May 23, 2019

For a little background on my title, I based it off the chorus of the song Drift Away by Dobie Gray. I thought it was a fitting title for today’s topic since we’ve discussed various solutions to nutrient runoff and the singer focuses on drifting away from his problems in the song. Our day started with an early wake up call, to get on the road to visit Jenny Terry, the Executive Director at the Iowa Environmental Council. She started off the discussion by covering the Council’s mission statement and provided background information on the organization. Their mission is to create a safe, healthy environment and sustainable future for Iowa. The Council is a 501c3 nonprofit that was founded 24 years ago. There are 500 independent members and 15 member organizations, including The Practical Farmers of Iowa and The Iowa Soybean Association. The director talked about an array of environmental issues, one of them being nutrient runoff. 88% of Iowa’s agricultural runoff contributes to the growing dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Loose topsoil containing nitrogen-rich fertilizers comes from farm runoffs, which are transported through the river system during heavy rainfalls and empty into the Gulf of Mexico. This reminded me of our discussion at the Iowa Soybean Association which also talked about similar issues relating to nutrient runoff but offered a more strategic approach to addressing the problem as opposed to just identifying there is a problem. An example of this is watershed planning with artificial subsurface draining that helps deal with excess water nutrients.

After we finished up with the Iowa Environmental Council, we met with Omar de Kok-Mercado, the STRIPS Program Manager at Iowa State. The STRIPS project is located in The Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge in Prairie City, Iowa. Before seeing the prairie strips, however, Rachel, one of the interns at the Refuge, which is operated by the Fish and Wildlife Service, showed us one of the Refuge’s two greenhouses that holds their its lab and talked to us about different strategies relating to restoring the prairie at the Refuge. Then, we moved onto see the Prairie strips project with Omar. Today’s reading covered different prairie strip strategies. They include having strips strategically sown into row crops to slow the movement of water, which create plant diversity to support habitat that fosters conservation of native communities for plants, birds, pollinators, and other beneficial insects. Prairie strips also support several species of insect predators, such as lady beetles, that help control corn and soybean products. Prairie strips can reduce the negative impacts of neonicotinoids, an important class of pesticides, on non-target species, a topic that was also mentioned at our presentation at Bayer CropScience. Planting prairie strips is an effective and relatively low cost conservation practice.

 Once our presentation finished up, we left the refuge and drove through the auto tour route to see the small herd of bison they keep in a 700-acre enclosure. A very cool way to end this day on our Iowa journey.

May 23, 2019

This morning we ventured to Ames to meet with Liz Kolbe and Steve Carlson at Practical Farmers of Iowa. Liz discussed pesticide drift with us and then Steve discussed Beginning Farmers. Later in the day we went to Bayer CropScience. We saw that hot topics among the groups has shifted from GMOs to pesticides in the recent years. Most people in Iowa seem to be excepting of GMOs.

The biggest topic of discussion in the subject of pesticides was dicamba. Dicamba is an herbicide that a killer of anything in its path except seeds that are genetically modified to withstand its components. This becomes a problem when applicators are careless or uninformed, when wind causes it to drift, or when rain volatilizes it. There have been disputes between farmers about effecting each other’s crops with these chemicals. Typically, when the law gets involved the applicator is the one that gets in trouble, with a thousand dollar fine. There is a lot of talk about how this is an inadequate amount of money for ruining someone’s entire crop which could potentially end their farming operation. There seems to be a pattern in the treatment of individual farmers.

Steve talked about Beginning Farmers, which is a program in Practical Farmers of Iowa that is meant to assist farmers trying to get a start in the industry. This is because it is difficult to start a conventional farm given all of the equipment and competition there is. Farmers that are getting their start often have to use a little creativity to make it. We saw a good example of this with Brian trying to start a local grass-fed chicken and beef operation. I think that he could really utilize the Beginning Farmers program to network and get some insight. There are creative small-scale farmers all over Iowa to connect with. This is really important and supportive.

The gang split up for lunch (males and females AGAIN). The girls went to Noodles & Co and got… you guessed it, noodles. They were delicious, and I highly recommend it to any readers out there who ever plan to travel to Ames, Iowa.

In the evening we saw David Tierney and others at Bayer CropScience, formally Monsanto. We discussed the science that they use to determine which seeds are the best for future use. The use a machine called a “chipper” that is able to take a small portion of the seed off to examine and the rest of the seed is still able to be planted. They track each seed using a barcode and retrieve the seeds they are interested in. After the science demonstration, we discussed dicamba with Bayer because they produce a product for crops using it. Their response was to look at their actions and place judgement from there. They believe that they are working with what others left them and they are doing the best they can. I think they were relatively transparent.

To end the day, my farm brother Michael played the role of Chef Michael. He brought a recipe from home that we all worked together to make for dinner. It was delicious and fun. Tomorrow, my farm family is coming to Morris’s to feed us so stay tuned for that. Ben (farm dad) is bringing a science project surprise and we are all really excited for that.

Again one of the biggest things that stood out to me was yet another way for beginner farmers can get into the industry. I find this to be a common theme among many of these groups trying to introduce farming to a whole new generation. The program that the Practical Farmers of Iowa had set up sounded like a recipe for success in my mind. Within this program, there seemed to be 3 different areas to help the farmers. The first was to encourage saving throughout the year, so PFI will match the amount you save after 2 years of saving. One of the other programs they offer is one where the new farmer is matched up with a farmer who has been around for a long time and grows the same crop as this new farmer. The final of its three efforts to get farmers in is they try to give the new farmers the opportunity to gain farm experience on another farm before they go out on their own and start their own. All three of these projects sound like they would be very helpful as well as need in the coming years, with the current farming population over the age of 60. Utilizing these programs, new farmers will get the experience they need to be successful as well as learning other valuable skills like saving.
Another thing that stood out to me was a graph that Bayer Crop Science showed during our tour of their facility. This chart depicted the change in bills written for GMO and Pesticides. The number of GMO bills have seen a major decrease in the last 3 years. I think this is due to the changing view of GMOs. More and more people are on board with the science behind them and the fact that they do not have a negative impact on humans. However, the thing that has seen a rise in bills has been pesticides, which really began right around the time of the decrease in the GMO bills. I believe the rise of pesticide bills and decrease of GMO bills because the science behind the GMO’s show they are safe and the focus shifted to pesticides.

The last two days have been all over the place; however, a common theme has presented itself, run-off from crops. Tuesday began with a visit to the Iowa Agribusiness Association where the discussion centered on problems with the corporations and water. Later in the day we went to an Iowa State research facility that looked at how to minimize N runoff by planting cover crops, specifically Miscanthus. Miscanthus can be used as animal bedding, burned for energy, or used as a buffer crop to reduce nitrate runoff. Then, on Wednesday, the group met in the morning with the Practical Farmers of Iowa. They are a group dedicated to providing farmers with the best practices necessary to farm; they emphasize the farmer-to-farmer relationships and the ability of farmers to share information with each other.  At Practical Farmers we focused on several issues.  First, we learned about efforts to assist farmers who have experienced  pesticide drift, which has been discussed with some other farmers we have met with. The largest impact occurs with horticulture crops (think vegetables and orchards, generally anything that is not a commodity crop such as corn or soy). The Nutty Farmer had discussed cover crops with us, but I never fully understood the purpose other than to prevent soil erosion. PFI added to this by describing how dicamba has a serious problem with pesticide drift if the conditions are not right, but is only active for 1-2 days. Later in the day we heard from Bayer Crop Science with regard to dicamba and the efforts that it is taking to show applicators the conditions on a given day and if they lend themselves to spraying dicamba. Furthermore, some state governments have regulated the dates to which a farmer may spray dicamba beyond what the EPA has listed (no later than 90 days after planting). This is due to dicamba becoming more at risk to pesticide drift as the weather becomes more humid and warm. The states pushing to regulate this put final dates that dicamba can be sprayed believing that as it gets further into the spring/summer and warmer the spraying should stop. When the PFI representative we met with was asked what could be done to prevent pesticide drift or what legislation/ regulations should be passed she did not comment on regulations but said what could be done to prevent. Websites show what is grown where and is self-reported so farmers can tell what pesticides are being used around them. Farmers should make themselves visible and reach out to neighbors if they are concerned. Both Bayer Crop Science and PFI discussed the problem can generally stem from the applicator. The applicator is state licensed and might not be as vigilant as a neighbor would be when applying dicamba, even though dicamba requires extra courses to be taken to be licensed to apply it. Pesticide drift and N runoff are difficult issues to tackle with no clear solution requires more work to be done such as the research Dr. Heaton has done at Iowa State in investigating other crops to be grown that have a practical value, being energy, and a use while grown for farmers, such as being a cover crop.

Today marked the end of our first week in Iowa. The day began with a trip to Practical Farmers of Iowa in Ames. Liz Kolbe the Horticulture and Habitat Programs Manager and Steve Carlson the Next Generation Coordinator met with us. The organization was founded in 1985 by a group of farmers who were dissatisfied with the agricultural information they were receiving, so they conducted their own on-farm research and started sharing research on field days. Today, it is still farmer led with 8 farmers and 2 non farmers on its Board of Directors. After Liz discussed the background of the organization, she went into detail about pesticide drift, crop protection, and prevention. Pesticide drift is when a pesticide drifts off target from one farm to a neighboring one and contaminates the crops that are non-resistant to this pesticide. Although all pesticides are prone to drift, dicamba presents a bigger problem because it can become re-airborne hours or days after it is applied. Location is important factor in this issue because if your farm is located downwind to another farm on a windy day, the herbicide drift will damage or even kill crops. It is also difficult to tie it back to where it came from since it can travel for more than two miles, which causes legal issues and disputes because no one is held responsible. Dicamba also has an effect on animals and humans not just crops. Products that contain dicamba are controversial because of their strength. Similar to our discussion at Corteva, Liz explained a different program for protecting crops, the 2015 USDA Whole Farm Revenue Protection plan. The insurance allows farms to protect all their crops at once instead of one crop at a time. This is a good way to support more crop diversity on farms. Whereas our discussion at Corteva covered crop protection products like herbicides for weeds, insecticides, and fungicides, farmers must also invest in crop insurance. Liz finished up with a discussion of prevention methods such as a website known as Drift Watch where applicators can post information when they are using pesticides such as Dicamba to notify other farmers.

Steve Carlson began his career with the organization working the Beginning Farmers Program and is now their Next Generation Coordinator. Two programs that he mentioned included the Savings Incentive Program and the Soil and Water Conservation Districts. The saving incentives programs is a two-year program for farmers who have been farming under five years and are just getting started. It is a three-step process. First, they are given $100 every month to put into their saving account and at the end of the two-year program, the money doubles to $5,000 so they can use it to invest a new asset for the farm. They also get networking or mentorship support from more experienced farmers who are doing similar practices as them. Lastly, they work on business planning and marketing to figure out who their market is, identify their goals, prepare a mission statement, and work on spreadsheets or enterprise budgets to track their progress. The goal is to help build a profitable Farm.  Steve also described how each of Iowa’s 99 have their own soil and water conservation district. There are five elected officials in each county, who each serve a four-year term and meet monthly in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) service center in each county. During their monthly meetings they decide how to allocate funding for different conservation practices based on topography, engagement, and population. Funding goes to projects such as windbreak, cover crops, and rotational grazing. Another responsibility of a commissioner is to provide outreach and education. The organization seems committed to helping farmers run more sustainable farms.

To end our day, we went to Bayer CropScience in Huxley, Iowa to meet with David Tierney. While we were there, we discussed dicamba issues, similar to what we heard earlier in the day. The focus of his discussion was more on solutions to the issue. He described efforts to combat dicamba from drifting to other fields citing Arkansas as being the most restrictive state. In Arkansas, farmers are limited to spraying 45 days after planting and cannot spray after May 20^th in order to stop farmers from using the pesticide as much or not at all. Another example is Minnesota where there would be no spray allowed after June 20th. It was good to hear the dicamba drift issue discussed from both a company and farmers’ perspective.

For supper I was given the task to make my one of our family’s favorite recipes (Foil Packet Salsa Chicken, Rice and Veggies) for the group after our long day. I am happy to say everyone liked and praised it.

Wednesday, May 22

Today at the Practical Farmers of Iowa, we learned about pesticide drift and how farmers can prevent and recover from pesticide drift. The biggest take away I had from the experience is that a big change needs to be made. If pesticide spray blows over from one farm (let’s call it farm A) onto a neighboring farm (we’ll call it farm B), farm B crop’s might suffer devastating impacts on the crop, and hence, on Farm B’s income. Farm B is not negatively affected if it is using the same pesticide on its crops but if it is a non-GMO farm or planting a different type of crop, Farmer B is in big trouble. This is because you have to pay for a stamp of approval to use the pesticide. If farmer B did not do that, they cannot sell a crop with that pesticide product on it. Farmer B has now lost their entire means of income and they have little to no means of saving themselves. Farm A can be fined up to $1,000, but the fine money goes directly to the state and Farm B does not see a penny of it. The only real way to get their losses covered is to file an insurance claim, but that takes a lot of time which the farmer does not have as they need the money. Additionally, Farm B can hire a lawyer, but this is a long costly process as well.

To put it in simpler terms, if you are the victim of pesticide drift, you are the one that is punished rather than the farmer whose pesticide drifted. So, the next step is looking at how one can possibly prevent pesticide drift or protect themselves from pesticide drift. The only real ways to do this is to make people in your vicinity aware that you cannot have pesticide on your crops, and they need to be careful. The problem with this is you are essentially relying on both weather (wind can spread pesticide very easily) and other people to save your crop.

This then led to a discussion about dicamba. Dicamba is an herbicide that kills weeds. Dicamba is essentially the new and ‘improved’ Roundup. One of the biggest characteristics of Dicamba is its tendency to drift, this means it can infect the nearby crops very easily. To hear from the source itself, we went to Bayer, aka new Monsanto. Bayer’s response is that all pesticides drift, and that’s just nature. They say there are ways to make it not drift, specialty nozzles etc. Hearing both sides back to back was extremely interesting.

The highlight of the day far and away was the arrival of Morris’s baby chicks. They were the cutest little fluffs ever seen on earth.

Another day in Iowa brought another day of controversies… and rain. We went to the Agribusiness Association of Iowa who represents larger agricultural companies. Then we went to the Iowa Food Prize to pay our respects to Norman Borlaug (or not). Next up was the Des Moines Water Works Tour which was relevant because a major theme of the book Strom Lake that we were assigned to read prior to our arrival discussed a lawsuit between the Water Works and farmers in Storm Lake over nitrogen run off.

After breakfast at Morris’s we went to the Agribusiness Association of Iowa with Joel Brinkmeyer, Dean Lemke, and Shawn Richmond. Dean Lemke is an environmentalist that works for the association. He has some interesting views about policy and climate change that he was eager to share, bluntly.

Between our two meetings, we toured two notable places downtown Des Moines; the Iowa Food Prize, and Des Moines Water Works. The Iowa Food Prize was pretty much as expected. Norman Borlaug was praised for his efforts to end world hunger. It reveals the normative opinions of Borlaug’s work around Iowa. Personally, I think that Norman Borlaug had great intentions, however, his revolutionized grain came with some negative unintended consequences. The consequences we see specifically in America were lagged (Bor-LAG) but are starting to become more prevalent, in issues like obesity and heart disease. The mass production of a crop promoted the fast food culture and led to the increases of health problems.

By around 4 O’clock we arrived at our final stop of the day, the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation with Professor Emily Heaton. The Center for Advanced Bioenergy is a part of Iowa State University. Our meeting with Dr. Heaton and her class was more of a conversation. It was cool to pick the brains of her and her students about Miscanthus. The group is trying to figure out a way to plant Miscanthus in the potholes of the farmland–essentially wet spots in fields that are unproductive. We saw lots of examples of fields with lots of wet spots as we traveled to meet Dr. Heaton and her students at an ISU facility near Boone. Miscanthus is a perennial, which means it grows back year after year. Corn and soybeans are not. Planting Miscanthus could potentially mean that farmers could cut their workload way down and still make a profit. The idea is gaining a lot of popularity, but there are still a lot of kinks to work out.

“You know back when I was growing up we lived on a farm and everything we ate grew and raised ourselves”

– My Grandfather

Unlike the 1000 acres farms, the farmers who grow produce don’t need as much space. We heard today that one of the bigger growers of produce in the state has about 20 acres of farm land. This small news gave me tremendous hope. There are more farmers out there who do care to set out for small acreage farms.

What is a little worrisome to me is, do these small farmers have the resources they need to make sure they are able to sustain; the environment, markets, and labor. One resource that smaller farmers have available to them is the organization, Practical Farmers of Iowa. They have two sectors in this organization; one that caters to the needs of those in commodity farming and another side that focuses on the needs for those in horticulture. The organization achieves balance by providing services to both types of agriculture, but the services, I feel are better fit for the small farmers of Iowa.

One issue that really struck me as having huge affects on small farmers was pesticide drift. Pesticide drift is just as it sounds, when herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides, “drift” due to wind, rain, or other factors on to other crops. I was completely blown away at the fact that produce farmers don’t have many options for compensation if their crops are negatively affected because of the drift. One protection that could help these small farmers is adequate crop insurance. For big agriculture producers of commodity crops there are many federally funded insurance options to protect the value of their crop of something were to happen. Small farmers do not have these same protections. Out of the few options available to the small time farmers there is something called the, “Whole Farm Revenue Protection.” Even though this program seems like a great option for specialty farmers there are a few problems. This biggest problem is, “is this worth the time and record keeping?” For farmers one part of insurance is keeping record of their crops and the yields they produce every season. This becomes a problem because for some horticulture farmers they produce several types of crops. Once you get over five types of crops then record keeping can become overwhelming. Adding to the stress of record keeping farmers also have to constantly be working on marketing and getting their product to the consumer. This juggling act can prove to be too much for the small farmers.

Where can the small farmers catch a break? One solution for small farmers could be in shape of having their own central market for product. Luckily, for the commodity farmers they have the elevator. It’s a central place in towns all over Iowa where farmers can take product and sell it all out once. There is no special marketing tactics, finding shelf space in stores, or any other hoops that horticulture farmers find exclusive to themselves. I think it would be a good idea for Iowa to start looking for food companies that would be readily available to process the food that is grown here versus risking having to ship food so it doesn’t spoil before it gets to a consumer or a processing company. Another great option is for citizens to invest more into local markets for produce and meat. Smaller farms seem like they would thrive in local economies. Downsize the way Iowans and others around the globe think about food. The most successful way to end hunger could be to feed those around you.

Coming from a small town myself, I see so much value in small markets. Local gardens and small farms really bring life to a community. I have also learned to appreciate fresh food options and I value knowing exactly where my food comes from. I also live near and have family members that live in communities where grocery stores are becoming scarce and/or only cater to one type of customer. I just think about the what a local market would like in those communities and try to think about how they would help or hinder the citizens living there.

Who represents the small farmers? Who represents the big farmers? Is their equitable representation?

Who could have a bigger role in feeding the communities that go without fresh food options? How do we as a developed nation better contribute to ending hunger right in our back yard?

There should be call to shrink how we think. We need to start thinking small. Small Farm.

On Monday, May 20th, we visited Corteva in Johnston, Iowa. Corteva, originally Pioneer, was founded by Henry Wallace who saw value in distributing hybrid corn out to farmers. Corteva is also a science-based company that uses two paths, traditional breeding and biotechnology to create GMOs.

There is no doubting that GMOs have revolutionized our food supply. We can now create crops that are resistant to disease, produce more per acre and exhibit the traits we want to see. However, they are hardly “pure”. As we talked with Kevin Diehl, the term “purity” to describe Corteva’s hybrid seed was used. Only a seed with high purity will produce well. Purity in genetically modified seeds decreases in each generation, therefore, saving seeds to plant from genetically modified plants will not yield the same quantity and quality as the original. I couldn’t help but marvel at the paradox. In my opinion, purity implies something that is unaltered and in its original form. However, GMOs do not fit this definition as they have other DNA spliced into their own.

Saturday, May 18

This past weekend was filled with a mixed bag of activities, though they are revolved around farm activities.. On Saturday, we started our day by speaking with two crop insurance agents. We learned about the government programs that supplement crop insurers. Interestingly enough, one of the agents referred to hail as the “white combine” due to it shredding any crops unlucky enough to be in its path.

Afterwards, we moved to meeting with the mastermind behind Nutty Farmer Chestnuts. Heath Stolee, the cousin of one of our hosts. While his operation has yet to turn a profit, as chestnut trees take 10-12 years to start consistently producing the $5-a-pound nuts, a farmer growing anything other than corn or soybeans is rare in Iowa which is why Heath’s dive into chestnuts is notable.

The final item on the docket was worming goats. Now, we were not really giving goats worms. Instead, we were giving them tetanus shots and medicine which gets rid of worms. So the practice really should be referred to as deworming.

Sunday, May 19

Sunday was the first day in a long time where we were able to sleep in. We got to wake up at 9! The first item on the docket was meeting with Mark Tintjer, a local beekeeper and nature enthusiast. He taught us all about the different types of honey, what it takes to maintain a beehive and how to win the most prizes at the Iowa State Fair.
Our afternoon was mainly spent inside but a few of us were lucky enough to head over to Neubauer Family Farms and talk to our Professor’s brother about all things farming. Mainly we were educated about his extensive collection of tractors, and Denny was more than willing to answer our novice questions about farms, farming, and tractor pulling.