Getting up early today did me no favors. I haven’t felt well all day and I’m sure that played into my reaction. As usual, I seem to take a very different viewpoint than everyone else in the group.

We first went to the Cory family farm. It was such a beautiful place with tons of animals. We got to start by milking goats. I had never had the pleasure of milking an animal before, and it was harder than it looked! Stuart and Kris went first and they had the worst time trying to figure out how to do it, so I was a little nervous. Both Hedley and I got it pretty quick, though, and I thought it was a really cool experience. I wish we had the chance to taste the milk. After that, we went to see the chickens. Even though we’ve seen multiple places with chickens, this was the first place that really stunk because of it. The contraptions that they kept the chickens in, both the broilers and the layers, were so creative! I liked their idea of moving the chickens often to let the grass regenerate.

After that, we went to the pasture where Tom keeps his sheep and cows. On the way there, he started talking about why he doesn’t vaccinate his children, which really irked me. Vaccinations have saved so many lives that I personally think it is ridiculous to not take advantage of that. More parents have decided to not vaccinate their child these days, and it is causing outbreaks of deadly diseases that haven’t been around for a long time. One of his reasons is that vaccines lead to autism. First of all, there is absolutely no scientific proof of this. Second of all, even if there were, if you would rather put your child at risk of dying of something like the measles than have to deal with a handicapped child, I think your priorities are more than a little skewed. Anyway, his pasture was gorgeous, and it was clear that he took that much pride in the maintenance of his land. I wish he would have the same respect for his animals, since it seemed to me that he saw them as merely profit. There was a sick lamb that he said he noticed was sick a long time ago. It died today and, although I’m not sure if they would have helped, antibiotics or some kind of extra attention could have saved that lamb’s life. When I asked why he chose not to do any of this, he said that the costs of saving it outweighed the costs of losing it. I believe he as an animal caretaker has a moral responsibility to take care of his animals to the best of his abilities even if it means losing money on one lamb. His idea that money was more important than trying to save an animals life immediately made me like him less.

We got back to the farm and began to work in the garden. By this point, I was very hot and didn’t feel very well. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I felt better, as I normally like garden work, but I really didn’t enjoy it. Also, the water they brought out to drink smelled and tasted like sulfur. I did not feel comfortable drinking it and it made my stomach hurt even worse. Lunch was a much needed break, but I did not feel well enough to eat much unfortunately. What I did have was very good, though. I especially liked the bread and asparagus. I noticed they ate a lot of butter, which I found ironic considering how much they stressed a healthy diet.

We finished at the Cory farm by seeing Mary’s home remedies. I know I’m biased because I’m a doctor’s daughter, but I once again found myself disagreeing with their principles. Modern medicine has come a long way and saved a lot of lives. Not going to the doctor when you or your children are sick can make it much worse and even lead to death. The story that struck me especially was Mary’s story of how they didn’t get Lorinda a tetanus shot or any medicine when she needed stitches from a dog bite. I found that to be a gamble too risky. Tetanus has no cure and terrible side effects. An infection could have very easily developed from a dog bite, especially if it was a stray dog, and I think it was a very poor decision on their part. All in all, I think it would be accurate to say that I saw the Corys as backwards and very ill-informed.

After that, we went to the ethanol plant, which I did enjoy. I was prepared for it to smell as bad as the biodiesel plant, but it really wasn’t bad at all, and I was able to concentrate. The process was much more similar to making whiskey than I had anticipated. I had expected that it would turn the corn into some unrecognizable liquid that would burn your insides if ingested. Instead, it reminded me heavily of moonshine, smell and everything. I felt like I learned a lot and our tour guide did a very good job of explaining things and showing us different perspectives without forcing one opinion on us. I definitely enjoyed the second half of the day much better than the first.

On a final note, I tried kombucha today, which is a fermented drink. I got a strawberry flavor. I liked it more than I expected, and it really tasted just like strawberry wine to me. I couldn’t get past the brown floating particles in it, though, and so I only drank a little bit. I will definitely try it again, though.

Her name was Blackie…

These past three days have been so busy that we haven’t even had time to write our blogs! On Tuesday night, we went to see the movie Farmland. It was really good, and I think it deserved better ratings than it got. My favorite “character” was the girl who started her own organic farm and CSA. I liked it because she is the first and most likely only person who we’ve heard about to be able to successfully farm without inheriting a family farm. It was one of my favorite movies we’ve watched, but at this point I feel like I didn’t learn anything from it. I liked hearing all the opinions and seeing all of the stories, but I felt like I have already heard everything that was covered.

Yesterday evening, we rushed over to an organic farm in southern Iowa called Blue Gate. The owners were very nice. It was a huge operation! They had employees and lots of land. They described the way they do their crops, which is a rotation so that they never plant the same family of plants two years in a row. It was very clear that they cared a lot about the environment and really built up their soil quality in the time that they had been there. I’m still confused how organic farms deal with pests, though. It seems like there are lots of different ways, and I haven’t understood any of them. Hearing about the herbicide spraying incident they experienced was hard. It was so devastating for their operation, but I liked hearing that all but one of their CSA members stuck with them through the overspraying incident. Its very clear to me that these organic farms have a much better relationship with their clients than any of the conventional farms. That was very apparent in the Farmland movie as well.

This morning, we went to the ISU extension office. I had no idea there was something like that in every state! Its nice to know that if I have any question that is even remotely related to agriculture, I can call the Clemson extension at home and get an answer. It was also interesting to hear a different opinion about the voluntary versus regulations debate. Almost everyone we’ve heard from, like Denny Friest, has argued that voluntary actions and subsidies are more than enough. Gary Hilmer at the Hardin County NRCS Office, however, made the very good point that subsidies can’t last forever and the voluntary actions just aren’t doing enough.

After that, we talked to Phil Kramer, a representative from Niman farms, which focuses on the animal welfare pork. I really liked the idea, and I will definitely try to buy their products more often. He obviously knew a lot about pigs and their natural behavior. It was nice to find out that there are farms out there whose main priority is the comfort and happiness of the animal. I of course enjoyed all the pictures of the pigs, so that was probably my favorite part of the day. When we got back to the farm, HN’s brother Denny taught us a little more about tiling. When I first heard about it, I actually thought that people were putting things like bathroom tiles under the soil and I was really confused. Instead, it’s more like pipes to control the water flow into rivers and streams. I learned that if your neighbor didn’t want to tile his land and was in your way, you are legally allowed to dump all of your water into his land and basically ruin his crops. The whole talk was very lighthearted and funny.

Today was chock full of politics, and this will be a long entry.  If you need to, take a break, go to the bathroom, walk your children–do what you need to do to get through my thoughts.

We continued the debate over food policy and public health by reading the next chapter in the Paarlberg book about the politics of obesity, specifically the role of food.  The biggest reason that obesity is a policy issue is that it will add $48-66 billion in medical costs treating obesity-related diseases by 2030 to the already $147 billion spent between 1998 and 2008, and this problem carries over to other sectors, such as defense, because many potential recruits are too fat to join the military.  Essentially, the most simplified explanation is that we are consuming more and exercising less.  The government definitely cannot force diets or exercise regimens on people, so what can it do?  Who should be held responsible for this problem?

There are many subtopics on this issue that are each worthy of a fully essay.  For example, food stamps are associated with poverty, as they are part of the welfare system.  We also associate poverty with malnutrition.  However, there exists a paradox of people on food stamps actually being overweight, if not obese.  A second subtopic is childhood obesity.  Perhaps the most direct method of combatting childhood obesity is modifying the food given in public school lunches.  However, according to Paarlberg, only 25 percent of calories consumed by children are in school, so how effective would a lunch-centered solution be?

At the highest levels of the food regulation fight, opponents to regulation, such as restaurant, business, and consumer groups, oppose any regulation that they say takes away from the amount of choices Americans should be allowed when choosing their food. I read this as, “If you want to get fat, then you should be allowed to get fat.”  However, we have been affected by both our own desires and natural reactions to stimuli.  Although Paarlberg is skeptical of claims that produce prices have risen, while un-nutritious foods have fallen  (he says they have both fallen and at the same rate) and the lack of access to nutritious foods, he is supportive of other causal claims that the prevalence of and easy access unhealthy foods is one of the top factors of the rise in obesity.  Additionally, hi-tech food processors are capable of chemically altering the levels of salt, sugar, fats, et cetera to make the food more pleasurable and addicting, all the while keeping the calorie counts the same.  Given the restraints of the Constitution and our aptitude for liberty, the most realistic solution is for the government to try to change the eating behavior of Americans and their approach to food and nutrition.

We then moved on to a very hot topic in agricultural politics: environmental health.  As mentioned in previous blog posts about our previous exposure to environmental problems, the most common agricultural issues are soil health, water health, and sustaining wildlife populations.  We watched two documentaries, Symphony of the Soil and Ocean Frontiers, the latter of which featured Brent Friest’s father, Denny Friest.  Symphony of the Soil centered on soil health.  The makers of this documentary definitely took the agroecological, cultural approach to farming, expressing a desire for the inclusion of more organic matter in all farms.  The latter documentary told four different vignettes about how stakeholders in different sectors came together to solve environmental problems that they contribute to and are affected by.  One such vignette was of Iowa farmers and their efforts to lower chemical and nutrient pollutants that contribute to the growing dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.  Some highlighted conservation measures included installing wetlands and prairie strips that naturally filter the water flowing through of any pollutants before heading to larger waterways.

In the end, Denny Friest brought up the fact that most farmers, especially conventional farmers, take a feed the world approach.  Therefore, he said there needs to be a compromise and moderation between achieving the highest yield while also looking out for the environment.  He admitted that there is still a long ways to go, and farmers are doing their best to stay environmentally friendly.  I did notice a subtle and passive anti-government tendency in the last documentary, implying that the best solutions may not and sometimes should not involve government regulation.  All of the vignettes seemed to have minimum mention of a role of government regulators, and each problem was solved by stakeholders getting together and solving the issue.  Nonetheless, despite being largely anti-government, farmers will gladly take any government help they can get.  In the Iowa conservation story, installing the conservation practices in the fields are extremely expensive, so much that they require taxpayer money.  At the time of the filming, so many farmers had jumped on getting state help that there was a two year waiting list for one particular conservation program.

The “filler events” for the day included going to the town of Radcliffe’s Memorial Day service and gardening out back with Dalona.  We went to the memorial service because it would be a good way to observe a part of small town society.  Held in the Radcliffe cemetery, the ceremony consisted of two songs, a short “sermon,” the reading of all deceased military members in the cemetery and those connected to the town of Radcliffe, a 21-gun salute, and processions in and out.  All in all, I didn’t think there was too much to observe because of a lack of dialogue.  However, I think the ceremony was a good indicator of the use of the flag as a symbol.

We also did a little bit of gardening in our own personal plot in the backyard.  Due to the fact that today was the first we’ve even seen the garden, it was of course overrun by weeds.  I wouldn’t haven even known the garden was there had the little orange flags not been visible.  Dalona said that is what happens when you don’t weed, but I think there was a slight smug undertone of, “Welp…that’s what you get.”  Despite this gardening faux pas, we still were able to uncover all of the lettuce, radishes, and peas and give them the appropriate room to prosper.  It did make a nice contrast between how effective the herbicide was on the corn that was growing not even ten feet from the garden.

Unfortunately, the only pictures I took today were of Shadow, the farm puppy, playing with her new toy, but other people have posted photos!  So, here ya go.

One of the greatest aspects of my Farm experience has been the variety of opinions and perspectives that I have been exposed to. But this accumulation of diverse information about our food production system has also caused me a lot of confusion. Sometimes it can be difficult to decide what is right when you are surrounded by conflicting voices, which are each equally certain of the truth of their own opinion. The confusion that this has caused me in the past was actually one of the main reasons why I wanted to come on the farm trip to Iowa in the first place. While in a way coming here has added to the pile of conflicting information floating through my brain, it has also helped me to begin to put the pieces together to be able to step back and see the bigger picture.

One such issue that we have been learning about is obesity in America and its implications for our food system. Opinions on this topic disagree on the causes as well as potential solutions for alleviating the high prevalence of obesity. Some like to argue that obesity, particularly among children and minorities, is the fault of fast-food establishments and other corporations with their influential advertisements and large amount of lobbying money. This is a favored approach of many food documentaries such as the one our class saw a few days ago, Fed Up. This perspective often also attacks conventional agriculture with its corn and soybean subsidies that provides the food industry with its resources for an excess of cheap, processed, and fast foods. Many who agree with this view are more likely to support regulations, mandates, or taxes on the food industry. However, critics turn their attention away from the food-industry and focus in more on individual choice. These same critics would probably be reluctant to impose any legislative restrictions on food, opting instead for public education programs. One of the strongest arguments against any sort of aggressive policy to combat obesity is the right to make personal choices as well as the reluctance to stigmatize an entire group of people due to their body type, which may be something they have little control over.

Perhaps the greatest subject on which perspectives clash is where the balance should be between conserving the environment and harvesting its resources to “feed the world.” Today we watched two different documentaries that addressed this controversial issue, Ocean Frontiers: The Dawn of a New Era in Ocean Stewardship and Symphony of the Soil.   Ocean Frontiers approached the issue by focusing on how we are in the middle of serious environmental crises such as the depletion of fish, pollution of oceans, and the creation of ocean dead zones. But the solution that the documentary proposes is one that calls for the modification of current methods of production through promoting dialogue among businesses and environmental conservation groups. This contrasts with the message of Symphony of the Soil, which called for an urgent revolution in agricultural practices that would reverse the work of the Green Revolution. This would include a return to an organic mode of agriculture without the use of pesticides or other chemicals as well as conservation practices such as cover-crops and no-till farming.

While I have been confronted over the past 12 days with a variety of opinions that seem to all conflict at some level, the amount of information I have learned has allowed to me form my own opinions. While I have always been fond of forming my own opinions on things, especially on food policy, I haven’t always done so based on a balanced knowledge of facts. This balance is probably one of the greatest things the farm experience has given me so far. It is a good feeling to be able to watch a food documentary such as Fed-Up, and while I still agree with many of the things the film claims I can also discern some of the opposing issues that the film may not have addressed or glossed over. While I still find myself holding strong opinions that are generally opposed to conventional agriculture and lean far towards organic and conservation-oriented practices, at least I can rest assured knowing I have listened to the other side.

Since today is Memorial Day, we began our morning by attending a Memorial Day service at the Radcliffe Cemetery, where there are veterans buried who fought in wars reaching back to the Civil War. During the service, the names were read from all of the veterans who had fought for the United States who were buried in the cemetery, including veterans from both the Confederacy and the Union. In addition, a woman spoke about the value of those who had served in the military and how we should all be grateful for their sacrifices. I found it interesting that the speaker applied verses in the New Testament about loving one’s neighbor to the soldiers who were fighting in wars, when war is a conflict between neighboring nations where hate is manifested in violence.

Continuing our discussion of the Robert Paarlberg text, the most recent chapter we read focused on the politics of obesity. While Paarlberg does consider obesity in the United States to be a problem, he did not advocate the same solutions as the creators of Fed Up, as he ultimately saw obesity as less of a political issue than alcohol or tobacco use and advocated more of a personal solution to the problem. This may be a solution for those educated in healthy eating, but for the poor and uneducated members of the population, there is a gap in knowledge about and resources for staying healthy. I do believe that consumers should have the right to choose what they should eat, but people should be completely aware of the consequences, and no one should ever be forced to eat trash because they don’t have access to healthy, natural food sources.

Before we ate lunch, we worked in the garden at our house with Dalona. She had planted lettuce, peas, and radishes behind the house before we came so we could have our own plot to work in while we were here. Therefore, we had a lot of weeding to do today in hopes that we might be able to harvest some radishes or lettuce before we leave.

Of the two documentaries we watched this evening, the first was Symphony of the Soil, which focused on biodynamic farming practices seeking to improve soil quality while farming while using a method that mimics natural processes. This contradicted many of the views we had heard so far from the conventional producers who have been claiming that organic practices cannot match the yields of conventional practices, which are required to feed the world, especially as the world’s population is predicted to reach 9 billion people by 2050.. According to the documentary, not only can organic biodynamic farming match conventional yields, but it can actually surpass them. This film also somewhat contradicted the Paarlberg text, which said that all forms of agriculture degrade the environment. Symphony of the Soil, on the other hand, asserted that the form of biodynamic agriculture it advocated could actually add to the quality of the soil and turn areas with awful soil into highly productive ones. Not only does the biodynamic organic farming improve the health and productivity of the soil, but it also decreases runoff and erosion into the waterways and increases water absorbed down into the water table underground. A lot of the decreased erosion comes from the cover crop that is left on top of the soil due to the no-till method. The documentary promoted the same no-till practices that Glen Hodnefield yesterday, and it seemed to claim the same benefits from those practices. While these two sources agreed on the no-till method, we heard a different opinion when we heard from Denny Friest later in the evening.

The second documentary we watched was called Ocean Frontiers, and it focused on different practices used along the coastlines and within the mainland were affecting the health of the oceans. The one chapter of the documentary that was most relevant to what we are learning on this trip centered on how nitrogen runoff in Iowa agriculture is making its way into the Mississippi River and flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, creating a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico approximately the size of Massachusetts. Denny Friest, who is our neighbor down the road, played a signfiicant role in the making of the film and was part of a group of farmers that traveled to Mississippi to meet with fisherman and politicians and talk about a plan to reduce the amount of nitrogen flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. After we watched the film, he talked to us about how regulations sometimes frustrated him as a farmer because he knows more about how to fix things on his land as a farmer than one-size-fits-all bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. While I don’t think that every farmer has the same moral fortitude that Denny might have just as it would be in any profession, it was cool to observe how farmers realized they were having a negative effect in the Gulf in the film and took the initiative themselves to fix it.

A lot happened today, even more so than usual. So much so that I don’t think I could talk in detail about everything that happened. Today we went to a brief Memorial Day service, read a chapter in Food Politics, gardened, and watched two separate movies, Symphony of  the Soil and Ocean Frontiers.

Memorial Day involved a short ceremony with the three gunshots and a reading of every veteran buried in Radcliffe cemetery. The people performing the ceremony were American Legion members and it was unfortunately clear that they were considerably older men than most of the people observing the ceremony, which constituted of all ages. Everyone seemed to be quiet during the ceremony and paid their respects with silence, but almost as soon as if ended people began chatting and went on with their day as it was. Although I found that aspect a bit odd, I did notice how this also gave the community a chance to gather and to speak easily with our professor, meeting with up to at least 4 friends himself.

The chapter we read for today was called the Politics of Obesity. Similar to the movie Fed Up, it looked at some of the things that have caused he obesity epidemic and which theories have merit. Firstly I noticed, corn syrup is not a cause. It works essentially the same in our bodies as sugar: it’s just a different sugar. Secondly the book quotes a scientific study saying the biggest contributors are processed meat, sugary drinks (Kool aid, all fruit juices, and soda), and potatoes (fries and chips mostly). Lastly a big issue is that nobody cooks or even eats at home anymore. Most people are looking for a quick meal since both parents were working, or a meal on the go so that they can just drive through on the way to work. These fast meals are not as nutritious and are highly processed to make you buy more, and that’s done by adding sweeteners, sodium, and/or fat. It’s not that they’re evil, it’s that this is business and these things make it taste better; if it tasted like garbage, you’d never buy it. Within this issue is how available fast food is. If you have a McDonald’s on every corner and only one supermarket within a mile you’re going to be going to Mcdonalds primarily (not to mention the excessive ads, especially those aimed at kids, which aren’t regulated like in other countries).

Movie number one was Symphony of the Soil, and focused heavily on the benefits of organic agriculture. More than just organic was the point that you had to work with the land to benefit the soil, growing the organic material while using it for food through natural processes. The richest soils are those with a continual birth and death of plant material to cause continual buildup of more soil (prairies are number 1, forests being number 2). We also learned about legumes and other trees that work with bacteria to absorb nitrogen (needed for growth) from the air and nutrients from the soil. It spoke about the benefits of biodynamic farming, which appeared to me to be almost a subset of organic which focused on natural cycles and minimal inputs (instead of organic pesticides and fertilizers). Farmers would compost or have animals produce manure, use leguminous cover crops, work with crop-animal rotations, inter plant (two-plus species in one row), etc to cause soil to improve even while producing food. Surprisingly they found that during drought these farms could out produce conventional one, and this is because these methods considerably improved water retention. I’d definitely recommend the movie for someone interested in these kinds of things, but would also recommend getting a video about the conventional farmers view. This also didn’t seem to be a primarily scientific movie, but more of an opinionated one (although with influential, intelligent, and PhD speakers) with great stories and animation. A great watch, but something to be taken a little cautiously and with the knowledge that there is another side that they don’t show fully that also needs to be addressed. I personally hope to use the practices that they talk about in the movie on my own property, but I also feel there needs to be more research and more definitive research about these benefits to guide large scale change.

Lastly we had the movie Ocean Frontiers along with Denny Friest, who is a neighbor to the Neubauer and Fiscus (Dalona) families. Denny was actually in the movie as a major farmer in the area and someone on the Board of the Iowa Soybean Association. The movie looked at the California coast, Massachusetts coast, Gulf Coast, Florida Keys, and Iowa farm systems and strategies in conservation. Oregon fishermen banded with scientists and researchers to protect their coral fishery and limit fishing voluntarily, even returning the catch of many pregnant fish. In the Keys, after an area was protected from commercial and recreational uses, there was an outcry from the groups that believed the conservation practice would harm their businesses.  But all of the stakeholders (fishermen, tourist industry, conservationists, etc. anyone with a stake in the corals future) met together and decided to portion out different areas of the coral for different activities so that everyone benefited. In the Port of Boston, whale populations were at risk from the sound and physical threat of large ships delivering goods to Boston Harbor. To balance the needs of the whales and the shipping industry, researchers developed a route for ships with fewer whales and a buoy system that listens for whales and warns on-comers to slow down to avoid being too loud or risk hitting one. Iowa farmers are doing research into no-till, lower fertilizer use, and buffer land practices on top of developing wetlands or prairie lands to improve the water leaving their area to head towards the gulf. Lastly, the gulf itself has created an alliance to get the people in the farming states whose water feeds into the Gulf of Mexico in touch with the conservationists, concerned fishermen, and other stakeholders in this big issue of the Gulf Dead Zone to reduce the amount of nitrogen flowing into the Mississippi and eventually into the Gulf of Mexico. I think that all of these show that there are room for improvements and balance the needs of industries affected and still benefit the environment. Most importantly I think that this shows a key tool to improving the environment is to listen and collaborate with those involved! All of these examples involved stakeholders working together to bring their interests to the table without governmental regulation. A huge complication of governmental regulation (especially when done by the federal government) is that it can only apply a single rule, but conservation, fishing, and farming are very different even within states. Developing local solutions with those who are on the ground and work in the industries that are affected are the most successful and should be looked to as models of how to continue this progress!

The day began with a Memorial Day service at the Radcliffe Cemetery. We honored those who served in the previous wars by reading out all of the names of the veterans. There were soldiers from the Spanish-American War all the way to the Vietnam War. There were soldiers from both the Confederate as well as the Union side of the Civil War, as well as a few women mentioned, one being a nurse. It was a nice ceremony, and I am glad we showed our respect to those who served our country and fought for our freedom. They really are the super heroes of the nation, as the speaker was saying.

When we got back to the farm, we got to go in the garden and pull weeds. Dalona planted us a garden before we came and we saw the effects that happen to a garden if you don’t care for it for a few weeks. The weeds had taken over, but with all of us working together we got those weeds out efficiently and had the garden looking nice.

The next part of our day was spent watching the movie, Symphony of the Soil and learning the perspective of organic farming and treating the soil as the most important aspect. The Green Revolution introduced putting nitrogen into the soil to increase productivity. This brought about the demand for pesticides as well. Putting the nitrogen in the soil brakes down the carbon in the field so the plants can feed on them. What they are trying to encourage now is the no-till practice. With 1/3 of the land being unusable for farming because of erosion, no till has become a popular practice in some quarters because it is more natural and allows earth worms to aerate the soil, making it healthier. There are also farmers like Denny Friest, however, that do till the land to stimulate the decomposition, and he believes it produces a higher yield for him that way. He is also uses less nitrogen on his field to improve water quality, so the environment is improved even though he isn’t practicing no-till like the movie wanted. The movie’s main point was that they wanted all that was taken out of the soil to be returned to it, and so the soil is so rich that GMOs are not needed.  The movie’s perspective was that biotechnology would not solve the problem of feeding a planet with 9 billion (the projected world population in 2050) people on it.

The second movie, starring Denny Friest, was titled Ocean Frontiers and focused on why we need to protect the Earth. The film makers went from coast to coast, including talking to farmers in Iowa about reducing the amount of nitrogen escaping from the agricultural lands, which are responsible for creating the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico to conservationists and shippers in Boston, Massachusetts who were trying to find a way to move ships to the Port of Boston without disturbing whale habitat.  They movie crew also visited the Florida Keys and an Oregon fishing town to see how multiple stakeholders came together to see how their livelihoods were linked to better stewardship of oceans.  The movie was important in its message of protecting the wild life that live in the oceans so we can continue to enjoy them for generations to come as well as keeping the animals flourishing to continue the circle of life.

The last thing to mention is our chapter in Food Politics about the problems we face with the rising obesity rates. Worldwide obesity has nearly doubled in the last three decades and are no where near declining. We are projecting that the U.S. life span will shorten by 2-5 years by 2050. As Americans spend more time in front of computer and television screens as well as jobs that revolve around sitting in a desk, this lack of physical exercise contributes to obesity. Also, the way we eat has changed drastically. From eating fresh foods to now eating fast, processed foods high in calories and sugars have helped us to change in weight. The leaders in this contribution have been an increase in red meat consumption as well as sugary drinks and potatoes, especially chips. In my wellness course, I learned the reason we love chips is not our fault. The chip companies spend tons of money testing the exact crunch that will make our brains want more as well as a flavor that is powerful, but disappears quickly making us want more. The chips also are not filling so our brain does not tell us to stop, leading to an overconsumption of them. The food companies control us in a way by making us crave their products that are high in calories and high in sugar, which are bad for us and cause us to gain weight, especially if we are sitting most of the day. In 2010, a study by the OECD found that our government is doing a poor job in changing these statistics by relying on information campaigns and subsidies to try to make us make healthier choices. It is not completely the government’s fault that we are fat as a nation, but if they don’t do something to make a change, tons and tons of our money will go into treating the raising numbers of diabetes and hypertension, all of which are preventable if we change our eating habits and increase exercise.

The garden with weeds

The garden afterwards!

Even though today was Memorial Day, we certainly did not get a day off. We started the day by going to the Memorial Day Service at the cemetery in Radcliffe. It was really interesting since I haven’t been to hardly any. It was much more churchy than I expected, but it was short and sweet. There were so many fallen soldiers in that tiny town! I heard the name Friest once and the name Espe twice. It was really cool to hear names that I’d heard before. It really was a beautiful ceremony.

Going back to the obesity issue, we read a chapter in Paarlberg’s book yesterday and today about the politics of obesity. I agree with him much more than I did with the Fed Up movie. He recognized that there was an issue, but he also recognized the implications that come with regulating it. He specifically mentioned how important it is for people to have choices, which is something I mentioned in my previous post as being really important to me. I liked how he examined different ways of addressing the issue along with their pros and cons. The only thing I didn’t like was his use of the term “weak policies” in regards to policies with less regulation. Weak has a negative connotation and I think that it would have been better to instead refer to them as less regulatory policies to avoid the judgmental tone, which I believe was his goal..

The rest of our day, besides a short trip to Ames and wonderful food by Dolana, was spent watching two movies. The first was called “Symphony of the Soil” and was about different types of soil, our impact on the soil, the consequences of our actions, and how we can help. It was really eye opening to me to see what a huge difference there is between organic and no-till practices and conventional factory farming. It really put yesterday’s encounter with Glen into perspective. The second was called “Ocean’s Frontier” and was about the impact that the entire country has on the health of our oceans. We’ve talked about the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico before but I really didn’t know that the oceans on all sides of us were being affected. It was also really cool to see Denny Friest, a familiar face, in the movie, talking about what farmers in Iowa are doing to reduce their negative impact on the water. I appreciated his opinion and everything he is doing to help the environment, but I personally don’t think its enough. He seems to be almost completely focused on the water while ignoring the soil aspect. He specifically mentioned that if farmers were more open minded they would see that there are better ways, but directly went against this in his adamant denial of no-till farming. I thought it was hypocritical of him and kind of put him in the group of farmers that he was complaining about. I did enjoy both movies, though, and I’m very excited to meet the famous Annette tomorrow.

The first thing we did today was to go to Mark Tintjer’s house to learn about beekeeping. For someone who got his start in beekeeping by buying a book about it and then learning by trial and error, it was inspiring to see how much he knew about it and the significant scope of his operation. He let us watch as he moved each shelf from one of his hives into a bigger box because the number of bees was getting too large for the previous box. While doing this, he showed us that drone bees do not have stingers like worker bees, which is something that I never knew. He also pointed out the queen bee to us, which is longer than the rest of the bees and is the only one in the hive. At one point we even got to eat the larva of a drone bee, which tasted pretty disgusting but is apparently high in protein. After that, Mark took us into his house, which he built with his own hands, and explained how he extracted honey from the combs to sell. It was also very interesting to hear him and his wife talk about their general dislike for many conventional farming practices. Beyond many of the pesticides having negative affects on his bees, Mark and his wife also have an organic garden, and they explained how many of the plants in their garden are sometimes ruined by drifting pesticides from the conventional corn and soybean fields surrounding their house. Overall, Mark was a very fascinating and hardworking individual and I admired everything he was doing on his land.

After leaving Mark’s house, we went to go talk to Glen Hodnefield about both his no-till and strip-till practices, which are viewed by most of the surrounding corn and soybean farmers as unusual. The idea behind not tilling one’s fields is to reduce the erosion that occurs on many conventional corn and soybean fields. It also saves the farmer time and money because he/she does not have to go out in the fields to till them. Because Glen also has some highly erodible land (HEL), he is both required by the government and personally motivated to apply land conservation practices like his no-till and strip-till methods and other conservation practices like grass waterways and buffer strips. It was cool to see how a corn and soybean farmer was putting to use some of the practices that we learned about when talking with the Iowa Environmental Council.

I’ve always been really afraid of bees, and of any animal capable of stinging me for that matter. But two years ago I somehow became really interested in the idea of one day becoming a beekeeper. If I remember correctly this interest began as part of an attempt for me to overcome my fears that led to me forcing myself to allow bees to land on me while I fought my instinct to flee. Surprisingly over time this tactic worked while my beekeeping aspirations were stalled due to timing and circumstances. That being said, today when I heard we were going to visit a local beekeeper excited did not even begin to describe my emotions.

From the moment I met Mark his enthusiasm and passion for his hobby was contagious. He started beekeeping 15 years ago with no prior knowledge about it. Apparently he just started by reading a book called “Beekeeping for Beginners” and now fifteen years later he’s an expert on everything bee-related. This was really encouraging to me because I sometimes feel like it would be hard for me to start something such as beekeeping or gardening because I do not have any immediate resources to draw on to help me get started, but I could easily just find books and soak up the knowledge from them. I loved seeing the bees and hearing Mark explain how bees behave and the complex social dynamics of the hive. I tried to be super brave by being one of the only people to not wear any protective gear while Mark opened the hives and being the first person to try the bee larvae, my bravery paid off and somehow we all escaped without any stings!

Getting up close and personal with the hive

It was also interesting to listen to Mark and his wife express their strong feels towards conventional agriculture and the spraying of pesticides on crops. I was alarmed to hear how some of the spray from the neighbor’s crops had drifted over onto their organic garden and killed off their plants To me it seems fairly obvious that if the chemicals being sprayed on corn and soybeans killed Mark’s family’s plants those same chemicals should not be being consumed by humans. While we have been hearing this same sort of anti-chemicals talk from the organic farmers we have met within the past few days it almost meant even more to hear it from your average Iowan (although, Mark with his extraordinary talent and numerous skills is anything but average). I found it fascinating that Mark works full-time at the Barilla Pasta factory yet still has managed to take so much time to devote to his beekeeping, and has even won the Iowa State Fair Grand Prize Beekeeping blue-ribbon twice. This made him a very different voice for alternative agriculture practices than the people we have met with at Table Top and the Wallace Centers.

Later we visited with an advocate of conservation practices within conventional farming, Dr. HN’s friend Glen Hodnefield, who talked to us about something we had heard a lot about but not in much detail: no-till farming practices. He was equally passionate about his work in tending his land in a way to make it the least susceptible to soil erosion and water run-off. I found it interesting that he considered one of his greatest assets to be the earthworms that lived in his soil. My favorite part of our time with Glen was seeing the buffer area he had let grow around the small creek right next to one of his corn fields. After hearing a lot about the terrible water quality of most of Iowa’s rivers due to soil run-off it was great to see a crystal clear body of water, right in the middle of a field nonetheless! This showed me that there is definitely merit to following basic conservation practices.

The lovely Crick

One theme that I have seen mentioned by people I have met in Iowa concerning their pursuit of their passions is how they made many mistakes, which turned out to be their best learning experiences. The message that mistakes are one of the greatest ways to learn something and improve was important for me to hear repeated by the many people we met with (Mosa, Luke, Sally, Mark, and Glen just to name a few) as I’m often afraid of getting involved in new things because I’m scared that I won’t be good at them. I have long considered this aversion to things I do not show an immediate talent for to be one of my greatest character flaws. But the people I have met here have really helped to encourage me to be less afraid of making mistakes and have given me the courage to start something new and out of my comfort zone.

Glen showing us his no-till field. (Note the progress of the corn only two weeks after planting)