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.

On Wednesday, May 24, we had the ability to visit the birthplace Henry A. Wallace in Orient, Iowa. The former Secretary of Agriculture and Vice President’s childhood home has been converted into a gathering place and community supported agriculture farm. The actual homestead is now a gift shop, and the old barn was converted into a working semi-public restaurant. The purpose of the property is to gather as a community and share ideas with new people. According to Diane, our guide during lunch, when there are dinners at the Wallace House, the staff mixes up the seating. This way, you don’t sit with the same people you came with. Because of this, you can experience new thoughts and emotions, while enjoying a fresh home-cooked meal. All the food is prepared on sight with ingredients from their garden, which is a local CSA. CSA is short for community supported agriculture. Within the CSA, customers purchase a share of the crop for a season. Those people who buy into the program get weekly baskets of fresh fruits, vegetables, or whatever is grown and harvested that week. The point of a CSA is to allow farmers to have a steady customer base and give them the ability to grow what they want. They can also try new things.

To our excitement, we had the ability to work in the garden. With the help of farm manager Mosa Shayan, we grabbed our hoes and headed out to the field. Since Mosa and the farm are organic, there can’t be any pesticides or herbicides used. So, we had the simple, yet difficult task of removing weeds of the seed rows. This is basically the organic farmer version of picking up rocks. Although there were only about 30 rows potatoes, the task took about two hours. When weeding, you had to be careful to just get out the weeds and not the potatoes you’re supposed to be protecting. During this time, we had the chance to talk with Mosa about his life, how he got started farming, and the troubles he faces as a small farmer. We also got to have some one-on-one time with whoever we shared our row with.

The Wallace house is important for a variety of reasons. Henry A. Wallace was a strong progressive. He believed in quick and rapid change, but also helping those who couldn’t afford to do so. Not only did he work under President Roosevelt in the height of the Great Depression, but he also had his own, although unsuccessful, run at the presidency. He also believed in the exchanging of ideas. Wallace regularly invited people on every side of the political spectrum to the drawing board while he was formulating his policies. The Wallace House is attempting to do the same thing. By hosting dinners and events, ideas can organically flow. When you sit with different people, you express and hear different values and practices. If  an unconventional organic CSA farmer sits next to a conventional farmer, odds are they will discuss their similar, yet completely different professions. They can talk about their practices and their own idea of sustainability. In turn, people can understand each side of the spectrum better. Even in our own small lunch, we talked about the troubles that often plague small organic farmers and what they are currently doing to better their livelihoods. Our conversation, along with those that professionals have, is just what Wallace would have wanted.

Our last Saturday in Iowa was one of our least busy days. Even though it wasn’t as busy, it still started bright and early. Since “Sophia” is still out of commission, we were greeted by the twins and H-N at 6:45 so we could to make it to Morris’s for our 7:00 breakfast. After a hearty breakfast, we discussed our plans for the day and set off for the short drive to the Ames Farmers Market. When we arrived at 8:30, there weren’t many people there. The small market was only about three or four blocks in total, but people were really enjoying themselves. The vendors sold everything from produce to soap and even some even sold clothes. They also had a petting zoo for the kids. The coolest part was seeing some local farmers we had met with set up. Tom and Kevin both had booths and were selling at a high clip. After going to both markets, it would be interesting to ask Kevin how much he made in Ames compared to what his wife made in Des Moines.

Once we finished our short time in Ames, we made a quick 30-minute drive to the Des Moines Downtown Farmers Market. The hardest part of the day was trying to find a parking spot. Most parking garages are just a little too small for our van, which we learned the hard way. Once we found a spot, we ran into the farmers market and had a few hours to look around. The Des Moines Farmers Market is huge. It probably took up close 10 blocks and we might have walked close to a mile to see it all. Some of the same vendors from Ames, like Kevin’s Lost Lake Farm and a mini doughnut stand were in Des Moines. I spent most of the time walking around with Josh and Jessie. Since we were itching to buy something, we started off by buying some kettle corn. This way, we could eat a snack while looking at other food. Because of the impending weather, the farmers market closed at 11:30. So, we had to go through quick. Josh, Jessie, and I saw everything. We even bought some stuff goodies. Jessie and I both bought some Jelly from Blue Gate Farms, the site of the Practical Farmers of Iowa Field Day we attended, and Josh bought a necklace made from local stone. Most of the stands seemed like they were selling all locally grown products. However, a few stands were selling out of place fruits like watermelon and avocado. As we’ve learned, they could have been made in a hoop house, but they also could have been bought at a store in hopes of turning an easy profit.

When the rain drove us away, we returned to Morris’s for a break. Because of the weather, we couldn’t work in the Fiscus Garden like we had planned. So, while some people napped, Reid, Sophie, Josh, Jessie, and I broke out the Wizard of Oz Monopoly board. Although I feel like some friendships were ended, it was an incredibly fun game that almost everyone enjoyed. After the three-hour marathon game, I decided to take a walk through Morris’s muddy corn field. Although my feet are still dirty after three showers, I really enjoyed the peace that I got from walking down the rows. I even picked up some rocks. Once I was back inside and washed up, it was time for dinner. We had tater tot casserole and Morris’s world famous death by chocolate for dessert. Although we hadn’t eaten since about 11, we took our time and savored every bite.

After dinner, we made our way to the Neubauer Farm and watched the movie King Corn. King Corn is a documentary about two recent college graduates who go to Iowa to plant one acre of corn. Their goal is to watch the corn from the time it is planted to wherever it ends up. However, the film showed this was impossible. Once the corn is sent to an elevator, it gets combined with the thousands of bushels already there. There were a few really interesting things I picked up from King Corn. First, we are basically made of corn. Almost every piece of food we eat can be traced back to corn. Therefore, it can almost all be traced back to Iowa. Whether it is a Coke sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup or a piece of steak that was taken from a corn-fed cow, corn is everywhere. Even when we looked at basic kitchen items at Morris’s, most them used some type of corn product. Second, the movie showed it is almost impossible to make money in farming without government subsidies. The two film-makers made about $28 from government subsidies in 2005. Without these subsidies, they would have lost $18 overall.
In my opinion, the most important takeaway is how important corn truly is to our society. Most of the corn that is grown can’t be eaten by humans. It must go through some sort of processing to make it edible. Although we do get cheap food, it is mostly composed of cheap ingredients. Cows shouldn’t be fed corn, they should be fed grass. The beef we get from corn-fed cows isn’t as good beef from grass-fed cows. According to the film, we are the first generation that has a life expectancy shorter than their parents. This could very easily be attributed to our diet. They do not have the variety they did in our parents’ generation. Also, processed foods play a bigger role than ever before. If we want to see change in our health, quality of life, and our environment, we should look carefully at the quality and quantity of corn being grown.

5/29/17

In my opinion, the combination of today’s activities proved to be one of my favorite, with a lecture on climate change, a small swim in a lake, and a visit with new animals that we haven’t been introduced to thus far. We were able to sleep in a little more than usual today, starting breakfast at 9:00 this morning. We had a breakfast pizza from Casey’s General Store with cantaloupe and tater tots as “side dishes”. Breakfast pizza must be a Iowan tradition because none of my classmates (myself included), had ever heard of a breakfast pizza which consisted of sausage, egg, and cheese on top of a dough. I really enjoyed this new treat, even though it may not be the healthiest of breakfasts. But none of our meals have been extremely healthy, so I’ll just have to exercise a lot when we return home. At 9:45, we departed Morris’s house for Iowa City where we were planning to meet Connie Mutel, an ecologist with a passion for restoration and climate change. The drive was not short and we didn’t have enough time to stop for lunch, so we prepared ahead of time by bringing snacks along for the trip. The snacks consisted of meat sticks, cheese sticks, crackers, grapes, and a popcorn ball.

We arrived at Connie’s house at 1:00. Her property was absolutely beautiful and I was extremely jealous that she had so much land with oak trees. One of the main things that I miss from South Carolina is trees, so being able to seclude myself in this “forest” of oaks and shrubbery pleased me greatly. Connie’s house was built from her own hands as well as the hands of her husband and I must say they did a fabulous job. They are concerned about the property and house once they pass away, saying they may transfer it into a nature reserve for the public. I almost volunteered to take the house off her hands, just because it reminded me so much of home. Connie’s lecture on climate change was very well done and helped reinforce my own ideas that global warming that is occurring. She also provided us with some ways to help convince others that climate change is real, which were strategies that I have never considered. The Earth should be compared to a child. If a child’s temperature continues to rise, the parents would not ignore it, but rather take the proper measures needed to heal the child. The Earth should be treated the same way or human life could be in danger in some number of years.

We left Connie’s home at around 3:30 to head out to Mary Mascher’s brother’s house to help plant gourds, watermelon, cucumbers, squash, and cantaloupe. It was very rewarding to know that we helped with the process in such a dramatic way, completing the gardening activities in approximately 2 hours, whereas Mary and her brother would need 2 weeks to finish. After the planting was finished, we were treated to a Memorial Day dinner of barbecue, baked beans, a variety of fruits and vegetables, and pecan pie for dessert. I don’t think I have eaten so much food in my life! Everything was delicious as usual, and I’m sure I gained a few pounds just from that meal. Once we finished our dinner, Mary took us to her lake she spent a large amount of time at as a child. At this lake, Josh tried to learn how to swim, but was not very successful in this goal. I did not get into the water, but a few other students jumped off the end of the dock and swam with Josh for a little bit of time. Our last activity consisted of a very sweet llama and baby lambs! They were all so cute and definitely made a great ending to a great day. Tomorrow is our last day in Iowa and I am proud to say that I have yet to be disappointed in our activities.     

5/26/17

POET is the largest, dry mill ethanol producer in the United States, with 28 plants in 7 different states. Today, we met with Kevin Monroe, a representative of POET who presented the values, initiatives, and production mechanisms of Jewell, Iowa’s plant. The fundamental goal for this corporation is to convert renewable resources into energy, which in this particular case would be corn into ethanol. The plant is also constantly looking for new ways to maximize the use of the corn kernel besides making ethanol, so that the good isn’t wasted. For example, after corn oil is extracted from the cornel to create biodiesel, the remaining parts of the kernel is used for food and feed for different farm animals across the state. It was also interesting to learn that each year, the need for renewable fuel increases, being more productive for the environment, engine health, human health, and value to the customers.

Since I am an Earth and Environmental Science major, protecting the Earth is something that I value deeply. The Earth is going to continue, but what happens when humans use all of its natural resources and can no longer function as a society? The main source of gasoline is petroleum, which is found as a naturally occurring liquid in particular geologic formations. Petroleum is not a resource that will exist forever and eventually, this source of fuel will be completely extracted from the Earth. The process of extracting this liquid, converting it into gasoline, and burning this gasoline for fuel is also extremely harmful for the environment, releasing a large amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. POET provides a much more environmentally and economically safer method of creating an energy for fuel. Corn is a crop that grows in plentiful amounts. It is also a plant that humans can continue to grow forever, especially with the technology and equipment that is used in today’s agricultural methods.

Once Kevin finished presenting the core values of POET, we were fortunate enough to be able to have a tour of the plant, including seeing the different stages of the ethanol production. Something that came as a shock to me was the very few number of workers that appeared to be at the plant. In total, I only saw 4 POET workers at my time at the plant, including Kevin Monroe and the secretary who provided us with hard hats and safety glasses. The other two workers were walking in one of the production rooms, also wearing safety equipment. When comparing this observation to Hagie Manufacturing (who had more workers than I could count), I find it very interesting that the tractor company would need more workers than an ethanol production site. I am assuming this is because creating ethanol does not require much manual labor, but rather monitoring the process is only needed. Being able to see and learn about the process of creating ethanol was very rewarding to me and I’m sure the rest of my classmates. Hopefully with more time, more ethanol can be created to replace gasoline to better our environment.

5/23/17

As we were touring the Hagie Manufacturing plant early this morning, the one question that kept popping into my mind was, “Why are there so many people working here?” A few days ago, we had the opportunity to be able to tour the Frontier Coop in Norway, Iowa. During this tour, we were shown how spices were made using an assembly line, which was the type of mechanism that I figured would also be used to create a very large and powerful machine such as a Hagie Sprayer. However, to my surprise, this was not the case and almost the entire process was done by manual labor. I must reiterate that these machines were huge and I find it extremely impressive that they are able to build one of these machines per day, almost entirely manually! The manufacturing plant has around 300 workers, all of whom play an important part in the process of creating these giant pieces of equipment. Our tour guide, Clint Middleton, explained to us that on days they know they have to build a larger piece of machinery, some of the workers clock in a few hours earlier, while the remaining workers stay a few hours later than usual. I find this communication and teamwork to be satisfying, knowing that they are able to get the job done just as efficiently as an assembly line with robots, if not more efficiently.

Continuing on the topic of community in this particular cooperation, I thought it was very rewarding to see how the employees are treated on a daily basis.  To begin with, every garage door inside of the building had four pictures painted on them. The first was a Lego, symbolizing the work it will take to build the company together. The second was a screw, demonstrating not to “screw over the customer”. The third was a donkey, representing the need to create “kick ass products”. Finally, the fourth was a building with money, showing the resulting image of a successful business. These images served as inspiration to the employees and reminded them on a daily, if not minutely basis to work together to achieve the common goal of being successful. I also found it interesting that the majority of the employees consisted of a younger generation (perhaps in their 30s or below). This could be due to the amount of manual labor that the job requires, or maybe the atmosphere attracts the younger generation in general. For example, the break room/dining area  consisted of a tiki bar with a pool table and red solo cup decorations. I found this area of the break room to be rather amusing yet indulging to know that the employees are able to have such a strong bond with each other.

When thinking of the cost of these machines (around $400,000 per sprayer), the necessity of a successful yield truly comes into focus. These pieces of equipment cost more than my house and account for the livelihood of any farmer who chooses to buy one of these machines. I am now starting to realize why some farmers become upset at government officials for trying to regulate how much fertilizer they can spray on their own land. If I spent almost half a million dollars on a piece of equipment and then someone tried to tell me that I had to reduce my usage of this equipment on my own land, I believe that I would also fight back on this regulation. To make matters even worse for the farmers, this is only one out of the several different machines that are required to produce maximum yield. However, I do not have a solution to this problem, but I am hoping that as our final week continues, more of this issue can be put into perspective for me and my classmates.

Sunday, May 28:

Today we did a variety of things, but one of the most educational was a lecture by Ben Knutson, who hosts Jessie and Josh and works at the USDA Agricultural Research labs near Ames. While we’ve gotten some of the bits and pieces that are part of the puzzle of farming since arriving, we haven’t really received a basic lecture that puts the puzzle together. Mr. Knutson’s lecture tied together what we’ve learned thus far, and helped the group more fully understand what we’ve actually learned as a more cohesive whole. (For our readers out there, this might also help you!)

According to his lecture, there are three main factors of influence that affect farming decisions: weather/climate, soil/topography, and management actions.

1. Weather/climate: composed of rainfall total and temperature. “Temperature” includes both the average seasonal temp and the frost free dates. This growing season affects the crops that can be grown in an area. For example, corn is grown in Iowa and has between 100 to 120 days to maturity. In contrast, cotton needs a longer growing season and needs 150 to 180 days to fully mature.
2. Soil/Topography: contains three physical properties: sand, silt, and clay. Additionally impacted by organic matter, CEC, and pH. Topography involves slope and length of slope. For example, the RUSLE2 equation (revised universal soil loss equation 2) is used to determine how vulnerable land is to erosion, and would be considered highly erodible land.
3. Management actions:
   1. Objective: maximize plant yield without harming the environment
   2. Three steps:
      1. Pick a crop for your soil and climate
      2. Choose a fertility program

• Keep a pest free environment

His talk also focused on measures used to reduce pests and “cover crop basics”

1. Measures to reduce pests:
   1. Healthy soil
   2. Pesticides
      1. Herbicides
      2. Fungicides
      3. Insecticides
      4. Rodenticides
   3. Mulch
   4. Fire
   5. Beneficial predators
   6. Mechanical tillage

2. Cover crop: plants grown after harvest and before planting
   1. Benefits: increased organic matter, decreased nitrogen leaching, erosion control, and weed suppression.
   2. Types:
      1. Oats
      2. Rye
      3. Canola
      4. Wheat
      5. Turnips
      6. Radishes

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.

Encompassed by one exceptionally eventful day, one event stood out among all others. We began our day with a tour of Hagie Manufacturing Company in Clarion, Iowa. Hagie is a family operated company offering crop protection for its customers through high clearance sprayers. Within our short time in Iowa, we have seen hundreds of sprayers and heard from numerous farmer’s their conventional uses. However, we have never once considered where such large machinery comes from or even the mechanisms it requires to build it. As we would expect, large companies like John Deere machine and robotics operated.

Likewise, Hagie Manufacturing is no John Deere, in terms of production. Hagie is a manual labor based production system in which every scrap of metal on their 25 ton tractors is shaped and collectively together by Hagie employees.

Our tour of Hagie consisted mostly of a walk through the Hagie Manufacturing  workshop where we saw the production of a large sprayer. As we came see, Hagie employees are mostly skill welders and engineers. Each engineer is responsible for welding and shaping every piece of the puzzle that is the large sprayer in an assembly line type production system. This type of requires group selected work as opposed to individual effort in that each employee relies on the competence of the other. This is encourages a group action environment. Moreover, there are four symbols painted on every garage door in workshop, all representing collaborative work efforts. These symbols act as reminders to employees, to “work hard not to f*** over their other partners,” as our tour guide described.

Notwithstanding, the individual parts welded by Hagie employees, Hagie Manufacturing doesn’t design every aspect of their sprayer. The most important part of the operation, the engine, is delegated to John Deere construction. Hagie solely modify John Deere manufactured engines. After the engines are added to the sprayer along with all other parts, the sprayer goes through extensive field test to ensure stability of the product. Any blemish or damage acquired by the field test is repaired at the end the process.

Our tour of Hagie ended with a walk of the show room of Hagie Sprayers. We were allowed to run and climb on top the sprayers, where we took some amazing photos for memories of such a fantastic day.

The King Corn documentary gave a light-hearted image of the causes, processes and results involved with the increase in corn production in Iowa. Mechanization, hybridization, farm size and production began to rise as need and desire for meat-rich diets climbed. A surplus in corn production encouraged the search for new corn processing mechanisms and uses, such as corn syrup and ethanol. Morris Stole told me about how the farmscapes in Radcliffe have changed since he was a kid, from several farms per acre to several acres per farm. This fact was reiterated in the documentary by a Greene, Iowa native, that farms have grown in size and smaller plantations have become obsolete. As corn became cheaper due to mechanization and increased availability in the market, farmers had to have larger tracts of land and government support in order to make money from their operations.

The farmers we’ve visited so far in Iowa have expressed few opinions regarding the quality of corn they produce, but in the documentary a few of the interviewed farmers admitted that the quality of their product was sub-par. I saw the documentary several years ago, and maintained a bias against this low-quality No. 2 corn due to the overproduction portrayed in the documentary and its “misuse” as cow feed and an unhealthy food additive. The second viewing of the film allowed me to consider the corn debate with a much more comprehensive understanding of the entire system. One of the interviewees in the documentary mentioned that Happy Meals are subsidized but healthy ones are not, an argument I’ve stood by for years. On the contrary, Lusk argues that the subsidization of foods often drives prices higher due to associated import restrictions. I might have told you a few years ago that we should only feed cows grass because of the negative impacts corn has on their health. But after being in Iowa I would retort that the cows fed corn aren’t meant to live long lives and that we couldn’t support the current demand for meat on US grasslands alone.

Revisiting the suggestions made against the corn industry in King Corn allowed me to understand the corn debate as more than just pro-corn vs. anti-corn, but as research-based fact vs. hearsay, producers vs. elitist consumers, and all of the oppositions in between. I’ve learned that instead of quickly siding with the views of one sector or production mechanism, we must acquire a more holistic view of the system in which agriculture is nested. There is no neatly wrapped package with the solution inside, no clear winners or losers. But system transparency and efficient information flows can allow us to inch closer to production with economic, social and environmental benefits.