Ending my time here in Iowa wasn’t hard. And I don’t mean to belittle my time I spent here—I learned more about corn, Iowa, conventional farming and the people who produce all this corn, than I ever though I would. But as I leave Iowa and write this last blog from an airport café, I have an energy about me that is kin to the energy every farmer I met while in Iowa. An itching for a hard day’s work, and itching to put my head down and grind.

Farming in the United States has become a trickier subject for me, one without a comprehensive solution to a number of problems both on the conventional and organic side. I still don’t know how I feel about Monsanto and the never-ending debate of GMO seeds. But what I do know is that Iowans work hard and are genuinely happy people who love to eat, laugh and be around one another. The people I’ve met in Iowa grew up milking cows before the sun rose and slopping hogs from a young age and are just trying to find a way to make farming work in this 21^st century of GPS driven tractors and the Des Moines Waterworks. I encountered Iowa at a time of great change and it was a time of great change for myself as well. As Connie Mutell said, we will not be farming in this fashion in the next 50 years.

Well I slept through breakfast this morning, but as I rushed out the door I saw remnants of Diane’s eggs, sticky buns and bran muffins. I was sorry to miss the last Diane breakfast of the trip!

Our first stop was at the BioCentury Research Farm where we learned about biomass production and processing, which was something I’d never learned about. Our trip to Poet Ethanol plant a few days ago was pretty out of the box for me and so today took ethanol and fuel production to another level. Since the BioCentury Farm can use a multitude of biomass to create fuel, they are a successful business because they can change their production based on market demands. Right now, they deal with corn stover, animal carcasses, switch grass, sorghum and algae. The algae are some sort of experiment to see how efficiently one can pull phosphorous and nitrogen from wastewater using algae on vertical conveyor belt strips.

Next, we went over to Ben Knutson’s research plots where he is working with cover crops and crop rotations with oats, alfalfa for two years, then a corn and soybean rotation. Ben works with both inorganic and organics and while most of his plots looked the same, it was interesting to see the small nuances in each of his field “experiments.” We followed up with a quick lunch at Noodles & Co. Then off to see the beekeeper Mark Tintjer in Hubbard.

Mark is a fascinating individual who approaches beekeeping with a level head and an almost maternal sense of protection over his bees. He moves with slow, controlled movements so as not to hurt any worker bees. He lets us taste drone larvae, different varieties of honey, and his daughter made us Scotcheroos. Ben produced roughly two tons of honey last year and the profits from selling to the local community helped pay for his daughter’s degree from Iowa State. His beeswax art is beautiful and bears numerous blue ribbons. Mark’s battled resistant diseases and incoming commercial beekeepers upsetting his docile bees, but he prevails and keeps plugging along, making his honey.

We ended our day with a discussion of the two book we’ve been reading over this course. Food Politics by Paarlberg and Food Police by Jayson Lusk gave us a scale to put our Iowa experience on. We’ve learned a lot about a very small piece of a global puzzle that involves food, politics and policy. We broke couch again, we ended with a game of basketball, we yelled at Reid when he forgot his phone in the barn. That’s a wrap.

My biggest realization of the day, besides the obvious fact that I’ll never play Monopoly again, was the striking contrast between the Des Moines farmer’s market and the Downtown Greenville farmer’s market I usually attend on Saturday mornings. The size difference between the two was the some 12 blocks versus the mere 3 or 4 we have in Greenville. But the biggest difference was the people.

I was pleasantly surprised by the diversity at the Des Moines Farmer’s Market. There were a large number is Asian and Hispanic families not just selling produce but also selling pupusas, a Salvadorian tortilla pocket of rice, meat and a fermented coleslaw akin to kimchi. A pressed juice truck operated by Lululemon-wearing women sat next to a tent selling fudge where the ladies looked like they’d been working the crowds since the 80’s. There was a tent selling egg rolls and home-grown tomatoes, a grilled cheese stand, mini donuts, ice cream sandwiches, polish pastries, Indian food and the list goes on for blocks. Seasoned farmers in their overalls occupied tents next to farmers who looked much younger and less weathered by the sun, these were farmers you could tell hadn’t grown up farming and would have some choice words to say about mono-cropping and Monsanto.

We don’t see this in Greenville. At home, each tent looks the same and the demographic of both buyers and sellers is largely dominated by Caucasians who make their money in niche marketing: artisan soaps, artisan baked goods, heirloom produce. There is a sense of security that everything you’re buying has been vetted and because Greenville is still a relatively small city, one can develop a relationship with the farmers and producers. You know where they live, you know where they work. In Des Moines, it’s easy to get lost in a crowd. . The farmer’s market here resembled some mix between a state fair and a farmer’s markets. There were vendors selling watermelons, pumpkins, avocados and very early tomatoes for this time of year. But out of season and out of country produce was selling just as fast as the local stuff. This group of vendors knew their customer base was relatively uneducated about how farming works and catered to their stupidity. While ethically I find this wrong, these “farmers” are skilled salesmen and are just giving the people what they want: “local” watermelons in May.

Again, I come back to diversity. It was an overly stimulating experience, big crowds, loud people and so much to choose from. And these local farmers are trying to shout a little louder to try and get their food on people’s plates.

May 24th

This morning Reid and I ate breakfast with Denny Neubauer and his fellow farming friends at the local Zederbaum at 7:00 in the morning. These were men who had farmed in Radcliffe, Iowa probably since before I was born and their farms had most likely been in their families since before my parents were born. These were corn and soybean guys. I knew one of the first questions to be asked of me was what I planned to do with my life post-grad and I also knew that my answer would shock them. This was one of the first questions Tom, board member of Rural Electric and longtime farmer, asked me. I told him I wanted to eventually own and operate my own organic farm and almost immediately another gentleman at the table immediately asked me whether I’d grown up on a farm or if I had land. The answer to both of these questions is no but I understand why they are asked of me often. Most famers today come from a long line of farmers and an inheritance of land. And as the number of farmers continues to dwindle, beginning small farms are uncommon as well. Especially in Iowa.

I expected raised eyebrows at this girl who wanted to farm, but Denny, whom I didn’t know very well, did something unexpected. He interjected into the conversation and said something along the lines of, “This girl can work, I saw her carrying around 2 hundred-pound suitcase weights yesterday, messing around with the boys.” A couple guys laughed and this comment seemed to immediately give me some street cred at the table. It gave me room in the conversation to interject at points. When the subject of renewable energy, windmills and their occasional faultiness came up, I told them about a guy we’d talked to who worked on them. If lightning strikes within a mile, these windmill technicians ask no questions. They stop what they’re doing and hop in the elevator and get out of the windmill.

At the breakfast table, I don’t think my credibility came about because I could lift some heavy weights. I think it was the fact that Denny stepped in and vouched for me at the table, following a tradition among groups of humans that gather together for various reasons. Denny displayed some sort of respect for my ability to work and the other men at the table saw me as a somewhat common individual.

I think this phenomenon also goes back to the integrity in a hard day’s work. The pride that one (traditionally a man) gains from being strong enough to work the soil, farm the land, and produce a bounty from nature is still present at this table of an aging generation of farmers.

But it saddened me that their notions of farming are no longer relevant. Since coming to Iowa, I’ve learned that farming has become a capital-intensive field when it used to be a labor-intensive field. When these men began farming, you could work hard and make enough money to support your family. Now, GPS systems in tractors are more common than not. Planting better corn used to pay off but now that everyone plants with genetically modified seed, the playing field is leveled and it’s a matter of who can stay afloat.

Today we began with a community breakfast in New Providence. This breakfast is held on holidays and every third Monday and gives the surrounding area a chance to dine together. Donations are encouraged as a form of payment to fund the wonderful breakfast of omelets, pancakes, cocktail weenies, biscuits and gravy, sticky buns, orange juice, coffee, and toast. Members of the community ate together and, unlike us, seemed to know pretty much everyone in the room. Following breakfast, we popped into the oldest hardware store in Iowa and then set off for the Farm Services Agency.

The first woman we talked with was from the NRCS and she talked to us about farm programs that can give farmers subsidies for following environmentally friendly practices like protecting wetlands and promoting soil health through no till, crop rotation, cover crops, and nutrient management. The second woman spoke with us about rural development plans where farmers can be given grants to build high tunnels and solar arrays to help with efficiency on their farms. The next man talked to us about the Iowa State extension program which assists farmers with programs like 4-H youth development programs, hail information meeting and nutritional education programs. Programs like these help support farming communities and ultimately the farmers themselves. Lastly, we went upstairs to talk to one last woman about farm loans that can be provided through the FSA if a farmer has trouble getting a loan from other funders. Our trip to the FSA provided a wealth of information (and handouts) that educated us on how much the government and the state of Iowa supports farms.

We had lunch at an old-fashioned soda shop where everyone dined on sandwiches, phosphates and chocolate malts. Late in the afternoon, four of us participated in the milking and cheese making at Lost Lake Farm. This was a great experience for me because I’d never milked cows before and I was surprised at how clean the operation was. Cows are muddy creatures but Tom, the milker, made sure all the udders were clean and showed us the filtration process the milk goes through to ensure top quality in the find product. Kevin took us on a walk through of the property first to bring the cattle in and show us the different types of grasses and the rotation process the cows go through. They get fresh grass every 12 hours. AND THERE WAS A NEW CALF BORN TODAY. Kevin hadn’t been out in the fields since earlier that morning and was delighted at the early arrival of a new bull calf. While Tom milked, Kevin went up to his house to shower and have dinner. When he returned, we began the mozzarella making process which involves more steps and chemistry than I can begin to understand, but it involves cultures, large metal tanks, hot salty brine and lots and lots of stretching. Kevin handles 100% of his operation and spending the 6 hours with him that we did would’ve felt a lot longer if we were on our own. It was pretty amazing to see a product come directly out of the fields and into a consumable product that we will see this weekend at the Des Moines Farmers Market.

We need more farmers like Denny and Brent Friest. This father and son team combines a powerhouse of energy and innovation with a goal of sustainability and smart management practices. Today as a group, we toured the Friest hog barns and learned about the process of raising pigs. The use of gestation crates has become a controversy across the country with them being banned in 5 states including Colorado and Florida. Stories of sick pigs, crushed babies and untreated injuries are often reported in the media, causing panic. I think across the nation, people are asking for humanely treated, grass-fed pigs for a cheap price. Going into this trip, that’s certainly something I wished could be feasible. I wanted to (and still want to) see if we can supply the world with grass-fed, free-range pork.

But this was before I saw the kind of operation Brent Friest is running. His pigs seem relatively happy. They can’t turn around or really move in their confinement, but they’re well fed and watered and their health is monitored. Brent told us that injuries to pigs and piglets increase greatly when they’re allowed to be free range. In the gestation crates, each pigs is ensured food and water whereas in an open feeding crate, the skinny pigs stay skinny and the fatter pigs get fatter. And since these pigs are making Brent money, it doesn’t make sense to have skinny, worthless pigs.

The second biggest problem people have with commercial pig farming is the nurseries which are set up much like the gestation crates with the sow, immobile in the center and the piglets are somewhat separated from the sow, but still have access to the teats and heated mats on the floor. The point of these crates is to reduce the number of crushed piglets and ensure that they have constant access to food. Brent tells us that in pig huts, piglets are more susceptible to cold and being crushed by the sow. To us, the piglets seemed perfectly happy and the sows are fed and watered. And I want to believe Brent when he says that this kind of pig farming is entirely humane and has a greater success rate than free range pig production.

What I want to get at is that this trip was a learning process. A single farmer’s practices can be entirely different from the next farmer and you have to take everything with a grain of salt. It’s up to us to visit all these different farms and talk to companies like Big Pig and figure out where our personal ethics lie. Right now, I don’t really have a problem with how Brent Friest is farming his pigs. His operation is relatively small compared to the bigger companies, and so he’s able to care for each of his pigs individually. That’s something that Brent and his father stressed the importance of. They own and operate their pig farms by their own rules and don’t have to answer to a larger corporation. Later in the trip, we will visit other pig operations and have something to compare the Friests’ practices to. Ultimately, the different pig practices are just an example of what we’re trying to accomplish on this trip—draw from a wealth of sources and create our own opinions when it comes to agriculture and farming in Iowa.

It’s Day 5 and breakfast this morning consisted of HN’s blueberry spelt pancakes and a PB&J strengthening smoothie. After that, a 2.5 hour ride in the van to the Oneota Food Co-Op. During the drive to lunch, HN pointed out to us that land prices vary greatly with topography changes and county line changes. This was interesting to me because this kind of information is readily known where I’m from. The division of heritage over county lines: Amish, Norwegians, and Germans is still prevalent in Iowa today.

We didn’t spend much time walking through Oneota’s before eating lunch, but the atmosphere mirrored a small upscale grocery store. From my understanding, a food co-op’s success lies in community support. Individuals purchase shares of the co-op and therefore essentially own part of the business and the idea is that customers are financially and morally invested in the success of the co-op. Like I said, it felt like a normal grocery store, but it’s nice to know that there’s more to it.

After lunch, we went to Seed Savers, a seed company that specializes in preserving heirloom seeds. On site, there’s an heirloom apple orchard that houses over 700 varieties of apples that have all grown during various times of American history. Our tour guide, Orchard Manager Neil Hamilton, told us his story in connection to apples. It seems that every monumental moment or person in this man’s life has something to do with apples. He’s found his mother’s favorite variety along with the varieties that first got him interested in apples as a field of study. The goal of the Seed Saver Apple Orchard is to preserve biodiversity in a country where it’s easier to practice mono-cropping with our produce.

I think my biggest takeaway from today was speaking with Kevin Butt on his farm about sprayers and the types of chemicals used on his family farm. I don’t think I understood the importance of precision agriculture until we were on site with Kevin’s father talking about the history of chemical use in commercial agriculture. In the past, if one gallon of pesticide or weed killer worked, then farmers assumed two gallons would work just as well. As we know now, this can lead to chemical runoff and pollution of nearby water sources.

Now, in the larger study of precision agriculture, farmers can spot-treat problems in their fields with the help of drones; chemical sprayers can be hooked up to GPS and map out acreage that’s already been sprayed. This ensures that pounds and pounds of chemicals aren’t being applied to large swaths of acreage when it’s not necessary.

Before this trip, my biggest problem with commercial agriculture was the use of chemicals and treated seeds. And while I am still not completely on board with these practices, I understand that in an effort to become more efficient and environmentally sound, precision agriculture seems to be doing its intended job. The use of technology ensures that farmers are planting seed in a uniform fashion and maximizing their land use.

As we were listening to Kevin and his dad speak, I kept asking myself “Well, why use chemicals in the first place, why use treated seed in the first place?” Because in my experience farming on small acreage, we use heirloom seed and organic practices and we don’t run into bug and pest problems all that often. And we can spot treat with oils and natural practices. But now, I understand that for farmers to grow the corn that pays their bills, treated seeds ensure that farmers have a profitable crop.

In my experience farming, I’m are not producing thousands of pounds of a single product in a growing season where one bout of disease can wipe out half my season’s crop. So precision ag and treated seed isn’t useful to me, but farming across the state of Iowa is a completely different kind of business, and I am beginning to understand that the risk of small-scale farming is nothing compared to conventional agriculture.