Last Thursday our morning began with a visit with one of HN’s former classmates, Jenny Terry, who heads up the Iowa Environmental Council. With her, we opened a dialogue about the current state of the quality of the water in Iowa. This organization’s primary focus is to work with legislators to enact policy and regulations with the intent to improve water quality and punish those who pollute the waterways. Topics included drainage districts, the lack of well water tests, and what the right approach to this problem really is. Later in the afternoon, we met with Omar de Kok-Mercado and he showed us the STRIPS project he was working on. The goal of prairie strips is to reduce the erosion which is caused excessive amounts of water on bare soil.
Friday again signified a shift in gears regarding the subject matter of the course. Previously we had met with many representatives of conventional agriculture and very few who represented the other side of ag. Visiting Grinnell Heritage Farm and the Red Earth Gardens allowed us to experience the sustainable side of agriculture first hand. The people at Grinnell preached mostly about the pitfalls of big and conventional ag versus organic ag practices. Meanwhile, at Red Earth Gardens, their practices were more focused on furthering the lives of the people on the Meskwaki Settlement through teaching them practical life skills in their garden.
One of our earliest days on the trip was Saturday when we had to be on the road by 6/6:30 in order to make it to Whiterock for a service event by 9. There we helped weed a pasture and also met with Liz Garst. With her, we talked about the modern farming crisis and how conventional agriculture practices were reducing the quality of the soil and endangering the environment. While her views were similar to those held by others on the trip, no two people have had matching agendas. This lack of uniformity further illustrates the divide between camps when it comes to solving the problems of Iowa.
After Whiterock, we began our journey to Essex where we met up with distant relatives of one of the students on our trip. The Liljedahl family owned over a thousand acres of terraced soybean and corn cropland as well as a hog operation. It was interesting to see just how interlinked Iowa is with family heritage in addition to food processing in the United States. Moreover, being able to get a firsthand look into what a hog operation and hog barns were like on the inside was eye-opening.

Thursday we arrived at seed savers to volunteer with their work crew, and assisted in weeding some of their plots in the morning. Following this the group arrived to the local co-op for lunch and were treated to a local meal. We learned that they considered local to mean within a 100 mile radius and attempt to clearly mark products that meet this categorization. Shoppers can join their membership program for a cost of around $125 one time payment and if one joins they are treated to special member discounts once a month and once a quarter. Their goal is to have a significant impact on the local community, helping farmers and employing local members. Furthermore, locals may volunteer and be treated to other discounts. An interesting point made was that not all products in the co-op are organic, some products are unavailable unless conventional or the organic supply can not meet the demands of the customers.

Following lunch and a tour, we arrived back at seed savers for a 3 hour long crash-course in all things Seed Savers. It began with the history, where the founder had collected seeds from her grandfather who shared the significance of them to her and their family history of planting the tomatoes and flowers. She then took out ads in papers and magazines that gardeners read to see if others had heirloom seeds and wanted to exchange them with other gardeners. This then grew slowly via a “grassroots” movement into what Seed Savers is today.

Following the history we then got a tour of the display garden and learned that they compare similar seeds right next to each other in that garden to see if they have duplicates. We were then taken to the seed vault and explained the sorting process and talked to the Seed Historian about the narratives surrounding the seeds and how they are collected. We then learned about grafting buds from apple trees into root stock and how the orchard functions at Seed Savers as well as their partnership with a local cider producer. It was an extremely insightful tour into how important it is to maintain multiple varieties of non-GMO seeds, done sustainably on site.

We spent the day in Storm Lake today. The temperature was in the high eighties and the sun was out all day. We were able to spend time outside in between our two scheduled meetings. Our hotel was lakeside, so I sat by the water and caught up on some non-Iowa work I had to do.

Our meetings were both with people who hold positions in Storm Lake. First was Mark Prosser who is the director of Storm Lake Public Safety and Chief of Police of Storm Lake. In the evening we met with Councilor Jose Ibarra, who is the first Latino on Storm Lake City Council. In Storm Lake there are 24 languages spoken in schools, and 30 languages spoken among adults. There are people from all over the world that have ended up in Storm Lake to work and now to settle down and grow families. Most of the immigrants worked in the Tyson plants that are located in Storm Lake. Many have since gained citizenship and started their own business or moved up to other jobs. I think Storm Lake is amazing and full of culture. While other towns in Iowa have had declining populations and mass migrations to urban areas, Storm Lake is growing, and people here are happy.

Chief Prosser is retiring this year after serving for almost 45 years in law enforcement, 30 in Storm Lake. He comes from a family with two parents that were missionaries and he is an ordained Deacon in the Catholic Church. I think his religious background and upbringing has a lot to do with how accepting he is of every citizen in Storm Lake. I loved his philosophy, and I hope that the Storm Lake story and method spreads and catches on to other places that have diverse populations. Prosser and his team have taken steps to make immigrants feel like its police force is there to protect and help them. He has done a really good job of finding ways to break through some tough cultural barriers and bring people together and out of hiding.

Jose Ibarra is a Verizon employee full time and also serves on Storm Lake city council. Our meeting with him was a very casual conversation. I think this is part of what made him such a good option to be the first Latino on the council. He was very humble saying that “If I can do it, anyone can”. He wants most to get more immigrants to participate. Jose used the perfect amount of humor and seriousness that I think would do a really good job of making people feel comfortable. We discussed his position on a lot of political debates and I think he falls in line with exactly what one would expect. He also shares a lot of similarities with Chief Prosser. I think that both the men we met today are doing amazing things that are benefiting a lot of people.

Tomorrow we meet Art Cullen, the author of Storm Lake. It’s a big day and we are all really excited. Adare wants him to bless her journalism career.

May 31, 2019

After our long venture from Radcliffe to Storm Lake, we met with Mark Prosser, the city’s Public Safety Director and Chief of Police, to discuss immigration. Mark was born and raised in East St. Louis where he worked on its police force before coming to Storm Lake in October of 1989. He expected to go back to policing in a metro area but ended up staying in Storm Lake for 30 years. In addition to his police career, he has taught college classes for 19 years and also went back to school to study theology to become an ordained deacon in the Catholic church. He briefly discussed how his parents were missionaries in Guatemala.

The discussion covered various topics including languages, the challenge of representation for immigrants, an organization known as Salud, gang issues, congressional immigration issues, and a 1990 raid on a meatpacking plant that Prosser himself helped orchestrate. The meatpacking industry’s reliance on immigrant labor has increased Storm Lake’s ethnic diversity. Between 24 and 48 languages are spoken among children and 30+ languages are spoken among adults. Police officers often face language barriers when making contact with community residents. Prosser also talked about an organization that advocates for immigrants known as Salud, which means health in Spanish. Salud focuses on the underrepresented by providing community support programs and through hosting events. It was interesting to hear that the immigrants in Storm Lake are advocating for themselves as opposed to just falling into the background, which often occurs for minority populations. Prosser also mentioned gang issues in relation to how people coming into Storm Lake were associated with gangs from their previous place of residence. They think being part of a gang is their only safety net, when in reality, it’s not necessary in Storm Lake. The police have to address these issues quickly to reduce gang violence or gang-related crimes. Toward the end of the discussion Prosser added that Congress has always been wishy-washy about immigration issues, such as DACA or temporary protective status (TPS). This creates fear in undocumented immigrants, since they don’t what is going to happen next, but it also shows that Congress needs to address these issues. Prosser then brought up how he orchestrated a raid in the 1990s in Storm Lake. Looking back on it, he swore he would never do anything like that again since he saw first-hand how it tore families and communities apart, as well as how it doesn’t actually get to the root of solving any immigration problems. This was an interesting story to hear since we learned about a similar raid situation in Postville, Iowa and read so much about the immigration issues in the book, Storm Lake.

To wrap up the day, we meet with Councilor Jose Ibarra of the Storm Lake City Council. Ibarra’s family came to Storm Lake in 1999 when he was 12. His main reason for running for City Council was due to the lack of diversity on the council; he wanted immigrants to feel that they don’t have to be rich or white to be heard, but rather that you should be involved and active in the community to try to make your concerns a priority. In addition to this, Ibarra also discussed how Storm Lake is an example of what America will probably look like in 25 years: with people of all different ethnic and religious backgrounds living together. He also mentioned that biggest problem while he has been on the City Council has been the image of Storm Lake, due to it being seen as an immigrant town.  Whenever an immigrant commits a crime, it gets blown out of proportion, whereas if someone who isn’t an immigrant commits a crime, they get minimal attention.

Today was an interesting day since we were able to hear two different perspectives on immigration – one from law enforcement, and one from an immigrant’s perspective. The discussions highlighted the social concerns that communities face related to immigration.

Tuesday, May 28th

Today we are at Mark and Marcia Kruse’s farm. We arrived Monday evening and are staying with the Kruse’s until Wednesday. Mark and Marcia own a grass-fed dairy farm that is a part of the Organic Valley Co-op. Today is all about organic dairy cows, a nice reprieve from all the corn.

First we visited an Amish Farmstead. Their operation is very different from others we have seen because of their culture. Electricity is not used so a vacuum system for milking is used. The dairy cows are grass-fed and rotationally grazed. It was nice to be able to see another culture and the differences in farming which all lead to the same result.

Next we went to Jeremy Peake’s grass-fed dairy farm. Like many of the dairy farmers we have met Mr. Peake also uses the rotational grazing method. Except he does things a little differently. Twice a day he readjusts his pasture by expanding it more and more. The cows wait for him to do this and graze on the newer grass when available. We also got to get up close and personal with some of the jersey heifers. One in particular really loved head scratches and would head butt you until she got attention.

Lastly, we headed to the Welsh Family farm. They produce cattle, pig and chickens. They also are into farming corn. This farm seemed to be larger scale than all the other organic farms we have visited thus far. Their farm also appeared to be more industrialized especially when we visited their chickens. When talked with Jim Wedeberg at Organic Valley, he mentioned that poultry was one of the areas that it was hard for the co-op to get into. This is because most poultry operations have gotten larger. Although, the Welsh farm seems to be an exception among the organic farmers. We also were shown their pigs. Their pigs were notably different than the previous ones we saw at the Liljedahl’s farm. The pigs were not kept in small, individual confinements, they didn’t seem aggressive and they looked happy. I wish I would have asked how many pigs they lose to pig fights. That was a main reason the Liljedahl’s gave for keeping the pigs in separate and small crates.

Today we visited the heritage farm where the seed savers organization is housed. I had learned a bit about the seed savers and its mission in my sustainability class last year, but I still found that the visit was interesting and informative. When we first arrived, we headed up to the fields to do some weeding. After about two and a half hours weeding we headed back to our home away from home (our twelve-passenger van). Covered in many layers of sweat, mud, and grime we headed over to a local co-op for lunch and a tour. After we finished eating, we were met Nate who gave us a tour of the grocery store. The co-op focused heavily on giving back to their members (investors) and supplying local healthy foods. While this is a noble cause, I don’t think it is very sustainable because there are very little profits given to the actual store and workers if all revenue is being funneled back to the members. In order to have money to bay for the basic necessities for running the co-op, maintenance, workers, electrical bills etc., the price of the products is quite high. As more grocery stores start meeting the need of the consumer for healthy, local, organic food, people will no longer be willing to pay the outrageously high prices of co-ops like this one.

After our visit to the co-op, we hauled our smelly selves back to seed savers for a general tour of the organization. We were lucky enough to meet one of the founders of seed savers, Diane. I thought the idea of preserving organic, non-GMO seeds was very noble and worthwhile. As these seeds are made into hybrids and chemically altered, we lose the old seeds and their history. I appreciated the seed savers mission to record the stories of the seeds and how they were passed down from generation to generation as well as the happy memories that accompanied them. I did get the impression that the organization has a long way to go to make themselves more accessible and efficient. The catalogues of seeds and their histories were not recorded and are just now being collected. The workers at seed savers are working to sort through and catalogue them in a database. This is a long and grueling task. Additionally, their information is not currently available on an online database which I think would be very worthwhile. Their exchange yearbook would be much more impactful if it were available online. Many more people could access it and it would be more environmentally friendly. It seems like in the technologically advanced day we currently live in, the seed savers organization should make more of an effort to put their message online where is can reach a larger and younger audience.

Thursday, we found ourselves at Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah. Throughout the day we went through some of the various processes they do at their company and through that, I learned a lot. We started out in the field with a bunch of the field hands cleaning around the plants and weeding. I was so surprised how enthusiastic some of the employees were to participate in weeding. After this, we went to the Oneonta Co-op to have lunch and were able to get a tour and learned more about the Co-op. This tour was really in-depth and we learned some of the struggles the Co-op is beginning to face with the growth of organic and local foods in chain supermarkets. This Co-op really was focused on the community aspect as well and getting community involvement. They offered classes for the community as well as deals. After this tour, we returned to Seed Savers Exchange where we learned so much more about the company. We first heard the history of the company and how it started with just 30 people and then grew every year after that. They grew to both store seed as well as sell and exchange seeds with everyone. One thing that the Seed Savers are worried about is their aging community in the exchange aspect of the company. Many of the members have been participating since the first couple of years, so it is a growing concern for the company. Then we met with Phil Kauth who explained to us all the ins and outs of preserving seeds and what they look for. He also pointed out the ways they maintain other things that they just can not keep seeds of, such as apples and potatoes. The final person we talked to was working on preserving their apple orchard. This is another key part of seed savers because this is how they maintain their wide verity of apples. He explained how to keep the apples the same type they have to graft them onto the roots and you can not just plant the seeds of an apple if you want a pure breed apple tree.

After waking up the incredible hour of 9:30 Sunday morning in Coon Rapids, we departed for Shenandoah. On the way we stopped at the great Iowa attraction of the huge ceramic bull. It was slightly anticlimactic but still worth the five-minute pit stop. The rest of the day was spent touring the Liljedahl’s farm in Essex Iowa. We were connected with Dennis and Diane Liljedahl because they are distant relatives of Rob. We first chatted a bit with Dennis outside their home, and he filled us in on his life in the agriculture business. He has a hog operation as well as a whopping 2500 acres of farm land. He was gracious enough to allow us to tour his hog barns.

We first went into the sow barn where mom pigs were caged in next to their baby pigs (farrowing crates). This is so that the babies can feed from their moms but run a lower risk of being squished and killed by the sows which would be a problem if the sows weren’t held firmly in place by metal bars. Despite my understanding of that concept, I found the sow barn extremely upsetting. The sows had sores on their sides from the metal rubbing off their skin, and they were looked so unhappy and scared. As we walked down the aisle the little piglet’s climber over each other to get on the opposite side of the enclosure so that they could be as far away as possible from us. There was even a dead sow with its little piglet sadly nudging it as if to try and wake up their sleeping mom.

If I thought that barn was bad, the next was worse. The next barn was just long lines of pigs kept in tight confinements (gestation crates) that did not allow any movement other than lying down and standing back up. They could not turn around or hardly move at all. Many of the pigs were trying to use their snouts to open the cage. It was really hard to see. The conditions were not just inhumane, they were extremely unsanitary. The confinement has slates in the floor so that the feces can go down into a pit below. We had just learned that these manure pits are essentially cesspool pools of disease and harmful bacteria. Not to mention the smell which was just heinous. There are hardly words to describe the feeling in the pit of your stomach when you look into the eyes of a creature that lives such a dismal life. It’s safe to say it will be a little while before I eat pork again.

Food is an act of revolution.

Today food gives us energy and strength to do everyday tasks and can help us perform extraordinary tasks. So, try to imagine just how important food was for the many Africans and African descent people trapped in slavery. It was vital at all times to have some sort of nutrition to power through even the most of mundane of activities which, sometimes, would have been challenging tasks for them.

Imagine the underground railroad. You would need courage to take on the outstanding journey of gaining freedom. It here where nutrition found in food could offer the best support in helping those travelling get the courage they need to travel.

In an article titled, “How Plants Were Used to Gain Freedom on the Underground Railroad” from The Allegheny Front, author Kara Holsopple discusses the importance of food and plants and how they helped slaves achieve freedom.

After reading this article I wondered where these kinds of stories were in regards to heirloom seeds. We visited a seed collection agency that focuses on collection, preservation, and exchange of all types of plants. While visiting the campus of agency we learned a lot about the types of preservation processes that happen in their labs and in the fields and we also learned the importance of storytelling and all the narratives that come with the seeds they receive. It was cute hearing the stories of accidental beans being created due to pollination that naturally happens or the family ties deeply rooted in the plants and vegetables, but I felt a lack of empowerment and was a little disappointing in the lack dimensions involved in the storytelling we heard. Now I have no doubt that there are truly moving stories in the seeds, and it’s those stories that should be consumed fervently.

I think it should be the role of a seed historian, the title of the employee who puts the stories and the seeds together, to find the stories of the seeds and the plants that traveled the underground railroad or fed indigenous communities. One plant that the Holsopple article mentions is a type of lettuce that was brewed and used as a type coffee for a boost of energy and as a way to control the menses of women travelling to freedom. These are the kind of stories in farming and agriculture that we don’t hear. I can’t imagine the migration of vegetables of fruit that moved with slaves.

This kind of documentation not only becomes another facet of history, but a sense of identity. African Americans and African descent people in other nations within the Americas don’t have the privilege of tracing their ancestry back seven and eight generations like many white Americans. Black ancestry has been violently cut off due to the history of slavery in the Americas. The kinds of heritage that seeds have the ability of holding and carrying can be truly powerful and could give Black Americans a sense of identity they may not have had access to before.

Sunday, May 26th

We left our cabin/farmhouse at Whiterock around noon to head to Essex, IA. Essex, IA is the home-place Rob’s grandfather and we searched for the house he grew up in. We didn’t have to look far, Essex is a small town with a population of 800.

We also met with Dennis and Diane Liljedahl who are distant relatives of Rob. The Liljedahl’s farm corn and soybeans but they also raise hogs. Being that the Liljedahl’s run an independent hog operation; I had equated that to mean that they used different practices than a CAFO.

I will preface this by saying that this operation was not the worst I have seen. I watched those videos, promoting vegetarianism, on the inhumane practices of animal production. Although not the worst, it does not change the fact that this hog operation made me uncomfortable, for many reasons. The sows were placed in gestation crates. This is a common practice among hog operations. The crates are narrow and do not allow for the sow to turn around. This practice was justified because it decreases piglet death from suffocation by the sow. Preventing death and preserving yields at what cost? Many of the sows had sores from confinement. They were scared and one looked near death and even was pushing around her dead baby that was half decomposed.

Next we entered the second pig barn. The pigs were again placed in small cages, they will never see the outdoors. Small confinements and no social interaction with other pigs are used because “pigs are mean.” The eyes are the window to the soul. What I saw when I looked into the eyes of those hogs were an animal that was scared and insane from their living conditions. Most of us would be mean/insane too if we were kept in similar conditions.

In my opinion, hog production can and should be changed. It’s just that no one wants to lose out on yield and increase cost of production. However, we would all be better off if practices changed. Crowded and unsanitary conditions lead to the spread of disease which has to be fixed by more antibiotic use.

I feel like the corn is maybe treated better than the pigs; a living animal. Pigs feel pain and they can remember. In order to get humanely raised hogs, a shift in the consumer wants is going to have to occur. America is obsessed with cheap food and large quantities of it. In a consumer driven market, food production is determined by the wants of the consumer. If the consumer wants cheap meat, then the producer will deliver by cutting time off growth and ramping up large scale production. It is time the consumer starts demanding ethically sourced meat.