Friday, we had pleasure of visiting the Living History Farms of Iowa. The Living History Farms is a live interactive history museum and tour of the epic transitions of agrarian Iowa to the technology advanced agricultural landscape that is rural Iowa today. Although we had another event scheduled and was short for time, it was exciting to physically step into different points of history. The outdoor to or extended to 500 acres, beginning with the 1700 Ioway Farm, the 1850 Pioneer Farm, to the 1900 Farm. At the 1700 Ioway Farm, we were able to the hunter-gatherer period of prairies that were Iowa before its takeover by Europe. It was fascinating to see some of the efforts of the late native americans to manipulate the land and soil. Their efforts were furthered by some of the the hand tools they construct to help till and manage the soil. It was also interesting to the social setting of the Iowa natives. We saw their huts, fire pits, and community quarters.

Even more interesting was the 1850 Pioneer Farm where we saw a few innovations of colonial Iowa including early settlement homes and first uses if confined or fenced-in livestock. It was amazing to see the transition from bone blades for digging and planting to wood and metal tools like shovels and crop curlers.

Lastly, we journeyed through 1900s Iowa, where we saw a landscape much like what Iowa is currently. The was a large white-painted wood home in front if a large red horse barn and right of a two acre field plot. There we saw, what one might call, an early tractor. It was tillage tool attached to rear of a horse drawn carriage. Much like the technology of today, tools could be attached and detached to the carriage as needed.

Seeing all of this while considering the technological advancements of today, I cognitively began to beg the question of the future of farming in America. If we could advance so much within a century, where would technology be on the next decade? Will we have robotics so advanced that farmers are no longer needed or replaced with designated monitors? These are questions to think about as we continue our journey.

So tranquil was the morning of Friday, May 26th that we met for our daily breakfast around 10:30 AM. It was a delightful morning as we acquired an additional two hours of sleep, so heavily desired after the extensive day that was yesterday. Dianne and Stacy prepared, once again, a delightful meal consisting of breakfast burritos and fruit medley.

After breakfast, we dedicated the remainder of the morning and the beginning of the afternoon to resting and working on our blogs and final projects. It was lovely, to take a moment of rest to reflect on our experiences so far in Iowa.

At 2:00 AM, we ended our relaxation and traveled to POET Ethanol Plant. There we met with Kevin Monroe who gave us a presentation on the process of conducting corn to energy and ethanol as well as the history of the plant.

Encompassed by one exceptionally eventful day, one event stood out among all others. We began our day with a tour of Hagie Manufacturing Company in Clarion, Iowa. Hagie is a family operated company offering crop protection for its customers through high clearance sprayers. Within our short time in Iowa, we have seen hundreds of sprayers and heard from numerous farmer’s their conventional uses. However, we have never once considered where such large machinery comes from or even the mechanisms it requires to build it. As we would expect, large companies like John Deere machine and robotics operated.

Likewise, Hagie Manufacturing is no John Deere, in terms of production. Hagie is a manual labor based production system in which every scrap of metal on their 25 ton tractors is shaped and collectively together by Hagie employees.

Our tour of Hagie consisted mostly of a walk through the Hagie Manufacturing  workshop where we saw the production of a large sprayer. As we came see, Hagie employees are mostly skill welders and engineers. Each engineer is responsible for welding and shaping every piece of the puzzle that is the large sprayer in an assembly line type production system. This type of requires group selected work as opposed to individual effort in that each employee relies on the competence of the other. This is encourages a group action environment. Moreover, there are four symbols painted on every garage door in workshop, all representing collaborative work efforts. These symbols act as reminders to employees, to “work hard not to f*** over their other partners,” as our tour guide described.

Notwithstanding, the individual parts welded by Hagie employees, Hagie Manufacturing doesn’t design every aspect of their sprayer. The most important part of the operation, the engine, is delegated to John Deere construction. Hagie solely modify John Deere manufactured engines. After the engines are added to the sprayer along with all other parts, the sprayer goes through extensive field test to ensure stability of the product. Any blemish or damage acquired by the field test is repaired at the end the process.

Our tour of Hagie ended with a walk of the show room of Hagie Sprayers. We were allowed to run and climb on top the sprayers, where we took some amazing photos for memories of such a fantastic day.

Easy and apparent it is, in our obstinate society, to apprehend farmers and producers for our environmental quandaries. Within a classroom setting, students are taught that increased nitrogen in our drinkable waters as well as gaseous nitrogen in our atmosphere are environmental calamities traced back to the poor conduct of rural farmers. Although such an hyperbole holds truth, I’m embarrassed to say, before today, I concurred with this tendentious argument. Yes, nitrogen runoff results from farmers’ failure to adopt voluntary conservation strategies that may foster the absorption of excess nitrogen into their soil rather than flow into nearby streams and rivers. However, unjustified it may be to consider their actions poor conduct. Is it really poor conduct to ignore planting cover crops that assume crop space on fields. Is it irrational for farmers to refuse transference to new strategies when their current efforts are profitable and have been adopted by their families for generations? I argue farmers can change their strategies and should be required to do so if failure to adopt voluntary conservation continues in the future. In a society where are natural resources may be at threat, we cannot merit our efforts on the basis of wants or what has been precedent in the past. We must falter to our needs, meaning significant changes in our actions is no longer a request. It’s a must.

However, we cannot allow for farmers to assume all the blame. Everyone one of us, including you, the reader, is responsible for nitrogen and, every one of us should be held accountable. Iowa State Representative, ,proposed her own solution to this emerging issue. She proffered that citizens should be required to pay a tax on the nitrogen they produce, in which everyone would pay for their cost on the environment and will provide incentives for environmental efficiency. There is no doubt, such a solution will be attacked by both sides of the coin, Democrats and Republicans, but; such a solution prevails over others that work only to benefit supporters of the USDA or the environmentalist in Iowa’s epic battle between the two. This battle contends because both sides believe they have the correct solutions which negatively propose significant costs on the other without any knowledge of the secondary consequences it may also cause on the other. It will take the minds of changing culture, an open society, in America to proffer solutions that may mend our broken environment. It will require a society that doesn’t see in black and white, one that can find the areas in which environmental goals and agricultural needs intersect.This will be the age of Millennials, the age of deliberative and divergent thinking, the age of solutions, the age of environmental peace.

What an intriguing Thursday it was, our eighth day in Iowa, the one that brought both laughter and deliberation. As usual, the morning of the 18th began with a delightful breakfast prepared by Diane and her daughter Staci. This fine culinary aliment was just tasteful enough to stimulate our tiresome bodies that had been awaken at 6:00 AM. Although our morning was early, we embraced it with little quarrel, organized hastily into the van and traveled to our first event scheduled for 8:30 in Hubbard, Iowa. There, we were introduced to Ron Barkema, Vice President of Grain at Innovative Ag Services (IAS). As described by Ron, IAS is a full-service agricultural cooperative that sells commodities (notably corn and soybeans) and provide many several services to its members, including application of pesticides, grinding feed for cattle and pigs, and providing propane.  Since Ron’s focus was on grain, he mostly discussed his work in marketing grain.  He spent time discussing why corn and soybeans commanded a greater price at some of IAS’s location and lesser price at others.  Generally, it centered on the transportation costs and the markets for the commodity–in Iowa, corn is generally headed for an ethanol plant or for a facility that blends it into feed for chickens, pigs, or beef cattle Ron also showed us how he spends most of his day watching the price of commodities and what impact that had for the members of his team in terms of buying or selling grain. The morning that we visited him a corruption scandal in the Brazilian government had erupted, and it wasn’t clear what affect this might have on the sale of commodities, so the market was down.  He noted that to date there hadn’t been too much of a noticeable blowback from the Trump Administration’s policies regarding trade, which are generally not thought to be good for Iowa’s corn and soybean producers.

Following this event, we met at The Cafe in Ames at NOON with Jennie Smith. This gathering, I can, with full honestly, say was one of our best experiences in Iowa. From the moment Jennie sat at the table we knew this was going to be a great lunch. She was just about the most comical, extroverted, and lovable person we’ve met. Besides all the laughter, which was a lot, she provided much information on some of the issues concerning agriculture in Iowa. She discussed how everyone is responsible for the excess flows of nitrogen into our rivers, that which everyone should be held accountable for. She also talked extensively about her tomato farm operation and how she was successful by “looking at the market first, then choosing what to produce.”

After leaving Jennie, which none of us wanted to do, we traveled to Des Moines Water Works where we were introduced to Jen Terry and Bill Stowe. Jen Terry is an environmental lawyer for Water Works, an independent water utility, who worked with on Water Works lawsuit and is an old friend of HN. She gave us a tour of the facility, informing us of some of the issues concerning the Des Moines water quality and how the facility treats water to comply with state and federal regulations. She also introduced us to the company’s microbiologist who discussed the many methods she uses to test the water quality coming from the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers.  Des Moines depends on surface, not ground, water for its drinking water.  Bill Stowe furthered the tour by informing us that nitrogen was the main concern of the Des Moines water quality. The nitrogen that runs off from farmlands invades the city’s rivers and negatively affects water quality. For this reason Water Works filed a suit against a number of water drainage districts in Northwestern Iowa for the amount of nitrogen it dumped dumped into the Raccoon River and it sought to have these flows regulated under the Clean Water Act.  Following our meeting with Stowe, we dined at the Exile Brewing for supper with Jen at 5:30, which completed our day.

Today we continued to pursue our amplify the lessons we heard about last week regarding conventional farming and precision agriculture by visiting what has been deemed the “big and bad” Monsanto. Prior to this visit, I only knew of the horrors of Monsanto. However our tour today of the Monsanto Company, at its Learning  Center in Huxley provided  me with new and surprisingly positive insights about Monsanto and its products. With all negatives aside, Monsanto is a company that offers subsidies and services to lower income farmers. Well known, among all other services, is Monsanto’s production of herbicide and pesticide-coated seeds. These seeds protect against some of the common extrinsic factors of nature such as insects and weeds that may negatively alter crop yields. The tour even featured a live robotic seed chipper system, showing how corn seeds are chipped and used for biological alteration. This alteration system begins with testing the DNA of one seed chip and using the DNA of another crop to increase the probability of greater crop yield. Genetic alteration, in this aspect, is justifiable. However, it may acquire unethical uses of genetic modification in the future.

Aside from genetically modified seeds, we were shown features of the precision technology constructed to aid farmers in all natural situations. All of these technologies are made to simply be added to a farmer’s tractor with result to increasing crop yields and to achieve the maximum benefits from farming labor. Other technologies provided area-precise seed planting which would prevent seeds from being too close or too far apart from each other. There was even a device that could measure the depth into which a seed may be planted, providing appropriate allocation of seed to soil.

Seeing all this technological innovation, I could only think of one thing. That is how extensive a career farming really is. Notwithstanding that pest and weeds can singularly eliminate all crops in a field, the even greater issue is that the act of planting seeds itself has its own difficulties. To receive the maximum usage of cropland, farmers have to take into consideration the planting of neat and straight rows while preventing seed proximity to close or far from each other. If seeds are too close, the crops will choke each other, causing poor crop yields. If seed are too far, then the farmer has wasted areas in which he or she could’ve had more yields. A second problem is planting depth. Seeds have different yields based on how far down they are planted into the soil. A seed planted too low or too high can cause low yields or, in worse case scenarios even no crop growth at all. The third but greatest issue aligns with location of seeds. Not all soil is the same. Some areas have better soil than that of other areas. A farmer has to know what section of his or her cropland promotes the best yields for the crops he or she is seeking to plant and which section promotes the best yields for other crops.

With all said, farming is a tough and extensive career. Consequently all services that work to aid farmers in their efforts should be considered both for their pros and cons.

The morning of May 12th was that of much enjoyment and intrigue. The group began the day, after a filling breakfast, with chestnut tree planting at the Stolee family farm. Before arrival, I found it somewhat shocking to be planting chestnuts tree as one of our first of many projects in Iowa pursuant to my predetermined expectation that farmers only grow crops like wheat, corn, or soy. However, Heath Stolee corrected my naive opinion. He explained that chestnut tree planting is not a usual activity farmers participate in but not at all shocking. Moreover, his reasons for planting chestnuts as a revenue source occurred upon accident, thinking it would attract deer. Consequently he rationalized, based on market prices on chestnuts, that he could earn a greater profit from chestnuts than that of other crops or produce. As we all know from the most basic lessons of economics, is that price is the centripetal result of supply and demand. Both act as adjacent variables to which a concurring price can be set balancing consumer cost with producer profit. Aware that the price of chestnut trees for planting was significantly higher than his expectations, it proffered a seemingly valid signal that chestnut productions could offer substantial profits.

With all taken into consideration, the group proceeded in tree planting, which turned out to be more fun than tiresome. I believe, if my memory accurately suffices, Heath planned to plant over 500 trees on the Stolee farm. Within a few hours, we were able to achieve a substantive one-fifth of the project, planting slightly over 80 trees.

Undoubtedly, Heath would have a definite supply of chestnuts. However, the question of inquiry was upon the limits of demand as chestnuts are not a commodity often purchased locally or even in the U.S. nationwide. Heath inquired that chestnuts, despite its value locally, is a produce often used by foreign countries such as Asia and parts of the Middle East. This is where most revenue comes from. Notwithstanding the high profits chestnuts have to offer, Heath mentioned that he doesn’t receive much of a profit till a few years antecedent to production.

With much preparation and conjecture concerning Furman MayX: Farm, our greatly anticipated mid-western journey began as one more amusing than our immediate expectations. In fact, our journey commenced antecedent to our first steps upon the rich soils of Iowa. After most of us, excluding three members of the group, happened upon each other at the Atlanta-Jackson Hartsfield airport in Atlanta, it didn’t take long for us to greet each other and make friendly introductions. There, at wee hours of 8:00 a.m., and with consideration to all our colorful personalities, we happened to form strong friendship during the two hours we awaited our departure.

Landing in the Des Moines airport in Iowa, after an “interesting” flight, we met HN (Dr. Glen Halva-Neubauer) and Hagan who arrived a couple of hours prior. After Mariah finally arrived in Des Moines and while awaiting the arrival of our last member, we traveled for a nice lunch at Gateway Market, one of HN’s favorite spots in the city. The restaurant, to our surprise, consisted of both a dine-in and a grocery store. Moreover, the menu consisted of a number foods, some very common, some not so common but popular in Iowa, and others we had never heard; all of which proffered an insightful and conversational meal.

Shortly after this meal, we proceeded to pick up our last member from the airport and traveled swiftly to the Neubauer family farm in Radcliffe, Iowa. There we were politely introduced to HN’s brother, Denny, who, as we came to know, is a kindred soul but interesting character. He provided much insight concerning some of the issues related to tractors and planters as well as personal experience he’s had with using precision agriculture. Not only was he excited to meet us, we were also greeted by the Neubauers’ amazing canine, Shadow (one the biggest highlights of the day).

Subsequently, we proceeded to meet our host families. Mariah, Hagan,and Sophie (the Girls) met Morris, who is unquestionably the funniest and most lovable of people we’ve met so far on this trip. Jessie and Josh met the Knutsons, the most adorable and sweetest hosts whom we have coined our “Mom and Dad” for the next 3 weeks. Lastly, the Boys (Parker, Ethan, Reid) met the Sweeneys, a caring and daring family with close relations to the Neubauers. After settling in and unpacking, the group along with our hosts and hostesses met for dinner at Morris’s home known as “Versailles” (the nicest and most well decorated home in the area). There we made brief introductions and enjoyed some of the best cuisine prepared by the lovely Diane Schwartz.

Immediately after dinner, the group debriefed at the Neubauer barn and discussed the schedule for our three weeks in Iowa. We also watched a documentary video on Henry Wallace, Henry A. Wallace: An Uncommon Man, which provided an avid example of some of material we would be learning during this course. This video completed our first day in Iowa and the group returned to our designated host families to await the wonders that would come tomorrow.