Monday began back in Radcliffe, with a trip to the Friest Farm. Unlike most of the farms we had seen recently, the Friests were conventional farmers through and through. At the farm, we got our first opportunity to get into a running tractor and get a better understanding of it. What surprised me the most about it was all the things it had inside it. There were ac and heating, a radio, and the tractor was able to drive by itself and only needed the farmer to turn it. After that, we saw how the feed for their hogs was made. They showed the group they use their corn and beans they grew in their feed as well as some other nutrients. I think that the practice of using the things grown on your farm as feed to be some of the most sustainable farming because you do not need any outside products. The next thing was feeding some of the hogs in their barns. One of the most interesting things I learned was that at each stage of the pig’s life, it gets a different ration of feed. The last thing and by far the coolest thing I did at the Friest Farm was AI (artificially inseminate). We learned the technique of using the boar to stimulate the sows, and then the techniques for artificially inseminating the sows; finally, we got to do the procedure ourselves.

After the time on the farm, we made our way to Iowa City to the University of Iowa to meet with Connie Mutel. Here Connie compared the change in farms to climate change. She showed how the landscape has changed since settlers came here and because of this extreme change, the climate has been affected. This climate change, according to Connie, is irreversible and us now affecting everything about the weather. Connie thinks the future is in a carbon neutral world with renewable energy and no fossil fuels. She also thinks that the innovation of new technologies will also help in the future to prevent these changes.

On Sunday, the May X put on the show Map of My Kingdom. It was written by Iowa’s Poet Laureate, Mary Swander, and deals with the issue of land transition. Even before the play, the idea of land transfer had been talked about a lot. The reason for this is with the aging population of farmers there will be a lot of land in Iowa trading hands. This was the reason why Practical Farmers of Iowa commissioned Mary Swander to write the play in the first place–to help start the conversation within the family. This conversation can be so hard to have with ones family because it deals with two topics that are hard to talk about: money and death. The play was in my mind an excellent way to start that type of conversation with a community because it gave examples of times where the family was prepared and had talked about it and then avoid some of the worst case scenarios. Not only would this show be prevalent to farming communities, but it would also be good to see with most families no matter what they do for a living and how to deal with the tough situation.
After the play and a talk back with Mary Swander, there was a panel who talked about how they experience and how they dealt with the situations. The three people on the panel were Rev. Dr. Matthew Rueger, Mr. Ron Pepples, a lawyer., and Mr. Chris Brinkmeyer, a banker. All three had very interesting things to say and gave more real world answers about how to go about this.

Throughout the trip we have continuously talked about water quality in Iowa and Saturday was no different. We started our day at the Storm Lake Times, where we talked to Pulitzer Prize winner Art Cullen. During our conversation with him, we hit on so many different points. The first and biggest one was with water quality and Storm Lake. This water issue was highlighted by the fact that Storm Lake uses to be super deep and clear, but over the decades of farming, the lake became foggy and much more shallow. This is due to runoff created by farmers who till and don’t plant cover crops. Many of the lakes are becoming more shallow or drying up completely throughout Iowa. Art views that one of the two biggest issues in the upcoming caucus is the environment related to farming. The conversation then shifted over to more political issues. Just like Councilman Ibarra, Art pointed out a big thing within the election on the single issue voters. Art thought that the politicians should not be so focused on these issues and try to please both sides and not be extreme to one idea.
After the long drive up to Lake Okoboji to meet with the queen of water, Mary Skopec. While with her she showed us how we can test our own water from our taps. We first tested a little river that was on the property of the laboratory. We found that it was very clean because we tested for nitrites and nitrates, phosphorus, and dissolved oxygen. We then went to another site where there was planting and the tests came back a lot different with higher levels of all of these items..

On Tuesday we woke up in Iowa City and drove to the University of Iowa to meet Dr. Dave Cwiertny who is the Director at Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination at the University of Iowa. He spoke to us about water contamination in Iowa and how it effects public health. He touched on how manure use, and practices can have unhealthy affects that cause, air and water pollution. I loved visiting Iowa University. I don’t know what I was expecting exactly but I was really impressed by the campus and I loved the University. Iowa City was very trendy and fun. We were fortunate enough to have time before our next appointment and we got to independently explore the city for a little. The girls and I walked around popping into little boutiques and shops. We went in a book store and a retro comic shop. It was nice to bond with the other girls and explore the city a little bit. We decided on a place to eat and sat outside, as it was an uncharacteristically nice day that day, to enjoy our meal.

After eating we met back up at our glorious van to journey on to a nearby park to meet with Dr. Chris Jones, who is a research Engineer for the Iowa Institute Hydraulic Research. I missed the beginning of his talk as it took place on the other side of a grove of poison ivy of which I am incredibly allergic, but fortunately the rest of the discussion took place at nearby picnic table. I was interested and a little put off by some of his comments. He spoke positively about round-up and said in defense of round-up having been accused of causing cancer, “anything in excess can be bad for you.” He then went on to compare round up to peanut butter saying that too much peanut butter would also be bad for you. In my mind this argument makes zero sense. I was incredibly surprised that someone who researches water and health effects would have anything positive to say about round up. He even said that he believes overall, round up is a good tool. I also found him to be a bit cocky in his opinions. We have spoken to many people that are classified as experts in their own fields and many of them have had differing opinions that contradict each other. Of course, they each claim that they are right, and their research is right and everyone else is wrong. This makes it hard to know exactly what is true. I found Dr. Jones to be especially cocky in his opinions and his capacity to have the right answers. He also argued that increasing soil health is not always the right thing to do. This is an oxymoron. Improving the heath of soil is always a good thing. He argued that healthy soil has more nitrogen and farmers are so used to putting nitrogen on their fields because their soil does not have enough nitrogen. Therefore, is the soil being healthy and the farmers are spraying nitrogen, there will be way too much nitrogen. This argument seems kind of ridiculous to me. The farmers can just stop spraying nitrogen. This saves them money and effort. It seems like a win win. He also said that corn is at the top of the food chain in farming, like buying a corvette- I would argue it’s the easiest and most common crop is Iowa and would be more of the Toyota Camry of crops, everyone in Iowa is growing corn. Chestnut trees are much riskier with a higher investment and higher payout which seems much more like the corvette of farming.

On Saturday we went to meet Art Cullen. I was a little worried that the meeting would end up being disappointing as we spent the entire trip hyping up Art Cullen. Luckily, he lived up to the hype. Art Cullen is a Pulitzer prize winner and a writer for The Storm Lake Times. His editorials are frequently featured in the Washington Post. He is also the author of Storm Lake, the book that was assigned to us for this May Experience,. He was funny, candid, well-spoken and witty. In the beginning of our time with him he essentially summed up everything we had learned on the trip so far. He then answered a variety of questions that we asked him. He spoke about politics and the upcoming elections. Iowa is a very important state for candidates to win and the Iowa caucus is not too far away. This month alone many of the Democratic candidates have been traveling around Iowa trying to get Iowa voters. The number one issue on Iowa voters’ minds is water quality and agriculture regulations. With the current tariffs on soy beans, Iowa farmers want to hear how the candidates will make a difference for them. It was interesting to hear Art Cullen’s take as an Iowa native who grew up on a farm and is well versed in politics. I found his opinions to be very insightful and interesting and I absolutely loved chatting with him.

Sunday was very different than any other day of our trip so far. When we arrived back at Radcliffe, we began to set up for a special performance of Map of My Kingdom by poet laureate Mary Swander. After completing our duties of handing our programs and ushering, we sat down to enjoy the one-person performance. The show was about the transference of land from generation to generation and the various problems that accompany that transition. The play touched on family turmoil over having to decide who gets the farm. There were stories about family members killing each other or losing their livelihood over the decision of who gets the farm. I was really surprised that a lot of the play alluded to organic farming. There were mentions of leaving the earth better than you found it and protecting God’s creation. These comments seemed almost slipped in. As I was watching the play, I could not help glancing around at the people of Radcliffe. We have spent enough time here for me to notice that a large amount of the farmers here farm conventionally. This means that they do not use organic practices and they use GMOs and pesticides. I watched to see how they were reacting to the comments. There were some crossed arms and frowning but no overt reactions. After the show there was a talk back after where Mary Swander spoke a bit about the show and the message the show conveyed. She did not talk about the comments about organic farming. There was not even a slight mention of it. This was probably for the best because the farmers might have felt personally attacked.

When does the health of citizens become worth more than business and worth more than economy. This may seem radical but without citizens who are healthy there would be no economy. The lack governmental regulations and strong public policy has led to to serious water crisis to rural citizens in the Midwest.

When we have talked about a potential water crisis for rural Iowa citizens it has sometimes been met with a small chuckle and a description of apocalyptic wrapped in air quotations. A kind of joking reaction to what could be (and is) a serious problem.

In a New York Times article titled, “Rural America’s Own Private Flint,” by Jack Healy, he describes how Midwestern citizens are suffering from contaminated water. This impending health crisis has awoken one thing out of citizens and that is the drive to vote. The article explains how some elected officials have cut back on budgets on “environmental enforcement and inspections” making it easier for pollution to go unchecked. These decisions are likely to be challenging in upcoming elections by candidates that are advocates for stronger enforcement of clean water regulations. There is a new sense of accountability being placed on politicians by rural voters. Communities need help cleaning their water. They need options and financial assistance, and I think that assistance should be available to all members of the community.

I understand that no one wants to point the finger but, I think we should. I’ve said before and I will say it again. Big Ag. Big Ag is a big contributor to this water epidemic. We have to acknowledge the fact that the practices that keep these big 1000+ acre farms running are also ruining the places where we live. Farmers are the problem and consumers are too. The low food prices we have are made possible by the mass production of crops. As consumers I think it is also our role to recognize that we are eating our way into an environmental crisis. So yes, the farms need regulation, they need policy, they need government intervention, but as consumers we play have a responsibility as well. We can tell food producers to clean up their act. We can buy foods that are made through clean practices; using minimal manure, using no till, using no pesticides.

This approach is just a start, not a solution. It leaves out a people and treats the problem like a one fix solution. But if we don’t start now then most damages already made may be irreversible.

We are killing our access to diversity, which in turn is killing us. Water is just one problem that fits into a whole mosaic of catastrophe.

June 2^nd, 2019

“It is easier to talk to your kids about sex than talk about land transition.”

 ~ An anonymous farmer

After a long day of driving and a bit of relaxation we traveled to Garden City, Iowa to see a production of Map of My Kingdom.  Professor Mary Swander, Iowa’s Poet Laureate from 2009-2019, wrote the play.

The play was commissioned by Practical Farmers of Iowa, which wanted the play to focus on the issue of land transition in farming, also known as succession planning. People over 65 years old own much of the farmland in Iowa. The purpose of the play is to get the conversation started about issues like who’s going to get the farm, how the farm can stay intact and if inheritance plans will lead to family peace or strife. Swander emphasizes discussing these issues openly.  The topic is portrayed through different farmers’ perspectives on how they tackled the problem. For instance, one daughter was so fearful of her family, including her husband, that she had all the guns removed from the house. Another story covered how non-farming members want to sell their portion while the farming members want to keep the land intact. You are left with a better sense of how complicated land transition can really be for family relationships. It was interesting that Practical Farmers of Iowa commissioned this play especially since this issue is so different from the discussions we had with them about topics like pesticide drift and crop protection. Another personal takeaway for me from the play was that before this trip I never really perceived farming to be a family business.  The play provided me with a different perspective of farming and the struggles farmland owners face with transferring land from one generation to the next.

After the performance there was a short intermission, followed by a talk back with Professor Swander and a panel discussion with the Reverend. Dr. Matthew Rueger, lawyer Ron Pepples, and Chris Brinkmeyer, a banker at Central State Bank.

June 3^rd, 2019

To start off our last week in Iowa, some of the group went to the Brent Friest Farm to slide into the driver’s seat of a tractor, see their pig operation, and learn how to artificially inseminate their pigs. The tractor is equipped with precision farming technology, including touchscreens and remote steering that has become an important part of farm management. Earlier in the trip we talked about precision agriculture and how farmers use GPS to map their farms and make sure seeds are planted in the right place, with proper spacing and depth. After our brief tour of one of their tractors, we headed into their pig confinements to feed them. After the pigs were fed we learned about the process of artificial insemination (AI) and proceeded to inseminate five of them. To entice the sows, a boar is brought in. After the pigs notice the boar is present, they are ready to be inseminated. This involves sticking the tube into the rear off the pig at an upward angle.  The AI took about five minutes. After the process was finished, I was happy to text my mom that I officially got a pig pregnant.

Today we also went to the University of Iowa’s Hydraulic Laboratory to meet with Connie Mutel, who is a retired plant ecologist and science writer. For 30 years, she worked at Iowa’s Hydroscience and Engineering Laboratory. Mutel’s discussion covered climate change and the history of Iowa’s natural environment. She mentioned that there is little nature land left as a result of the most rapid land transition in the last generation. In the past, 80% of Iowa’s landscape was prairie grass and now most of the state has become agricultural land. Regarding the future, Mutel thinks that the major environmental issues are water in regard to quality and quantity, climate change, soil erosion, and pollution. In her opinion, if we don’t change our current ways of dealing with climate change, by 2100 temperature rise will increase by 3-5 degrees, carbon dioxide will increase to above 800 ppm, and the melting of Antarctic ice melts will cause sea levels to rise by 200 feet. While she mentioned these issues, she also mentioned different solutions. Mutel proposes letting our temperature increase then level off and start declining by 2040. She also recognizes the importance of restoring Iowa’s landscape to prairies since they are more sustainable and capture carbon as well as energy, whereas cornfields require fossil fuels and are considered less sustainable.  Lastly, to become carbon neutral Mutel supports the switch to renewable energy. Another anectode she mentioned was the issue about runoff of phosphorus and nitrogen from Iowa farms into the Mississippi River that create dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico. This has been a recurring issue mentioned at many different organizations throughout this trip, including the Iowa Environmental Council.

To end our day, we had a dinner at Orchard Green in Iowa City with Rep. Mary Mascher (D-Iowa City), a member of the Iowa House of Representatives.  During dinner we discussed what we have been doing in Iowa, our favorite parts of the trip and our views on the current presidential candidates. Although it was a long day, the presentations and activities were very interesting.

Today we met with Connie Mutel. We traveled to Iowa City to meet her at the University of Iowa Hydraulics Lab. While her talk was extremely scientific (unfortunately a lot of technical science language goes in one ear and out the other), I was able to follow the majority of her talk. As her talk went on, I felt myself feeling more and more upset. The quick summary of her talk would be that the earth, specifically the prairie, used to be this otherworldly, magical place and humans have essentially ruined it and have dug our own graves. We have poisoned our own planet and if something is not done right now, we will reach a point we cannot return from. I found her talk to be more upsetting and sadder than even the gestation stalls. The idea that if something big doesn’t change, we will be in real danger is terrifying. I personally doubt people will be willing to give up their big pollution emitting trucks and their methane polluting cows. I can hardly imagine an America without fossil fuels. This is especially true because there are still so many people out there who don’t believe in climate change. I even know some of these people. If they don’t even believe climate change is happening, it is unlikely they will change their lives to stop it. Knowing this makes me feel helpless. How can I tell my kids one day that their parents and their grandparents’ generations did nothing to stop climate change and left later generations to fix our mistakes? I want my kids to look back at my generation and be thankful that we decided to make a change to save our planet. Before we can focus on women’s rights, immigration or foreign policy we need to address climate change because otherwise nothing matters.

         After meeting with her I reflected on my actions and my carbon footprint during my twenty years on earth. This made me think of my parents and how they live their lives. This then brought back memories from when I lived on a Coast Guard base in California. At the time my father was the commanding officer of the base. I was in elementary school at the time and a lot of those three years feels a bit hazy and kind of a blur, but I do have some really clear memories. One of these memories is when my father implemented a solar field on the base. The base was surrounded by pasture fields and farm country. Some of the land of the base was field areas that were rented out to local farmers to take care of. My dad decided to make one of these fields a solar field. I remember the day where the solar panels were officially implemented. My family accompanied my father to the figurative ‘ribbon cutting’ ceremony where I flipped the ceremonial switch that started the solar panels. I remember people clapping, and my father being proud, but I don’t think I understood at the time what any of it meant. Knowing what I know now, I look back at that moment with so much pride. My father did many wonderful things during his time as Commanding Officer of the Coast Guard TraCen Petaluma, but I am so proud that he used his three years to make a difference that will not only leave a legacy for the base in years to come but will actually make a difference for the future of our planet. While at the time I did not grasp the impact of his decisions, I can now look back and be so proud of the things he did. In an article from a reporter from this day there is a quote from my father “We want to be a good neighbor and a good steward,” said Captain Chris Hall , Commanding Officer of TRACEN Petaluma. “This is an area that is incredibly environmentally sensitive. It’s important to our neighbors, it’s important to our Congresswoman, and to be a good steward in the Coast Guard is important to us.” The article goes on to say “The agreement helps the Coast Guard save money, have less of an impact on the environment and decreases the demand for energy on the local community power grid. The project is estimated to save TRACEN Petaluma $1.5 million in energy costs over the life of the contract.” I am so proud of my father and how he has worked to promote a better future for me and my siblings.

The article I referenced: https://coastguard.dodlive.mil/2009/10/cg-green-tracen-petaluma-goes-solar/