidence to convince me.

With any belief, there is an opposing side, a different understanding, and clashing argument. We’re to the point in our journey in Iowa that the foundation has been set by many knowledgeable and passionate people that know what they believe. From farmers to professors alike, we talked with them all on their areas of expertise on farming and raising livestock. Today’s adventure took Ryan, Kyle, and I to the Friest farm to tour its facilities and get some first hand practice in artificially inseminating hogs. Mr. Brent’s operation was artfully efficient and awe inspiring to see in practice. Beginning with the sow insemination all the way to the finishing process, his operation has constant rotations with hogs farrowing constantly, maximizing productivity, and essentially profit. An independent farmer, he does not consider himself a factory farm, but I stopped to think, is he? Rows and rows of stalls of hogs waiting to be inseminated, only to be taken to gestation stalls after that. Their ability to walk around is limited and it would seem at first glance to be constricting and factory-esque. Friest, however, was very vocal on his beliefs on behalf of his mode of operation. The sows, he said, are not bothered by the stalls, and seem to be more at ease in them. I can attest that they seemed in no way distressed or unhappy to be in the stalls. In fact, the construction of the gestation stalls prevented piglet fatality from the mothers rolling on top of them. Hog barns such as these are under fire from animal rights activists all over the nation that see the use of these methods as cruel and inhumane. They call for the free range of animals with specific methods of handling and transporting as well. Friest even could attest to the requirements surrounding the loading and unloading of his hogs. One pig in particular would not cooperate with the handlers, and instead of being authorized to push it along, they resorted to waving and gesturing frantically. To anyone who has spent time around hogs, or rather livestock of any kind, this is rather ineffective to say the least. I, for one, think this is ridiculous. Animals are not equivalent to humans, and neither should they be treated as thus. So many accusations have been fired off by animal rights activists that farmers with confinement type facilities are mistreating their animals  never saw in any form or fashion animal abuse or mistreatment on Friest’s farm. I simply saw animals being treated as animals.

Mr. Friest had a lot to say on the current controversies surrounding farm policies, and one of those issues has stuck with me. It certainly isn’t the first time this issue has come up in our democratic society, and certainly isn’t the first time hearing it since being in Iowa. Blanket policies created by governmental legislation pointed towards farms and land-owners in Iowa are not effectively addressing the issues at hand. Varying soils, topography, and shifting weather conditions affect how land and animals are managed, resulting in each farm to have specific needs, sometimes, greatly different from the farm next door. This seems to be the unifying cry of farmers today. They desperately want the government to understand that a one size fits all act does more harm than help.

What did I learn today at the Farm? Well, for one, I now know that the one and only Shawn Johnson (Olympic gymnast) and Donna Reed (yes, like from the Donna Reed Show) hail from this lovely state, and that Iowa’s league of high school women’s basketball is very important ‘round these parts. Our trip to Iowa’s Hall of Pride this afternoon taught me that not only does Iowa have many politicians and athletes in their claim to fame, but they also can now claim Dr H-N and his latent Dance Dance Marathon dancing skills. Probably more pertinent to our original aims in this particular excursion lay in the tiny corner of the museum devoted to corn and soybean farming. I found the interactive and animated videos to be very illustrative with the various moving parts in the whole process from seed to stalk. Being a history buff, the Wallace house this morning was most interesting. To see how one family so powerfully affected the agricultural industry, and how one man so critically altered the position of Vice President was definitely eye opening. And to know who began the movement towards making it possible to produce hybrid seeds on a large-scale basis made the changes seem less removed. His aid in Mexico and Siberia was instrumental in helping those people a time of great need and famine. I truly hope that I can use what I know about nutrition and food production to one-day help others  — in ways that they do not know how or cannot do themselves.