May 30, 2017

Today we went to A renewable Fuel Research center partnered with Iowa State. I was truly amazed at all the different techniques that were being used to produce cost effective renewable fuels. I think the key phrase to look at before I discuss what we saw at the facility is the phrase “cost effective”. the facility has found countless renewable resources to use for everyday consumption. The problem is that they cannot compete with how cheap fossil fuels are. As long as fossil fuels are at the cost they are now, alternative renewable fuels do not have a chance in the market. According to our tour guide, it is not that they world will run out of oil, it is that the world will eventually run out of easy to reach ground level oil that is so cheap to extract and produce. But besides that our tour was really about the various different alternatives we are looking at along with the many uses of cash crops that are already produced such as Corn and Soy. For example we learned that the soybean stover is a very useful alternative to plastic and was used in place of plastics in car interiors before plastic was invented. Corn stover is also being used to be converted to bio-fuel. The only problem for corn bio-fuel is making it cost effectively.

We got to see bales of corn stover up close and it was fascinating to learn more about them. Each bale of stover weighs 1000 pounds and they fall on at least one farmer overhear and kill them. The stover for some reason is very prone to lightning and many piles of stover are not only struck by lightning each year but cause a fire. For clarification, stover is the leftovers of a crop in the field after it is harvested so for example corn stover is the cob and the stalk of the plant. After learning all about stover we moved to their processing plant where they grind up or distill different materials to try to convert to biofuel. Our tour guide explained how his favorite material to work with was eucalyptus and his least favorite was chicken manure which I though was very funny. After that we went to their algae center where we saw how they grow green algae to convert into bio fuel. They are looking into green algae because it removes waste from water to grow and can be used as fuel. They had an old way to grow algae and a revolutionary way to grow algae in the center. The old way was to churn algae in like a lazy river. This however is not very cost effective. The best way is to grow algae that grows on conveyer belts that g in and out of the water.

Overall I was very impacted by what I saw at this plant. I think it is truly amazing all the different things that we can make fuel out of and I am sure that we will find more. I have always been worried that we as a society would not find a fuel to replace fossil fuels but now after being at this center I have so much more confidence in our world.

10:30-11:30am- A quick make your own breakfast at Morris’s before we head of to go to the Living History Farms in Des Moines. I had Frosted Flakes which is my favorite blood sugar raising cereal to eat.

11:30-12:30pm- We hit the road for the living history farms. halfway we stop at the gas station where I refuel my 100oz cum and go mug.

12:30-3:00pm- We spend time at the living history farms. The park has a farm from 1700, 1850, and 1900. It was really cool to go through the different eras of farms in Iowa. We also got to ride in a John Deere Tractor as transportation through the park.

3:30-5:45pm- We arrive for a tour of a hippie named Tom. Tom helps milk Kevin Deitzels cows and once kevin gets the cream from his milk, Tom takes the leftover whey and feeds it to his pigs. Tom showed us his free range pigs and chickens. We even got to feed the pigs leftover doughnuts!

5:45-6:30pm- Drive back to the Hay Mound to listen to Ben Kenutzen’s presentation on soil.

10:00pm- We finish the presentation and pass out in our beds.

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Today we went to the Henry A. Wallace house in Des Moines Iowa for an extravagant meal. We were able to actually sit outside the house as a group while all the other guest ate inside. When I first looked at the menu I could not believe my eyes. It was a fanfare of various farm fresh vegetables, and different recipes that I had not even heard of before. Before we ate we were serenaded by the hired entertainment for the night which was a guitarist. He came out to play some for use because he would be inside the rest of the night. He would actually make up song on the spot about South Carolina and coming home to the Carolinas which I thought was super cool. I could never make up music on the spot and just randomly ply it and sing like he did. Every single course of the meal was an adventure. The first course was a farm fresh vegetable sampler with various different vegetables grown at the Henry A. Wallace Farm. It was accompanied by a middle eastern seasoning mix along with grey French sea salt to dip the vegetables in. The vegetables were also accompanied with fresh bread with a minced garlic butter. Our main course was lamb and vegetable meatballs accompanied with root vegetables mixed with ab ancient grain. Desert was a strawberry rhubarb crisp with rhubarb ice cream.

While we ate the meal I could not stop thinking about Henry A. Wallace and the amazing influence he had on American Agriculture. Being able to eat a meal at his home was a great honor for not only myself but the entire group. Wallace was a man ahead of his time. Wallace saw the need for more efficient agriculture while at the same time protecting the soil and conserving the environment. Wallace also believed very much in giving back. This is why he made several trips to central and south America to teach advanced farming methods as a good will tour. I cannot think of a lot of vice presidents I know if that have made a good will tour.

I really wish that Henry Wallace could have become president and of led this country. Unfortunately, party politics usually wins. I am grateful however that Wallace was able to be both a Vice President of the United States, secretary of agriculture. Going to the Wallace center and learning more about Henry A. Wallace inspires me to pursue my goals in life while giving back and leaving the world better off than I left it.

Monday, May 22, 2017

Today I was able to go with Sophie, Mariah, and Hagan to the Lost Lake Farm Dairy. It is the only dairy in Hardin county Iowa. Kevin and Renee Dietzel live with their two children on a dairy farm that they have built. Kevin has a herd of grass fed milking cows that he gets all his milk from to make the cheese. We first went to get the cows and bring them back to the milking parlor for milking. Kevin explained how a lot of his acreage actually used to be a lake that was drained in 1890 to be turned into working farmland. When we finally walked over to the cows a baby calf had actually just been born! It was so cute. We then took the task of actually getting the cows back to the milking parlor. We had to follow them all through endless mud and cow poop but we did eventually make it to the parlor where we hooked the cows up to milking machines.

After we milked the cows, our hard work was rewarded with the wonderful smells of the cheese making room. This room was full of wonderful smells. Every part of the cheese making process we were able to taste that stage of the cheese. We started with the raw cheese curds. We cut the cheese curds into smaller one inch squares. We then heated up water and poured the hot water into a large bowl with the squares of curds. This is where the process gets fun. We used heat protectant gloves to stretch the cheese and slowly mold it into a tight ball form. I myself could not actually ball the cheese into the proper shape. However, the rest of the group got the hang of it. Once we were done with making the mozzarella cheese balls Kevin used the vast amount of leftover cheese curds to make different flavored curds to package for the farmer’s market. Kevin also showed us his more expensive cheeses that he allows to mold in a special room.

Overall I was very impressed with the cheese making process. I never knew how many steps and how time consuming it was. I have a lot more respect for cheesemakers. It is not an easy job and is very demanding. However, If you can make the demand, It is worth your while

9:00-10:00am: We finally got to sleep in and had a late breakfast

10:00am: We hopped in the van and began our two and a half hour journey to meet with State Representative Mary Mascher who represents a district in Iowa city.

2:00pm: Arrived at Mary Maschers house. We are met with excitement, and a tray of snacks. During this meeting we talked to Representative Mascher on a variety of issues from the Des Moines Water Works law suit, environmental protection legislation, and how the new Presidential administration has affected Iowa.

3:00pm: Leave for the University of Iowa and the heart of Iowa City.

3:30-5:00pm: Took a tour of Iowa’s old capitol and walked around the University of Iowa.

5:30-7:00pm: Travel to Amana Iowa where we ate at the Ox Yoke Inn. Before we ate we shopped around a lot of the cute stores in the town. At our dinner we had a family style meal where we would pass huge bowls of food around the table. We had lots of laughs and a waitress named Dawn that was willing to laugh along with us.

9:00pm: Stopped at Casesys Gas Station to refuel, use the restroom, and buy scratch off lottery tickets.

10:00pm: Arrive back at Morris Stole’s. We then all returned to our respective homes.

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Today we went to the Frontier Co-op. Frontier buys and packages organic spices and seasonings. Upon our arrival we came across our tour guide named Patley Konvent. Patly was truly one of a kind. It was like Patly had been pulled right out of a hippie commune from the 1960s. She was very excited, extremely friendly, all about organic food, and totally just had that hippie vibe. The funny thing was that the group was honestly spending more time paying attention to Patly over paying attention to the tour. Regardless, by the end of our session at Frontier, we would come to learn so much about Frontier’s progressive modern workplace, along with its genuine care for each of its customers.

When we walked into Frontier, Patly took us to the office portion of the building. In the offices we got to actually meet the CEO of Frontier named Tony Bedard. Although a little startled (our tour guide, Patl\y, virtually yanked him out of his office), he still was a good sport and talked to us more about what Frontier does, why it prides itself on organic spices, and why it is so cool to work at Frontier. One of the great things about Frontier is that its employees are actually treated like human beings. For starters, subsidized childcare is provided in house! A state of the art daycare is on the bottom floor of the building. This allows employees to rest at ease knowing that their children are taken care of while the children know that their parents are very close if they really needed them. Frontier has a gym in the building to which all employees have access. Frontier also provides subsidized healthy prepared meals in its kitchen. Frontier prides itself on foster an enlightened work-life balance for its employees. The last really important aspect of working at Frontier is that overtime is not mandatory. This lets the employee know that Frontier values them, and they can decide if they have time for overtime when they are already on overtime with their family and kids.

After a tour with Patly of the packaging plant, our last stop before a delicious lunch in the Frontier cafeteria was their labs. In these labs, we got to talk about a very serious problem that Frontier is having to deal with: its GMO label. Many companies nowadays love to put NON-GMO on their food labels so buyers think that they are getting something healthy. Many consumers also even equate NON-GMO to mean it is an organic product. This simply isn’t the case. Organic products are not GMO by the USDA’s organic definition, but reverse is not true.  Much of the corn and soy crop around the world is GMO, and those corn and soy-based products find their way into our food.  Yet many food producers like to put NON-GMO on their products because it is a really easy standard for their food to make and have on their label and because of the non-GMO project’s label. This however hurts organic farmers and food in a way that consumers think NON-GMO is the same as organic. As Rabine pointed out, a lot of non-GMO products could have been produced with synthetic pesticides, herbicides, etc., and the farmers who produced the food product could also have been exploited.  So, Rabine was not a fan of the Non-GMO Project label as compared to the organic one.  I found this distinction between Non-GMO and organic food to be the most interesting one out of the whole tour. The moral of the story is that when a food label says NON-GMO it is not something really special or healthy. Overall I was absolutely blown away by not only Frontiers business practices toward its employers but its dedication to organic products grown and sold around the world.

May 14, 2017

Today we went to the Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah Iowa. The main mission of this non-profit organization is to save endangered species of plants by saving their seeds and sharing them across the globe. Seed Savers Exchange takes threats to biodiversity seriously. It maintains a collection of more than 20,000 heirloom and open-pollinated vegetable, herb, and plant varieties, including over 1,000 varieties of heritage apple trees. They also grow their select varieties every year so they have the seeds available to sell.

When we first got to the exchange, its location was breathtaking. Rolling green grass, a creek, a beautiful red barn,  and even a  small mountain which had an apple orchard on top. We first walked into the exchange itself. There were so many different varieties of seeds. One variety I found intriguing was the six different varieties of carrot seeds ready for planting. When I think of a carrot I  only think of two which are regular and baby carrots. I had no idea how many varieties there were for a same type of vegetable, fruit, or flower.

After buying seeds we all walked up the little mountain to visit the orchard and hopefully get some strudel and cider. I was lucky enough to get the last piece of strudel, unfortunately, the rest of my group was not able to get any. as the saying goes, “The early bird gets the worm” and that was me getting the last strudel! However, everyone else did have the opportunity to try the cider. While at the orchard we learned from the head man of the orchard about the 700 different kinds of apples at the orchard. I never knew there were so many different types of apples. Some of the apple varieties in the orchard date back to the 1600s.  I think it is so amazing that seed savers goes around the country to save varieties of apples about to go extinct. Overall, I learned about the many different varieties of plants, and seed savers has inspired me to plant different unconventional varieties of plants at my own home in the future.

These were our activities for Friday, May 12th

7:15: The whole group gathered for a delicious Diane Schwartz breakfast. Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, and waffles.

9:00-12:00: Working in fields with Heath Stolee on his 50 acre farm. He bought this farm from his parents and is converting it into a chestnut tree farm. We worked together as a team to plant the trees.

12:00-1:00: Another delicious lunch from Diane Schwartz and Staci Reifschneider

1:00-1:30: Half the group worked with Scott Neubauer to plant spruce trees to help limit the impact of the wind

1:30-3:30: Working Denny and Scott Neubauer picking up rocks in their field. It was very backbreaking work! We also found very cool glass bottles lying around in the field.

3:30-6:00: Working with Mike, Franklin, and Ruth Fiscus. We helped put in a barbed wire fence on their small five-acre farm.

6:00-7:00- Dinner at Morris Stole’s house–our central gathering place.

Then we slept!