On Friday, May 24th, we started out by going to Grinnell Heritage Farm. Grinnell Heritage Farm is a family organic operation. The land has been passed down to Andy Dunham, a 5th generation farmer, but has not always been farmed organically. We met with Andy and also Eric, an employee at Grinnell Heritage. Thus began an aggressive rant about the evils of industrial farming. I think most of us would hold similar opinions but I still felt personally attacked. After what seemed like hours of this we finally moved outside where another tangent began. Eric is a weed eater. The kind of weeds that grow in your backyard. Nettles and all, you name it, he probably eats it. I got the sense that he doesn’t mind weeds like other farmers who try to battle the weeds with herbicides and take pride in their fields being weed-free. That was one difference in Grinnell Heritage that I haven’t seen at previous farms. Weeds were everywhere. I would be lying if I didn’t admit that it bothered my need for perfection. An especially weedy part of the Grinnell farm, was the asparagus plot. (One could argue that asparagus is actually a weed. In Iowa it grows everywhere. In ditches and even in Morris’ yard. Wild asparagus is still foreign to me. I guess you could say I also eat weeds.) Andy doesn’t mind the weeds in this part of his farm but what he does mind is pesticide drift. A couple years earlier, Grinnell’s asparagus plot was polluted with pesticides from a neighboring farm. For an organic farmer this is a huge loss. They lost $25,000 from this plot alone and have to wait three years before they can sell asparagus from that plot as certified organic.

Later we visited the Red Earth Farm on the Meskwaki settlement. Once again we talked about weeds and pulled them. Pulling weeds is time consuming unless you have a large workforce. To prevent weed growth, Red Earth covers unplanted beds with tarps. This keeps the soil moist, retains organic matter and houses many worms. Another way they prevent weeds without pesticide use, is by planting clover. This is multi-faceted: it looks pretty, doesn’t grow tall so it has little maintenance and helps keep weeds out. 

Red Earth Farm was one of my favorite places that I visited so far in Iowa. One reason is because the benefits of the farm are directly affecting the Meskwaki community. Food grown goes to this community, but others can also buy food, too. They also offer jobs and rehabilitation programs to help those with a rough start get another chance. Another reason is that community farms provide an outlet for physical activity and access to local, healthy food. Native Americans are further disadvantaged as the rates of diabetes and alcoholism are higher than other groups. Therefore, the work that Red Earth is doing is important to this community.

On the 23rd of May, we got a different piece of the agriculture story. We once again made the hour drive to Des Moines where we met with the Iowa Environmental Council (IEC). The IEC favors a regulatory approach to address Iowa’s water quality issues. High nitrates in drinking water is what it is causing Des Moines Water Works to incur high costs running its nitrate removal system. Iowa as a whole is contributing 88% of the nitrate pollution in the Mississippi River. This doesn’t account for the other industrial livestock based pollutants like hormones and antibiotics that could be that water. As of now our water treatment plants have no way of dealing with these substances. Tiling is what made Iowa farmable, yet, tiling transports nitrate laden water to public waters. These waters then have to cleaned for human consumption.

After this we went to Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge. Its mission is to try to restore the prairies by planting native prairie species. The prairies are more endangered than the rainforests. It’s sad that such an iconic landscape is disappearing. We also saw the work that is being done with the prairie strips project. Prairie Strips are planted in between rows of corn to help mitigate nitrate and phosphorous runoff. They also serve another important purpose: an ecosystem amidst the vast corn fields for birds and other species. As we walked the refuge’s experimental corn fields we saw the difference that the prairie strips make. On the field with the strip, there was little standing dirt or water in the collection flume. The field without the strips had a flume covered in field runoff. This is just one of the many solutions that people have been testing. Agriculture has the tools to reduce nitrate runoff, but the question is when and who will adopt them.

On Wednesday, May 22nd we went to Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) in Ames. Most of our discussion centered around pesticide drift, specifically, Dicamba. Dicamba is a volitile pesticide and once it is sprayed, it quite literally is gone with the wind. It can move for miles and with no way to determine who sprayed it, effected farmers find it hard to get recompensed for damages. Even if they can prove who the pesticide drifted from, vegetable and other specialty crops are not eligible for crop insurance like Mitch Meyer and Renae Zoske sell, and most will not receive damages.

PFI also mentioned that good applicators of pesticides will use DriftWatch. DriftWatch is essentially an app that makes specialty farmers visible to conventional farmers. Applicators can notify specialty farmers if they plan to spray near them but there is no regulations to do so.

Later today after stopping for lunch at Noodles we headed for Monsanto (now Bayer). Once again the hot topic was Dicamba and pesticide drift. Bayer’s stance is that they did not originally know that Dicamba would drift so far and the way to control Dicamba is through applicator training. I find it amusing that applicator training required for Glyphosate (Round-up) is less rigorous than Dicamba, when there are health effects to exposure. In fact, it seemed that Bayer was trying to push their idea that exposure to organophosphates, pesticides and Round-Up was entirely safe. They even handed out a fact sheet on the safety of Glyphosate. I’m not convinced, and I’m sure the OSHA fact sheet would tell a different story.

Regardless, the scientist in me is completely in awe of the way DNA can be extracted. We even got to play with the small version of the chipper machine. It takes a small sample of the corn seed enabling the scientists to extract genes. If done correctly, the corn seed retains its ability to grow. We each got to place a corn seed in the machine and received a chipped seed to keep. My next venture will be trying to grow my corn kernel in my backyard.

On Tuesday, May 21st, we started out at the Agribusiness Association of Iowa. It seems that a main feature of the organizations we have been visiting is the lack of representation of the farmer. Why does a big company like Corteva or Monsanto (now Bayer) need representation? If agriculture is consumer driven, they definitely have a huge customer base. Who in Iowa is not planting GMO corn (besides the rarity of farmers like Heath Stolee, Mark Tinitjer and Brian Wosepka)?

I find the lack of direct farmer representation alarming. Farming demographics show that young people are moving away and not getting jobs in agriculture. Thus, increasing the average age of a farmer to 60 years old. Also small, family farms are being replaced with large corporate farms. Yet companies like Corteva say they support the farmer by giving them as much choices as ever even though there are fewer seed companies. I think this actually gives them fewer options. Yes, they may have a plethora of corn seed to choose from within the company but where else would have they gotten their seed if they had a choice. Companies like this seem to be on the edge of becoming a monopoly that limits competition and accountability to their consumers.

After a tour of the World Food Prize (a foundation and award established by Norman Borlaug) we passed go and advanced to Des Moines Water Works (DMWW). Des Moines Water Works was part of a lawsuit in which it sued a couple of towns above them for polluting public waters. The complaint of DMWW was that nitrates from upstream agriculture was causing it to have to run its nitrate removal system. This system cost a lot in finances and energy every day to run to remove nitrates from drinking water. DMWW does not remove all nitrates from the water. They use dilution as a way to meet the MCLs for nitrate levels. The nitrate removal system processes a portion of water removing all nitrates. This nitrate-free water is mixed with the other water that still has nitrates in it.

This process also creates another problem. How do we dispose of the nitrates removed from the water. DMWW dumps the nitrate slurry back into the Des Moines River. This might seem counterintuitive, but DMWW justifies this because the nitrate pollution did not come from them to begin with. They want to push for farmers to be more responsible for their agricultural runoff.

On Monday, May 20th, we visited Corteva in Johnston, Iowa. Corteva, originally Pioneer, was founded by Henry Wallace who saw value in distributing hybrid corn out to farmers. Corteva is also a science-based company that uses two paths, traditional breeding and biotechnology to create GMOs.

There is no doubting that GMOs have revolutionized our food supply. We can now create crops that are resistant to disease, produce more per acre and exhibit the traits we want to see. However, they are hardly “pure”. As we talked with Kevin Diehl, the term “purity” to describe Corteva’s hybrid seed was used. Only a seed with high purity will produce well. Purity in genetically modified seeds decreases in each generation, therefore, saving seeds to plant from genetically modified plants will not yield the same quantity and quality as the original. I couldn’t help but marvel at the paradox. In my opinion, purity implies something that is unaltered and in its original form. However, GMOs do not fit this definition as they have other DNA spliced into their own.

Sunday, May 19th gave a much needed day of rest, even though the weather has slowed us down all week. I, personally, was totally fine with being just as busy as a drone bee (more on that later). Eventually, we all went to visit Mark Tintjer who is a beekeeper. Much like Heath Stolee, Mr. Tintjer’s bee operation is currently a hobby. Both Mr. Stolee and Mr. Tintjer do not subsist solely on the income derived from their farm incomes as both have regular jobs off the farm. Mr. Tintjer showed us his bee operation, how he sets up his hive, and how honey is extracted. This discussion also featured eating drone larvae, tasting different honey varieties, and the nth mention of the Iowa State Fair (Iowa loves its fair).

As with any farm operation, the prevention of pests is a constant theme. I found it interesting that mice were one of the pests in beekeeping. Mice build their nests inside the hives and destroy the honey combs. Heath Stolee also struggles with mice building nests within the tree protectors on his Chestnut trees. They chew the bark from around the young trees when they are bored. Rabbits also pose this threat as they girdle around the tree, taking its life. Mr. Stolee and Mr. Tintjer are not the only types of farmers who have trouble with pests.

Corn farmers have to worry about corn borers who eat the planted corn seed before it has a chance to grow. This is why farmers like Kevin Butt use treated corn seeds. And if farmers aren’t using treated seeds, they are probably spraying pesticides. Pesticide use and its drift have been detrimental to Mr. Tintjer’s bee population in the past, wiping out many of his hives.

Who is to blame? A corn farmer is trying to make it financially just like a beekeeper or an organic farmer. Should conventional farmers be regulated on pesticide use for the benefit of their specialty farmer counterparts? It’s a complicated issue that needs a solution that benefits all farmers. I hope that through this trip I can understand this issue more and learn about potential solutions.

After visiting the Mark Tintjer, the beekeeper, we came back to Mr. Stole’s house. As I mentioned earlier we were as busy as bees (drone bees that is). Within the society of bees, drones are pretty lazy. The worker bees do a lot of the work and drones stay within the hive and eat the honey. A hive with a lot of drones is not considered part of a productive hive. So today we were all a busy as a drone bee.

Farming is a risky business, in more ways than one. Not only is it the 8th most dangerous occupation, farming is can be financially or even socially risky. To explore some of these risks, we met with Mitch Meyer and Renae Zoske who are both crop insurance agents and also farmers. Mitch and Renae market and sell crop insurance products for five of the 15 AIPs (Approved Insurance Providers). Crop insurance is a public-private venture, all working together to spread risk across companies and the US government.

Farmers need crop insurance because crop yields are affected by so many things that are out of his/her control. Bad weather, late planting due to weather and hail are just a few of the problems that can effect crop yield and break a farmer without insurance.

Later that day we met with a farmer who is taking both financial and social risks. Heath Stolee is growing chestnut trees in an area known for its corn and soybeans. This may seem nutty to his neighbors, hence why he calls his farm, Nutty Farmer Chestnuts. Being a chestnut farmer means that Mr. Stolee does not see yields immediately like a corn or soybean farmer. It can take 10 years or more for his chestnut trees to start producing marketable product. A bad weather event in which part of the crop is damaged could set this type of farmer back years.

There is also insurance available for tree farmers, although it is not provided through crop insurance sold by Mitch and Renae. Farmers like Mr. Stolee can apply for TAP (Tree Assistance Program) or NAP (Non-insurance Crop Disaster Assistance Program). TAP will cover trees that have not started producing, and NAP covers trees that started producing. Although there are these protections in place, planting new trees to replace damaged trees also will set back a farmer valuable years.

These are all risks one must consider if they can even find a way into farming. The average age of a farmer is currently 60 years old. Young adults either do not have the money to fund a farm start-up or do not want to accept the risks (Imhoff mentions this in his Citizen’s Guide to The Farm Bill). This makes it all the harder for young people to be involved in an aging occupation. There are still beginning farmers though; Heath and Brian (who we met on Friday) being two. For example, Heath Stolee found his way into farming through family connections. It is not uncommon for farms to be rented off for others to farmer besides the owner. In Mr. Stolee’s case, this was about to happen to his family’s farm if he had not taken up the offer to farm it. Mr. Stolee felt that it was his last chance to farm. If he had refused he may not have able to get into the farming business later. A similar scenario is that of Brian Wosepka. Mr. Wosepka had a family farm of 100 acres. Farming this land with conventional methods did not make sense to him because it would be costly while offering little profitability. This seemed like too much of a risk, and he was unable to see a beginning in farming using conventional methods. That is until he heard Joel Salatin speak about his farming methods he employs on Polyface Farms in Virginia. However, the Farm Bill has started some programs to help beginning farmers. I think Mitch and Renae would be supportive of this because they mentioned that getting into farming needs to be made easier.

Talking about risks, negotiating a 12 passenger van down a dirt road after it has rained is an unexpected risk of farming. Apparently, farming is just chock-full of risks.

To end the day, we watched King Corn, a film about two men who grow an acre of corn to see where corn originates and where it ends up. Corn is a main ingredient in so much of what we eat. We consume so much corn that it is now a part of our DNA. As the saying goes, you are what you eat. In our case, we are all corn.

The day of May 17th started out like normal with breakfast at Mr. Stole’s house. However, plans had to be flexible due to the rain. It’s crazy to think that just the day before the weather was over 80 degrees and hot and today it’s rainy and chilly. It seems that Iowa weather is just as variable as the soil.

At 9:30 we arrived at POET, an ethanol plant located in Jewell, Iowa, to meet with Jerry Rabe. The POET company is a large-diversed company, but biofuels constitutes the largest part of its portfolio. At the Jewell plant, corn is turned into ethanol. The leftover corn solids (whole stillage) is rich in protein and therefore is converted into DDGs used for animal feed. Professor Kevin Butt, on Thursday, mentioned that the BioTech program at Ellsworth Community College had been discontinued due to low enrollment and the limited market for this degree. Mr. Rabe seemed to echo these comments; the turnover rate for employees monitoring the plant operations (who presumably would have been trained to do this at Ellsworth) is quite low, so there are few openings.  The employment need at Poet is centered on maintenance personnel, who are in high demand, and where high turnover is experienced.  Moreover, Rabe says a lot of the work at Poet is on-the-job training, which was echoed by two of the operators who we met.

After the Ethanol plant tour, we drove to Lost Lake Farm in Jewell and met Kevin Dietzel. A group of four, myself included, stayed with Kevin to help put up a fence. Mr. Dietzel has dairy cows that are grass-fed, and he employs rotational grazing. This is why we were putting up a fence. The cows are moved to a different pasture twice a day every 12 hours. We covered a lot of ground with Mr. Dietzel, both figuratively and literally. We learned a little about Iowa’s geographic qualities and the plants that covered the grazing fields. Most people think that Iowa is a prairie, but Mr. Deitzel explained that Iowa used to be wetlands and this as contributed to the richness of Iowa’s soil. As of 2015, the Clean Water Act now includes wetlands and seasonal streams as protected waters. Since Iowa used to be wetlands and so far has rained a lot since arriving here, I wonder what the effect of these regulations have upon Iowa farmers. Senator Sweeney has been affected by these regulations as there was a wetland on her land, making it unable to be farmed by government standards.

After completing the fence, we participated in forming a search party for two lost calves. After at least an hour or more of searching we only found one calf. This when I really felt that precision agriculture’s drones would have really come in handy.

We completed the day by meeting Brian Wosepka at “It’s All Good” for pizza. Brian Wosepka only farms 100 acres. Although this sounds like a lot of land, farming 100 acres with conventional farming is not efficient and profitable. Wanting a way into farming, Brian employs some of Joel Salatin’s (featured prominently in Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma and “Food, Inc.”) methods.

On May 16, we started off with a breakfast of quiche made by Mr. Stole. Then we were off to Ellsworth Community College, which almost resulted in me being left behind, to talk with Professor Kevin Butt about farm safety and precision agriculture. Farming is the 8th most dangerous job, and accidents can happen at any time.

Precision Agriculture uses GPS and the mapping of fields to get the most productivity and efficiency out of farming. Through technology, the farmer can see the variations in the soil quality (among other things) on his/her fields.  These variations can influence the use of pesticides, fertilizers, and crops grown on those fields to produce more and better crops. Drones are also used in precision agriculture. They are beneficial especially to corn farmers because corn plants grow to become very tall and an acre can sustain around 36,000 corn plants, so the drone gives farmers a bird’s eye view of their fields. It allows them see what the problem areas are within the fields. Drones also have the capability to use infrared to access the health of plants and animals. Corn’s maturity is measured by its heat units and sick cows will have body temperatures that are either hotter or cooler than normal. These technologies used in farming take stress off the farmer and allow them to use this time to do other things.

After talking with Professor Kevin Butt and visiting the Butt farm, ate at “the #1 voted Chinese restaurant in Central Iowa” and went shopping for rompers, gloves, and boots. We traveled 30 minutes to Ames and spent time at the Wheatfields Co-op where four of us were to attend a composting seminar later that evening.

Wheatfields is a neat grocery store. It sources products locally and many of the vegetables are local seasonal produce. Locals purchase memberships and can volunteer at Wheatfields. This was also where our composting class was located. Composting with worms, also called vermiculture, is apparently very easy–even though our instructor informed us that he killed off his worms on two occasions! The worms can eat through half their body weight everyday. Much like the story of Goldilocks, composting worms like their conditions to be just right. Not too moist or dry and not too hot or cold. Composting with worms does not require a lot of space and can virtually be as small- or large-scale as one wants it to be. Perfect for dorm rooms if you ask me…could these be approved comfort animals?