So it is over. My time in Iowa is over. For me its weird to think the 21 days could have gone by so quickly, but had such a large impact. Right now I’m sitting on a couch some 1,000 miles away from Iowa, and I’m drinking a coke that is filled with high fructose corn syrup. This seems a very appropriate spot to be in to reflect on my time in Iowa.

First things first numbers. So I thought no good reflection would be good without some fun numbers. The first one is 4500. This is approximately the number of miles that we drove in a while Chevy 12 passenger van with Texas license plates. To put that into perspective a trip across the U.S. is less then 2800 miles. Averaging 75 miles per hour we spent 60 hours in that van. In doing our intrepid quest around Iowa we did any and everything you can imagine form poking our heads into Minnesota to randomly stopping at John Wayne’s birth place. Along the way we also actually did learn a few things too. The next number is 3. This is the number of houses we all stayed at during our time in Iowa. HN convinced 3 different households to let total strangers invade their space and live there for 3 weeks, and they were all extremely warm and welcoming. Without a missed beat we were brought in like long lost family members, and because of this we got to meet true Iowans. In this number I have to include our wonderful cooks. Now Diane and Staci are two of the best cooks I have ever come across (this is obviously excluding my mom, she’s still the best). Not only were they talented cooks, but they truly made us feel like their kids. The last number is 8. This one is pretty obvious. There were 8 of us that ventured to Iowa to partake in this unknown adventure. I like to think that over our 3 week time period we became pretty good friends, and we got to learn a lot about each other too. To all of my travel mates I think that you all helped make this experience as good as it was.

Now on to the actual reflecting part of this. Looking back on my time in Iowa all I can say is that it was a lot. It was a lot in the idea that we meet with a lot of people and learned a lot of new things. Over our 21 days there we meet with well over 25 different people and each one had a different piece to add to the Iowa story. Iowa was a lot in the idea that we just learned a lot. Going into this trip I now know that I knew nothing about what farming is like today. From small 2 wheeled tractors to a sprayer that stands 6 feet of the ground and has a 120 foot arm I got to see it all. We also saw all of the politics and programs that make it possible for modern day farms to still exist. Finally Iowa was a lot in the sense that it made me think a lot. Everyday my perceptions of how our food was produced changed, and that also led to may different ethical and practical discussions that I am still trying to wrap my head around. Iowa showed me that there is a lot more to consider when going to the grocery story and buying your weekly groceries, and I’m still trying to answer the questions that have arisen from our journey.

As HN would tell our different presenters we could have gone to Tokyo learn about the architecture, or gone to Cuba and smoked cigars, or gone to Italy and drink wine while eating fine meats and cheeses, but instead of all of those options we chose to come to Iowa and learn about farming. I for one can say that I definitely made the right choice, and I know none of the other trips would have made change my world views like Iowa did. The only fitting thing I can say is thank you Iowa for opening my eyes to what farming is and thank you HN for being our autocratic cruise ship director during our wonderful 21 days in Iowa.

Today we made the long trek back to Iowa City to meet with Connie Mutel. She is a science writer, and her last book focused on climate change, and how it is affecting our world and how we can fight it. She is an Ecologist by training, and has a deep passion for writing. She combined the two and has become a prolific and successful science writer. She tries to bridge the gap between the general public and science, and hopes that her writings help people better understand different scientific concepts. I can really appreciate what she is trying to do because I also see the gap between science and the general public, but unlike many others she is trying a unique strategy to bridge the gap. She told us a little about her style, and told us more about her latest book.

Connie has written 12 books about different scientific concepts, but her latest is different from all the others. In the past she has just used pure fact to try and win over her audience, but she found that this just attracted the groups of people that already agreed with her position instead of reaching a broader audience. In her newest book she uses stories and experiences that people from all backgrounds would most likely share. She then relates these stories and experiences to scientific fact in a hope to show people that climate change is real and caused by humans. She focuses the book as a story to her youngest granddaughter, and its focused around the area she lives. Also in her presentation she talked about how humans have changed the land scape of Iowa. Connie has tried to fight this change by taking her 12 acre property and turning it back into the it would have been thousands of years ago. This is a rarity in Iowa because only 2% of the land is in its original form. The rest has been transformed to make way for farmlands and for cities. She tied this all together to show just how much humans are changing the world that we live it, and it is having some pretty negative effects. The last thing that she left us with is how to deal with the weight of the negative effects of climate change. She flat out told us that they are extremely depressing, and just dwelling on them can be bad. Instead she told us to focus on how we can work together to fix them, and more importantly how we can get more people on board to help.

Connie was a wonderful person to meet with. Not only did she invite us into her home, but gave up time on a beautiful Memorial Day. What she told us really resonated with me because climate science is one of the reasons why I really got into science, and then also trying to communicate that science to a broader audience is a reason why I got into political science. Her goals really resonated with me, and her approach is very interesting. I think the use of common stories that people can relate with is an excellent starting point. She definitely gave me some ideas of how to try and reach a broader and more diverse audience when trying to talk about science.

Today we got the chance to go to an ethanol plant. Now in Iowa we have heard a lot about ethanol because almost 40% of all the corn grown in the state is turned into ethanol. Ethanol became a huge industry in Iowa after the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) came into effect, and it mandated that a certain number of gallons of ethanol has to be blended into the fuel supply by 2022. This requirement has made ethanol a huge industry, and we got to go a POET ethanol plant. POET is currently the largest ethanol producer in the US and produces almost 50% of all the ethanol in the US.

When we got to the plant we were given a presentation about ethanol. We learned how the corn is ground, then fermented, distilled, dewatered, and finials denatured and shipped out. The whole process is essentially the same as producing producing whiskey, minus the barrel aging and there are a few added steps to make it not safe for human consumption. Now the next movement in ethanol production is cellulosic ethanol. This is ethanol that is made from corn stalks and cobs instead of the traditional corn kernel. This would allow companies to use different sources for ethanol, and it would also help meet the requirements for production set by the RFS. The presentation then went on to dispel some common rumors about ethanol, and how it is fine for car engines and there is no risk of it causing damage in your car. After the presentation we downed safety hats and then got a walking tour of the plant. We got to see all of the processes, and I will say that it was a lot easier then I thought it would be. With all the technology today the whole plant can be run by only 2 operators and 3 engineers from the central control room.

The ethanol plant really hit home a few points about the corn industry. The first is that everything is about the price per bushel. The ethanol plants want it to be cheap and the growers want it to be high, and there is this struggle between both of them. The other is that corn is used in everything. Obviously corn is used to make the ethanol, but then the by products from the process are sold as cattle feed. This just shows a little bit of how complex the chain of selling corn is. The final thing is that innovation drives corn. We saw that technology was changing the way that farmers do almost everything from picking the seed, to planting it, and finally harvesting it. In the ethanol plant they are constantly updating and changing out parts of the process to make it more efficient. The tour really showed how intertwined the ethanol industry is in Iowa.

Today was a pretty simple but back breaking at the same time. We woke up a little bit later at 8 which was nice to be able to sleep in, and then after breakfast we hit the road to go to the Wallace Country Farm. After about a two hour van ride we arrived and were treated to lunch, and were told about all the programing that the Farm does. They try to sponsor productive discussion with people from a variety of different backgrounds about different issues. All of the programs are down in typical midwestern fashion and they are all preceded by a meal. After the induction and a wonder lunch that included vegetables from the farm we got the chance to work with Mosa Shayan who is the farm manager. He first showed us around a bit of the 12 acre farm, and then put us hard to work weeding the potato beds. Since they run an organic farm, we had to clear all the weeds by hand using hoes, but there were some very tough thistle weeds that we had to pull out by hand. After some unfortunate stings by some thistle and a quick burst of rain we had cleared all the potato beds. With some goodbye’s we left the farm to travel back to our farm and dinner. Along the way though we ended up stopping at the birth place of John Wayne on the way back (we had HN’s insatiable need for coffee and Ethan’s justified obsession and good eyes for this little side adventure). We finally made it back to the farm and had another wonderful dinner made by Diane. Today was a less hectic day but still every bit enjoyable.

Today was a really fun day. First off we got to actually sleep in till 10, which was nice considering the pace we have been going on this trip. More importunely though and more fun we went to a field day sponsored buy Practical Farmers of Iowa. The field day was taking place at Blue Gate Farms, which was a small vegetable growing operation, and would focus on 2 wheeled tractors. At first I had no idea what a two wheeled tractor was, and after listening to an interview with the owner of Blue Gate Farms I was even more confused. Instead of doing the logical thing and looking up what a two wheeled tractor actually was, I decided to forget what technology was and wait the next hour in the van trying to figure out what these thing possibly could be. Like me I’ll leave you wondering while I talk about Blue Gate. It was started by a husband and wife team that had no experience farming, and they started with the vision to start a small organic vegetable farm. They currently have about 6 acres, and up until this last year they had been doing it all by hand (they literally used basic hand tools to farm 6 football fields of vegetables, thats some hard dedication). This last year they learned about and then started using two wheeled tractors.

A two wheeled tractor is best described in a picture (which there should be one somewhere on this page), but using words imagine a riding lawn mower that was cut in half, had handles attached, and can pull miniature versions of regular conventional farm implements. Up until today I had never new such a thing had existed, and initially I thought that some company must be getting rich selling these things two all the new small farmers starting out. I was of course wrong because two wheeled tractors were created in the early 1900s and the ones that are still around and used today are from the 40s and 50s, and there are few companies that actually still produce them today. These things were so cool because it gave small farm operators the equipment that conventional farmers had, just on a smaller scale. I thought all of this was ver cool because not only were these tractors helping small farmers be more efficient, these same farmers were discovering and restoring these lost tools.

I think this field day really showed a lot about the small farm and organic movements in America. It showed that the people that are starting these farms will work them with what ever tools that have to make them work, and they will also use whatever technology they can to help in this process. Blue Gate Farms really shows that when people have a dream they will make it work, the owners used only hand tools for something like 6 years. They also refurbished decades old technology to help them produce better quality products and more quantity of vegetables. 

When you turn your faucet on you get water. When you need water you have it. Water is such a simple, but necessary aspect to our lives and people usually rarely think about it. For some people though, water is their life. Today we met some people that water was their life because we went to the Des Moines water works, and this utility provides fresh drinking water to over 500,000 people. Now if you were a farmer or lived in the Des Moines area this would mean a lot more then the average person because the Des Moines Water Works recently filled a lawsuit against drainage districts in three counties that are in the water shed that provides water for them. Before I explain the lawsuit there are a few things to know. In Iowa a lot of farms use tiles that help remove water from the farmland, and then these tile systems are connected to a common outlet. These systems are governed and managed by drainage districts. Now these drainage are not regulated under the Clean Water Act, but the Des Moines water works believes that they should be because of the large amounts of nitrates that are being released by these drainage districts. These large amounts of nitrates makes the water works run expensive systems to remove nitrates, and this recently hit a tipping point for them. This caused a huge controversy, and many people took sides. After a federal judge issued summary judgment against the Water Waters, the utility’s Board decided not to pursue its lawsuit further because of political pressures.

Now our meeting there was very impressive because we got to meet with Bill Stowe, who is the head of the Des Moines Water Works. Not only did we get to learn all about how the city of Des Moines gets fresh water, but we got to hear form the person in charge that filled this highly controversial lawsuit. Now we had heard a lot about this lawsuit from farmers that obviously didn’t like it. When talking to Mr. Stowe we heard a different sort of story. He told us a story of how the farmers’ run off was causing extremely high levels of nitrates, and this was causing them to have to run expensive machinery. Now at first I was very much on the side of the Des Moines Water Works, but after talking with Mr. Stowe I was less so on its side. This was because to me it seemed that there was no reason for the lawsuit in the first place.

I didn’t see it as necessary because I am still not convinced that there is an actual problem for the Des Moines Water Works. The first thing is that it is not a problem for them to get the nitrates out of the water. They use a complex system that removes all the nitrates, and this is blended with other water to achieve the proper amounts of nitrates. Last year this system cost a total of 1.5 million dollars to run, which translates to 3 dollars per customer for last year. To me this does not seem like a large cost, so then there is the other idea that there doing it for the environmental benefits. I also didn’t agree with this one for a few reasons. The biggest one is that the nitrates that the plant removes are all just added back into the river down stream. The Des Moines water works has a permit to do this, but if you want to regulate the farmers for putting nitrates in the water, then I think that putting those same nitrates back in the water shows that you don’t really care about the water quality. The final problem with the lawsuit that I had is that the Water Works framed it as an use versus them mentality. They talked about it only in terms of the rural farmers and then the people that lived in the suburbs, and no mutual understanding to fix the problem. Obviously I think that there is a problem with the amount of nitrates in the water, but I disagree with how the Des Moines Water Works went about trying to fix it, and I disagree with its position from which they filled the lawsuit.

So today was a piece meal sort of day. Since it had been raining and the fields were wet we had to change our plans a little bit, but it was still a fantastic day in Iowa. We started out our day with visiting the Friests’ pig operation. Now they have a unique operation because most of the hog farming in Iowa is done by a few cooperations that contract with farmers, but the Friests are totally independent. We started off our tour with the feed. Brent walked us through the way that they make the different feeds for the pigs, and each of the major ingredients that go into it. Brent then took us into the first hog barn. The first one was were they kept the breeding sows, and where his helping hand kept his show pigs. We next went over the the farrowing barn. In here we saw the piglets with their mothers, and also the pigs right after they had been weaned from their mothers. We got to hold the baby piglets, and Brent talked about the different procedures they perform before they separate the mothers from the piglets. We then made our way into the next room in that barn where the just weaned pigs were held while they got big enough to move to the final finishing areas. In the last barn we saw the pigs that were going to be sent to market soon. After seeing all the barns, Brent explained more the process of raising the pigs, and told us that it usually takes about 6 months from when the pigs are born till the get sent to market.

Later in the afternoon we went over to a horse farm that was run Jada Neubauer, who is married to HN’s nephew. She runs a horse barn, and houses other peoples horses along with her own. She trains her horses to pull carts, and her whole family competes in different levels, but the horses she houses compete in a multitude of different events. We were able to join her for the afternoon chores which included feeding, bringing in and putting out, and refilling their water. It was a great time because the horses were beautiful and very well trained. I personally got to bring in a horse named Jedi, who stood as tall as my shoulder. I tried to fit him in the van, but unfortunately he was too big to fit in. After a few failed attempts to kidnap some horses and petting all the barn cats we could find we left to get back for our evening presentation.

Tonight we had Denny Friests give us a presentation about sustainability, and how conventional agriculture tires to achieve a balance between production and substantiality. He talked with us about his practices, and his use of precision ag to make his farm sustainable. His main take away point was that the new technology allowed farmers to only apply the bare minimum amount of chemicals needed to grow their crops, and the new tech allowed them to have less of an impact on the environment. He also brought along Sam Stegma, and she talked to us about what different coops do to help make more farms sustainable. She told us about the different services that they use to help farmers determine the best seeds for their land, and when and how much chemicals to apply on the crop. Next we had Brian Perry from Land O’Lakes’ Sustain program which promotes sustainable corporate responsible (yep, this is the same company that sells butter). He talked to us more in-depth about the software that Denny uses, and how it is helping farmers meet the requirements of new farm regulations. Finally we had Ben Gleason from the Soil Health Partnership at the Iowa Corn Growers Association. He talked with us about soil health, and how modern conventional farming techniques are helping to improve soil health, which in turns helps improve crop yields.

So today was a day full of firsts, but the first first of the day was that I got to ride on a tractor. More specifically I got to ride in a tractor with Denny Friest while he pulled a field cultivator. Mr. Friest farms a total of 1200 acres with his son Brent, and he did the same with his dad, so he has been farming the same land for quite some time now. He is the first person that I have met that you would consider a full time farmer, which to me means that his sole source of income is from his farm, but he does a lot more outside of just farming. He is an advocate for corn and soybean producers, and he has worked on both the Iowa Corn Growers Association and the Iowa Soybean Association. Beyond that he has done a lot of work with international groups that have come to Iowa to learn about the local agriculture and livestock production. Needless to see he is a very impressive man, and as I walked across the field I was a bit intimidated. This all fell to the wayside when I opened the cab door and he greeted me with a smile a firm handshake. After I got settled in we were off, but I was initially very scared because Mr. Friest didn’t have his hands on the wheel. It turns out that modern day tractors just drive themselves.

While I might have found him intimidating at first, Mr. Friest has made it is goal to educate all sorts of people on how farms actually work, so he was a natural at getting people to relax and just have a conversation. We started off talking generally about his farm and his operation, but quickly moved into the issue of farm inheritance. This is usually a hard topic because for some families this is a very hard issue, but the Friests have it worked out. He talked about how since his son Brent was the only one working on the farm he would take over the operations and get the biggest portion of the farm, and his two siblings would get smaller portions of the farm because they didn’t put in much work on it. In some farm families this can be a highly contested issue and for some it turns into years of legal battles. The Friests on the other hand have their farming operation in a few different corporations, so there will be a smooth transition.

After that we moved onto the issue of regulations and sustainability. This is where Mr. Friest puts in a lot of time when he is not farming. He works to educate people on how conventional farming can be very sustainable, and he works to educate law makers about actual farm practices to create more fair regulations. When looking at sustainability he taught me that you have to look at the technology behind farming. This is what we spent a good bit of time on, but to give the spark notes version advances in technology have allowed farmers to plant more plants per acre, put on less chemicals per acre, and produce more per acre. This was surprising because now farmers can produce almost double the amount per acre then what they used to, but this is also using less chemicals. Using less chemicals means that there is a less chance of them running off and getting into other water supplies. I was super shocked by this, but also really excited because run off is a big issue that I personally see with conventional farming. When talking about regulations I saw a deep sense of frustration with Mr. Friest. He is a man that is always first to adopt and comply with regulations, but the different programs that the government puts out are always using old science and are just blanket programs. Since they are blanket programs some of the ideas don’t work for his farm.

I had a blast with Mr. Friest, and learned more from him in his tractor in one hour then I have any time before. He really showed me what a true Iowan farmer looks like, and showed his dedication to the environment and producing the best crop possible. He also unfortunately reaffirmed that science and farming are not in sync, and I find that very disheartening. I’m glad that he has tried to fix this problem, and I hope to help in fixing this problem myself someday.

Today was the day we all finally made our journeys to Iowa. We arrived to sheets of rain, and an excited HN greeting us all at the airport. Some of us took different flights, but once we all had landed our journey to the farm began. Now we had landed in Des Moines Iowa, which is about 60 miles south from our final destination, Radcliffe, Iowa. This trip takes about an hour on a good day, but the rain made us go a little slower, and on this trip HN started to give us a little more background on all the people we were going to be meeting and staying with for the next three weeks. First was HN’s brother, who we met in his tractor shop working away at restoring the smallest tractor that International ever produced. He was a fantastic first person to meet, and he more or less fulfilled my idea of a farmer. He grew up on the land where we stood, fixing the tools that he used everyday to work the land and produce a crop. He gave us a quick lecture about his views of the current topics surrounding Iowan farmers today. I couldn’t have thought of a more perfect person to introduce us to our adventure that is Farm. Next we met the Knutsons, who Jessie and Josh would be staying with. They were a mild mannered couple that managed 600 acres of land (up until now I never thought I would hear a person say 600 acres and small in the same sentence, but apparently that constitutes a small farm here). When not on the farm Mr. Knutson works for Iowa State, and Mrs. Knutson works at a flower shop and does interior design work. The next group we meet were at Mr. Stole’s house, which is affectionally called Versaillesfor reasons we would later learn. Mr. Stole himself is a retired school counselor, and recently built a very nice house (thus the name Versailles). He will also be the new owner of 30+ chicks next week and I can’t wait to see the new little chickens. Also at his house was Diane Schwartz, and she was the one that HN had convinced to cook for us during the majority of our stay. She greeted us with warm cookies and lemonade, and dinner cooking in the oven. Now to call her a good cook is an insult because she is fantastic, she might even rival my mom’s own home cooking (sorry mom but if you were here you would understand). The last group of people we meet were the Sweeneys. Reid, Ethan, and I would be staying with them for the next three weeks and I was excited to meet them. They run a Black Angus beef cattle operation and Mrs. Sweeney has made an impact on the Iowa political stage, having served for four years in the Iowa Legislature, two as the chair of the House Agriculture Committee. We finally got the chance to meet them at dinner, and also all the other people we had met today came too.

Dinner was interesting for me because where I live I barely know my neighbors, let alone invite them over for dinner, but it came natural to everyone one. Diane had made more then enough food to feed all about 15 of us, and everyone already knew each other very well. Dinner showed me that in this small community everyone knows each other, and knows what everyone is doing. This sense of community was shocking at first because it is so different from what I know, but it makes sense. It makes sense because most of them are all working towards the same goal, run their farm as best as possible, and produce the best crop possible so they can farm again next year. This idea of them all working towards this one similar goals ties them all together, so it makes sense that they would know each other and have a vested interest in knowing what everyone else is doing. If all these people we met today are an indication of what is to come, then I know it will be fantastic because we were welcomed with open arms by some of the friendliest people I have met, and they are all more then willing to share their stories and knowledge with us. I know I’m excited to get to learn form all of them.