Today, like many of Iowa’s youth before me, I left the farm. I’ve learned a lot in my three weeks here. My mind was tickled by the societal differences like the evident feud between John Deere and International Harvester-Case tractors (green v. red), the curiosity of wild asparagus or Iowa’s love for its State Fair. As I ponder more: Are there really that many differences or are we connected to the farm more than we think? Everyone is connected to the farm; whether through personal ties or simply just eating food that was grown there. As I was learning about all the problems with agriculture over these three weeks I kept coming back to one conclusion. Our society has caused all this. Our reliance upon corn as America’s cash crop has degraded our soil, reduced biodiversity and is fueling more problems than it’s doing us good. There are so many other players that all combine in fueling these problems, like the government, the consumer, Big Ag or chemical companies. There is no one scapegoat, we all play a part. However, I believe a lot of these problems can be fixed if we start to use conservation practices, increase our biodiversity and demand better farming practices.
Who knew it would be difficult to find a green tractor in the middle of corn country, while everyone is planting, when you’re given vague directions to look for the wind turbine road (when you are surrounded by wind turbines). We finally found the right tractor. Sammy and I decided to ride the planter with Brent Friest while the boys AI’ed sows. Climbing into the planter is like entering a office that just happens be on top of a tractor. We got to see Precision Agriculture in action. Sammy, Mr. Friest and I had hour long conversation in the moving tractor, all the while Mr. Friest didn’t even steer. With the exception of turning at the end of the row, the tractor did all the work. With the use of GPS, the tractor knows when it is off track and the farmer can program special planting patterns. For example, Mr. Friest has a grass strip in his field that is curvy and winding. He has programmed his tractor to plant near this pattern and follow the curves.
Around noon we traveled to Iowa City to meet with Connie Mutel at the University of Iowa. Ms. Mutel gave us the history Iowa from the time before settlers, to breaking the ground and present day. Man-made changes to the earth have lasting effects. The loss of plant diversity and soil health have all contributed to climate change. However, we were encouraged to become “climate warriors”. There is still time to keep climate change below a two-degree increase in temperature, but we should start sooner than later.
We ended the day by meeting Representative Mascher for supper. I tried escargot for the first time, a bucket-list goal of mine (who knew it would happen in Iowa). For the second time in one day, we were reminded by Representative Mascher that our generation is the future. The future of this country, the future of the earth, and maybe the future of agriculture.
Today we made our way to Storm Lake, a town that is the focus of the book of the same name by Art Cullen. We first met with Chief Prosser, director of Storm Lake Public Safety, to get his story on how the town has adapted to the influx of immigrants.
Chief Prosser has made mistakes but he openly admits and talks about them. These are learning opportunities and one can see their result by looking at how Prosser runs Public Safety in Storm Lake. Storm Lake is home to many immigrants from all over, many working at the Tyson processing plant in town. Over 30 languages are spoken in this small town. Knowing that with such a diverse community there are cultural differences, Prosser and the Public Safety go through training anytime a new ethnic group moves to town. Prosser says that the tactics taught at the Police Academuy cannot be used when dealing with a diverse community.
Through the years Chief Prosser has seen crime increase, but not for the reasons some think. After immigrants began being blamed for the increase in crime, Storm Lake began reporting crime based on gender and ethnicity. They found that no one ethnicity was committing the majority of crime. The crime had simply gone up because the town’s population had increased. Now Storm Lake has seen decrease in its crime rate–it’s currently at a 27-year low in major crime, and the town more diverse thanit has ever been.
I felt like Storm Lake could owe part of this decrease in crime in the way Prosser conducts Public Safety. The police department regularly builds relationships with the community. They also engage the community by having informal meetings to talk about concerns. This is a grassroots approach that we have seen at other places, and I feel that it is a good practice.
Next we met with Councilor Jose Ibarra, who is the first Latino city councilman in Storm Lake. Councilor Ibarra mirrored Chief Prosser in his sentiments. They both mentioned being engaged in the community and Councilor Ibarra is urging other Latinos in Storm Lake to do so. For now the very diverse Storm Lake is not represented by a diverse city council. Maybe this can change as relationships are built by Chief Prosser and Councilor Ibarra in the community.
Saturday, June 1
After meeting with Art Cullen, author of Storm Lake, for a much more political conversation we traded Storm Lake for another kind of Lake–Lake Okoboji. We met with Mary Skopec of Lakeside Laboratories to do some water testing. After donning our rubber boots we took a walk to a small ecosystem. We tested the water for oxygen, phosphorus and nitrates. This particular water was protected upstream by a wetland and therefore it tested high in oxygen and low in both phosphorus and nitrates.
In comparison we drove 20 minutes away to another water source and tested. The results: this water had both phosphorus and nitrates. We have heard all about different methods on how to clean our water such as wetlands or prairie strips while in Iowa. It was nice actually be able to test the water protected by these methods and prove to ourselves that they actually work.
After our water quality testing we had free time to just enjoy Lake Okoboji and pretend that we were on summer vacation. I chose to spend my time kayaking on the glacier-made lake.
Today was our last day of presentations for the Farm MayX. We headed to the University of Iowa to meet with Dr. Dave Cwiertny. Again the main topic was water quality. Iowa’s water quality has also been a concern to us since we have been drinking the water for 3 weeks. However, we eventually get to go home. What does this mean for those who call Iowa home?
From the little we have seen of Iowa, the state appears to be mostly rural. This means that a majority of citizens will be using a private well. Private wells fall outside of the government’s regulation domain. This places added responsibilities on homeowners to regularly have their water tested. How many of us regularly do this, if at all. I live on property that uses a private well and I cannot remember the last time we had our water tested. Dr. Cwiertny told us that there is a program in Iowa that will test private wells for free. However, it is underutilized and there is no remediation if pollutants are found. Dr. Cwiertny argues that voluntary testing rarely works and that we might make progress on water quality if we regulated non-point source pollution. There are thousands of chemicals on the market and also other pollutants like hormones and antibiotics that reach our water through many means other than agriculture. To me, it seems regulation is almost impossible unless we ban the use of all chemicals. Maybe we should take a cue from Europe and start practicing the precautionary principle.
Later in the day we met with Dr. Chris Jones. Being that he studies water quality I never would have expected the turn our conversation took. “Glyphosate is good when dealing with corn and soybeans.” Good for who? The applicators? Some have associated the close contact with glyphosate with cancers. The plants? Weeds targeted by glyphosate have started to become resistant to the chemical. Dicamba may become our weapon of choice after glyphosate becomes ineffective. And Dicamba is not “good.”
Today there was not much on agenda except for making the journey back to Radcliffe from Lake Okoboji. Later in the day our itinerary consisted of putting on a play for the community in Garden City.
“Map of My Kingdom” was written by Mary Swander and was commissioned by Practical Farmers of Iowa. When we met with PFI in May, we learned that PFI was formed in 1985 because people were not satisfied with the single track of information available to farmers. I feel that the commissioning of this play fits in nicely with why PFI was created. The play deals with the tough subject of farm transfers. Her hope is that presenting this play will help families open up the conversation on who gets the farm.
Farm transfers do not always go easy and can cause rifts in a family. Planning can make the process easier for everyone. It takes the involvement of the family and outside entities to make it happen. This is why after the play we had a panel discussion made up of a Pastor, Lawyer and Banker.
This morning we headed to Seed Savers Exchange in Deborah, IA to help a crew work on weeding their gardens. Seed Savers is an organization that strives to preserve heirloom seeds. They have over 25,000 different varieties of seeds. Of this 25,000, they have 750 different varieties of potatoes and hundreds of varieties for other plants also! Each season they plant a couple hundred varieties of seeds for the purpose of gaining fresh seeds. Seeds can last for a long time if they are kept in the right conditions. However, each year the germination rate decreases, so periodically the seeds have to be planted. This is a large undertaking for an organization that only plants seeds on approximately 20 of its 890 acres each year. This is further complicated because certain plants have to be spaced out large distances to prevent cross-pollination. How does Seed Savers determine which of its 25,000 seeds to plant each year? Seed Savers has a computer system that sorts out its inventory of seeds, showing those with the highest priority to be planted. They also have volunteers who will plant seeds for them. Unfortunately they only have 25 volunteer gardeners who are helping with this. Another tactic they use is tissue culture. Potatoes must be planted each year, but Seed Savers has over 750 varieties of potatoes and not enough room to plant them all. They are able to grow them all in tissue cultures and house all 750 in a refrigerator.
I really enjoyed this organization. It was a nice contrast to the Cortevas and Monsantos of the seed industry. I would to see farmers go back to a system where heirloom seeds are used. It would free up the farmer from having to buy seeds each year and release them from the chemical company system.
For a second time, I missed the early morning chores that Mark Kruse performs everyday to run his organic dairy farm. The life of a dairy farmer starts very early and I chose not to be sleep deprived. Later that morning Mr. Kruse gave us a tour of the dairy farm. There were similarities to the other dairy farms but also differences. Mr. Kruse also uses rotational grazing but unlike Mr. Peake and Mr. Dietzel, he only moves them once a day. It is a less-involved process then you would think. Kevin Dietzel builds a fence every time he moves his cows but Mr. Kruse simply opens up an adjoining pasture. He has close to 30 of these pastures to give a fresh pasture everyday. It also allows the pasture to put on new growth so as not to overgraze.
After the tour and breakfast, Marcia and Mark Kruse became our personal tour guides to Wisconsin. Organic Valley’s headquarters is located in Cashton, WI, and Mr. Kruse’s farm along with Mr. Peake, and the Welsh family are a part of the Organic Valley Co-op. We took a tour (I thought Iowa was cold last week until I stood in a negative 10 degree freezer) and met with Jim Wedeberg.
Organic Valley is a farmer-operated, democratic organization. They have a board of seven farmers that are elected every three years. Organic Valley brings together small family farms providing strength in large numbers. One of their success as a co-op has been the price of organic milk. In 1997, the farmers set a pay-price of milk to be $17.50/ cwt. As of today, they have met this goal and have even exceeded it. However, current trends are bringing struggles to the organic market. The consumer milk consumption patterns are changing. People no longer want to buy skim milk (instead there has been a shift towards full fat milk) and also the consolidation and industrialization of farms has made it hard for them to keep up. A bigger company is able to demand more and produce cheaper products. However, the coalition of small farmers within the co-op benefits everyone by giving them more power and resources than if farmers were on their own.
Today we are at Mark and Marcia Kruse’s farm. We arrived Monday evening and are staying with the Kruse’s until Wednesday. Mark and Marcia own a grass-fed dairy farm that is a part of the Organic Valley Co-op. Today is all about organic dairy cows, a nice reprieve from all the corn.
First we visited an Amish Farmstead. Their operation is very different from others we have seen because of their culture. Electricity is not used so a vacuum system for milking is used. The dairy cows are grass-fed and rotationally grazed. It was nice to be able to see another culture and the differences in farming which all lead to the same result.
Next we went to Jeremy Peake’s grass-fed dairy farm. Like many of the dairy farmers we have met Mr. Peake also uses the rotational grazing method. Except he does things a little differently. Twice a day he readjusts his pasture by expanding it more and more. The cows wait for him to do this and graze on the newer grass when available. We also got to get up close and personal with some of the jersey heifers. One in particular really loved head scratches and would head butt you until she got attention.
Lastly, we headed to the Welsh Family farm. They produce cattle, pig and chickens. They also are into farming corn. This farm seemed to be larger scale than all the other organic farms we have visited thus far. Their farm also appeared to be more industrialized especially when we visited their chickens. When talked with Jim Wedeberg at Organic Valley, he mentioned that poultry was one of the areas that it was hard for the co-op to get into. This is because most poultry operations have gotten larger. Although, the Welsh farm seems to be an exception among the organic farmers. We also were shown their pigs. Their pigs were notably different than the previous ones we saw at the Liljedahl’s farm. The pigs were not kept in small, individual confinements, they didn’t seem aggressive and they looked happy. I wish I would have asked how many pigs they lose to pig fights. That was a main reason the Liljedahl’s gave for keeping the pigs in separate and small crates.
We left our cabin/farmhouse at Whiterock around noon to head to Essex, IA. Essex, IA is the home-place Rob’s grandfather and we searched for the house he grew up in. We didn’t have to look far, Essex is a small town with a population of 800.
Corn is everywhere; reflected in this corny town signMeeting the largest bull in the world on the way to Essex, IA.
We also met with Dennis and Diane Liljedahl who are distant relatives of Rob. The Liljedahl’s farm corn and soybeans but they also raise hogs. Being that the Liljedahl’s run an independent hog operation; I had equated that to mean that they used different practices than a CAFO.
I will preface this by saying that this operation was not the worst I have seen. I watched those videos, promoting vegetarianism, on the inhumane practices of animal production. Although not the worst, it does not change the fact that this hog operation made me uncomfortable, for many reasons. The sows were placed in gestation crates. This is a common practice among hog operations. The crates are narrow and do not allow for the sow to turn around. This practice was justified because it decreases piglet death from suffocation by the sow. Preventing death and preserving yields at what cost? Many of the sows had sores from confinement. They were scared and one looked near death and even was pushing around her dead baby that was half decomposed.
Next we entered the second pig barn. The pigs were again placed in small cages, they will never see the outdoors. Small confinements and no social interaction with other pigs are used because “pigs are mean.” The eyes are the window to the soul. What I saw when I looked into the eyes of those hogs were an animal that was scared and insane from their living conditions. Most of us would be mean/insane too if we were kept in similar conditions.
In my opinion, hog production can and should be changed. It’s just that no one wants to lose out on yield and increase cost of production. However, we would all be better off if practices changed. Crowded and unsanitary conditions lead to the spread of disease which has to be fixed by more antibiotic use.
I feel like the corn is maybe treated better than the pigs; a living animal. Pigs feel pain and they can remember. In order to get humanely raised hogs, a shift in the consumer wants is going to have to occur. America is obsessed with cheap food and large quantities of it. In a consumer driven market, food production is determined by the wants of the consumer. If the consumer wants cheap meat, then the producer will deliver by cutting time off growth and ramping up large scale production. It is time the consumer starts demanding ethically sourced meat.
Today, May 25th, the adventure of FARM truly begins. This is just the first stretch of travels through Iowa. Today we headed to Whiterock Conservancy almost two hours from our home-base in Radcliffe. At Whiterock Conservancy we worked eliminating invasive plants on one of the Conservancy’s oak savanna plots. We pulled weeds, dug up thistle (a vicious plant), and picked up sticks. These are materials the goats on the conservancy will not eat. The goats’ job at the conservancy is to help keep weeds down and they are protected by a guardian donkey. I was skeptical if the goats needed the guard donkey more than me after meeting my match in an eight-year old boy. I was preyed upon by this child who thought it was his job to slap me with thistle, throw worms and rocks at my head. After hours of doing this work, I really wished we had just mowed it down with a lawnmower. Getting rid of weeds without chemicals is labor intensive and time consuming. I can understand more now about why farmers resort to using pesticides even if they aren’t the best practice.
Later, we visited with Liz Garst. A main focus of conversation with Liz revolved around soil health. The Whiterock Conservancy is located in the Southern Drift Plain and Prairie Pothole region. The Prairie Pothole Region has terrible natural drainage and therefore need tiling to make the land farmable. Even though tiling is a controversial topic, regulation declares that “by definition tile drainage is good.” Good for farming, but not soil health. Iowa has some of the richest soils. However, since the time Iowa began farming, half of the topsoil and organic matter has been lost. This has implications not only for soil richness but also water quality. Without the filter that Iowa’s soil provides, it no o longer has capacity to reduce pollutants. The Iowa Environmental Council portrayed the image of farmers using anhydrous ammonia as the main contributor to nitrate pollution. However, Liz Garst didn’t think that added nitrogen was the main problem for water quality and the hypoxic zone. She noted that Iowa’s soil are natrually rich in nitrogen; only by improving soil quality are you going to really reduce the nitrogen problem. Another contrast I found in talking with Liz Garst was that she stated that farmers really do not care about water. I found this surprising because almost every farmer we have visited up to this point has defended their farm practices by stating that they wouldn’t pollute the water that they themselves drink.
We ended the day by building a fire and roasting marshmallows and making smores. It was a relaxing way to end a tiring but great day.
