After an early wakeup morning, we had a nice group breakfast of granola courtesy of Dalona. Without much waiting we headed off to Ellsworth college to meet Dr. Kevin Butt to talk about farm safety. Once there we learned a few pieces of information such as the average Iowa farm size is 850 acres.  Then we delved into safety. The points of the discussion that really stood out to me were how high on the list of dangerous jobs farming ranks and the risks heavy equipment bring. Farming is the number 4 most dangerous job in America, and we saw a number of videos showing why. One of the biggest dangers was large equipment that runs the risk of angry drivers when being driven on the highway.  Such equipment can also strike electrical wires, fast moving parts which can snag someone’s clothing, and, if not careful, they can even flip. One of the more frightening, but positive stories we saw was that a man was walking on the corn in a grain bin while emptying it, and he fell through the corn hollow formed as it was being drawn out of the silo. He luckily survived, but few do, and Dr. Butt explained that emergency workers called to situations where a person is trapped into a grain bin usually are recovery situations rather than rescue ones. Although it was meant to scare us a bit, Dr. Butt left us with the memo that being aware and thinking through what your doing will prevent many accidents.

Next we talked about pigs and safety within pig farms, the industrial kind not the outdoor kind. Hopefully I’ll have more to say about that soon, but most of the talk was about how to get the job done while still keeping the pigs as stress free as possible. Our last topic with Dr. Butt was precision ag, which is exactly what it sounds like. This involves machinery to monitor inputs or outputs and even satellite-guided machinery to keep things as straight and efficient as possible. Some are even unmanned! Although not really marketable yet, he even discussed the possibility of drones to get these satellite images or even to do the planting or precise herbicide applications. This whole system is to improve efficiency by keeping everything precise and well monitored. After a short talk about the difference between red, blue, and green (Case, Kinze, and John Deere brand equipment) we left Dr. Butt for dinner at the Wallace house. This dinner briefly mentioned Henry Wallace, but primarily focused on local foods and serious conversations at the dinner table. Our focus was farmers markets, which I unfortunately have no experience with, but we talked a lot about the local food movement which I’m a bit more knowledgeable about. After a three course local dinner we finished up and headed back for the house and ended the night.

Tomorrow is supposed to be the biodiesel plant which will bring up my chemistry knowledge and interests so I hope to have a bit more to say then (hopefully in English and not tech-talk)!

Today was our first full day on this trip, and it was absolutely exhausting.  We first started the day with some granola and fruit prepared by Dalona, and we then went off to Ellsworth Community College to learn about farm safety and precision agriculture with Professor Kevin Butt.  He began the lecture by showing us photographs of accidents and telling us accident stories, and my over-thinking, city-oriented self believed that the tractor would spontaneously combust or tip over as soon as I touch it.  However, it is entirely appropriate that we learn how to safely function on the farm, especially considering that farming is fourth on the list of most dangerous occupations in America.  The lecture was very informative, but most farm accidents basically come from not having your mind completely on the present activity.  If you need to remember anything, the trick to safe farming is staying focused, being aware, and following safety protocol.

After a short break, we then learned about swine unit safety and swine behavior.  Because of the prominence of hog farms throughout Iowa and the spread of PEDV (porcine epidemic diarrhea virus), we had to learn about the proper way to clean before and after going to hog farms.  PEDV has cropped up very recently across the country and is beginning to affect the hog supply in the U.S., by killing piglets.  Spread by fecal particulates, it can infect an entire hog house in the span of minutes and even from farm to farm miles away in the wind.  Other than as a source of income for farmers, hogs are also important because their manure can be and are often used as fertilizer for the crops on the farm.  But pig manure is also dangerous to humans because the high levels of gases that can build up in the pits underneath hog barns and and compounds in the particulate are damaging to human lungs.

After lunch at the Princess Café in Iowa Falls, we stopped by the main campus where Mr. Butt showed us the technology associated with precision farming.  Basically, precision farming means farming with a GPS to maximize efficiency and productivity per acre.  It was fascinating to hear how precise it was.  The highest tech machinery features automatic steering while also working within an inch of the desired rows in the field.  Additionally, the “brain box” monitors how much seed is planted in what section of the field and how much a specific section produces.  Mr. Butt hypothesizes that the next trend would be planting by drones.  I was not aware of how high-tech farming could be, but all of the automation kind of reminded me of the human farming in The Matrix.

We ended the day by stopping at The Wallace House in Des Moines.  This house was the home of Henry C. and Nancy Wallace, but it has since been converted into a restaurant that promotes local foods.  However, this dinner was one of a weekly series of dinners called, “Food for Thought,” which “combines locally-sourced dining with conversation about food.”  Each week, there is a new topic of conversation that is directed by cards left on the table as well as by a local expert on the subject.  Today’s subject was Farmers Markets and the benefits of eating local.  It is almost impossible to describe how good the meal was, so here is a link that describes the menu and the Wallace Center dining experience.

The horses at Ellsworth Community College

This is Cookie.

Catching up on beauty sleep.

Dinner at Food for Thought

The menu for Food for Thought

Learning how to use a syringe

Precision Farming technology

Kevin Butt teaching us about tractor safety

Stuart Nichols

P.S. I finally beat 2048.

Today we learned about an interesting combination of topics that seemed to be largely philosophically opposed to one another, those being precision agriculture and the local food movement. During our visit with Kevin Butt, we discussed farm safety which is definitely important, but what really got me thinking about things was his obvious fascination with any new type of agricultural technology. The most impressive one by far that he discussed is not currently used but he seems to believe that it will be used in the near future. This would be a drone that is able to locate weeds in fields and kill them with lasers. While this was the most outlandish technology we discussed, there were many more examples that were both impressive but also concerned me in that they seemed to be further degrading the relationship between humanity and the land. Many argue that this is the only way to feed the ever increasing human population. I’m not sure that this is the case and that claim could probably be debated, but even if it is, then maybe the entire human population should not continue to be fed.

On the other side of the argument was the man who we talked to at the Wallace Center who was in charge of the local farmer’s market. He was an advocate for the return to local food economies and Kevin Butt would have most likely been opposed to his views. It was interesting to see how passionate both he and Kevin were about the different work that they did even though their work was so drastically different. I wanted to ask him about how he would respond to the argument that his method of feeding the population would not actually feed the entire population, but I never got the chance.

Today is my first time ever being in Iowa or in the rural Midwest.  I had previously been to Colorado and Illinois, but it was only to their largest cities of Denver and Chicago.  It wasn’t a bad trip, however, getting from Des Moines to the house in Radcliffe.  First, we stopped at Gateway Market and Café, an organic/natural foods store not too dissimilar from Whole Foods.  Then, we traveled through Ames to stop at Walmart for some last-minute toiletry shopping.  At first, I couldn’t really tell a difference between Des Moines and any other capital city.  However, as we rode along to the suburbs and beyond, the landscape quickly changed from nice green fields to flat farmlands, just in the amount of time it takes to pass a single line of trees.

Finally, we got to the Neubauer farm.  After settling in, the group got to meet both Denny Neubauer, the brother of our professor, and Dalona Fiscus, a Neubauer neighbor and our cook for our time here.  I was first struck by how open and hospitable everyone seemed to be.  They seem just so willing to help each other out and welcome each other into their homes as often as possible.  This is also true for farmers that I have met back in South Carolina as well.  My theory is that the residents of small farming communities are all pretty much invested in the same outcomes, knowing exactly what goes into and should be expected from farming, and are also familiar to each other’s histories and hardships.  Odds are, if one farmer is experiencing something bad, then the neighbors are feeling the same thing.

Tomorrow, we will be doing a tour of a variety of different farming matters, including safety.  However, we will also be learning more about Henry A. Wallace, the former secretary of agriculture, secretary of commerce, and vice president under Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Progressive Party candidate in the 1948 presidential election.  We watched a biographical documentary on him tonight, but I will go further into the subject in the next blog entry.

So far, I like what I am seeing, and I look forward to whatever comes next!

Now that I am finally here, I am a little less nervous but just as excited. Flying in was nerve racking, but getting to see how different Iowa is from home is interesting. Everything is so flat and straight and organized. Even the cemetery that we passed over was in neat little rows as opposed to the conglomeration of headstones in the cemeteries at home. I’m so used to the hills and twisting roads of Greenville that it was completely foreign to drive straight for so long.
I feel very comfortable here. Even the smell is comforting, oddly enough. I think it reminds me of my grandparents’ house in Indiana, or maybe just the barn. I loved seeing all of Denny’s tractors and machines. I can’t wait to relearn how to drive one! Today was a good start, but now that it’s over, I’m utterly exhausted.

During my flight to Iowa (or maybe Detroit?) when I wasn’t sleeping I was reading  a collection of short stories by the famous Sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick (aka.PKD). While sci-fi has never been my genre I have recently been drawn in by the profound philosophical and political themes of PDK’s stories. One story I read today (probably written in or before the 70s),“The Variable Man”, was set around the year 2132. In the story the inhabitants of planet Terra, the Terrans, are at war with the Centaurian Empire. The Terran governmental war machine is constantly working to create weapons to break through Centaura, so they can expand.They finally find the hope to do so with the new missile “Icarus.” The problem is that no one possesses the skill or knowledge to know how to fix this machinery at least until a man from the year 1914 is accidentally brought to the future in a “Time Bubble.” This man is a basic rural craftsman from the Midwest who lands in Terra with his horse and “Fixit” buggy and basic tools. Long story short the rural craftsman is shown to not  only be the sole  person capable of fixing Icarus, but also transforming it from a weapon into a shuttle to take the Terrans’ to new unexplored territories.
I’m pretty sure the main point of this story was to serve as a warning against over specialization in industry and to create a greater sense of respect for the mechanical arts. I was reminded of this story today when Denny was giving us his tour of the farm. Particularly in the way he talked about his tractors and his workshop. While Denny, and pretty much everyone else in society, have benefited greatly from various technological advancements, there is something to be said for retaining  a general holistic knowledge of how things work. Denny seemed to me to show a balance of adaptation to new technologies as well as the retention of basic mechanical skills that could still be said to qualify him as a craftsman of sorts. This gave me hope that maybe if more people could cultivate this balanced approach we could avoid the future that is so concerning to PKD. A warning echoing Tocqueville’s concern that  democratic society’s taste for material well-being and advancement of the practical arts (ie. “progress”) could lead us to become so enraptured in the enjoyment of these new arts that we entirely lose our ability to create them.  In the process, we lose a part of our humanity (Tocqueville outright says “brutes” so I’m being positive). This conflict between classic craftsmanship that looks at things holistically against the various shortcuts provided by technology which  lead to specialization is something I don’t entirely comprehend but find fascinating.

May 15:

Our morning began with some delicious home made granola followed by our drive to Ellsworth Community College where we met Kevin Butt, a man full of knowledge and experience. Listening to him speak was fascinating not only because he was so interested in the topic himself, but because he had his own stories to tell that added a personal twist to the day. I learned a lot about how dangerous farming can be and it was really an eye opener into the life of being a farmer. Not only will I be extra cautious while here on the farm, but it did make me realize how careless I can be driving which is something I will change when I go back home. I am notorious for texting and driving or driving with my knee. It is somewhat impressive, but after seeing all the accidents that happen from just being too comfortable with a machine will make me head towards stopping those habits. Also, all the information about the hogs was fascinating. It never crossed my mind that people have to give them vaccinations or move them, but I am glad that they are doing so by trying to cause the least amount of stress possible to the animals. That makes me feel a little better about the treatment, but I do wish that they would incorporate outside time for the animals. I am curious as to how my outlook on food will change by the end of this trip. I really haven’t thought about where it came from or how it was handled but now I am intrigued.

This brings me to farmers markets which we discussed some over dinner. I do not go on a regular basis to ours, but I actually want to go now. I think I will eat more local foods after this and I may try to eat more free range animals. I cannot say for sure though because Chick-Fil-A is probably the world’s greatest thing to me, and I couldn’t give up on that, but I think I will incorporate more local and free range foods when possible. I am glad that we did discuss this because I have never really had the opportunity to discuss it or think about it and I am loving the different view points and discussions from the other students here. Also, random, but I totally want a drone that zaps weeds!

Kevin Butt teaches us about tractor safety

First animal visit!

My trip to Iowa began this morning at 6:30 A.M., a time that I usually am never up to experience, but have the feeling that this month will change that. I was all packed and ready to go, even though my flight was not. But, somehow it all seemed to work out, and I was able to eat lunch with the whole group, which was something I enjoyed. Once we got to the farm, the guided tour by Denny was a nice outlook on farm life. It is amazing to see how big some of the equipment is and how much it costs. I will be very interested to see these machines in action. I love the small town feel and how everyone is so warm and hospitable here. Farming culture is very admirable from the values ingrained in the people to the wide variety of skill sets required to be a farmer. I cannot imagine all the things I would need to know to live and function here. Especially given the fact that my income was based on the weather. That would scare me regularly, but it may be worth it to get the life experience you receive. It was so nice to sit down to dinner, all as a group, and relax and laugh while sharing stories. This concept is something I am afraid we are losing in this day and age of communication. Cell phones and busy schedules are ruining family dinners, and I really look forward to a month of home cooked meals sitting with a group of people who were strangers to me this morning and I already feel close and comfortable with tonight.

The movie was the other part of my day that I enjoyed. I learned a lot about Henry A. Wallace that I did not know and I must say the man impressed me. It is crazy to think that one guy innovated so much. I am intrigued to hear more and to hear the other sides of the debate. Today was a nice day so far with a mixture of information and has me looking forward to the rest of my time here.

I have to admit that I was somewhat apprehensive about going on this trip as I made my journey to Iowa this morning. I had some idea of what to expect as far as specific things we would be doing but was uncertain about the trip’s overall vibe, which is important to me. Other than knowing Cecily very well and talking to Rachel a couple of times because she was friends with Cecily’s roommate, I did not know any one else going on the trip nor did I know HN very well beyond the interview for Farm.

After the first day, I am super excited about going on the trip because of all the positive interactions and conversations that happened today. Starting during the ride from the airport to the farm and including our lunch, I began to realize that everyone on the trip was very easy to get along with and that HN is one of the funniest professors I’ve had. When we got to the farm, I was happy to find out that I also equally enjoyed the company of HN’s brother Denny and Dalona. When Denny took us on the tour around the farm, it was really cool to see how much knowledge he had compiled over many years as a farmer, and I appreciated his willingness to help us learn more about the many things that happen around a farm. Other than being a fabulous cook as evidenced by our first meal, Dalona was as nice as can be and I feel like she was a great addition to our group as we ate dinner tonight. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and the next three weeks.

Today was certainly packed. We woke up early and went nonstop. Waking up this morning was, thankfully, not as difficult as I imagined it to be. I really enjoyed spending the majority of the day with Prof Butt. He was funny and engaging and a good teacher. The things he taught us, though, and the pictures he showed us scared me. I never realized how quickly a machine could catch on fire (who knew tractors were so flammable?) or the dangers associated with manure fumes. I work with that nearly every day at home! I wonder what kind of havoc that is reeking (haha, get it?) on my lungs.  I did learn important things, though, and I’m glad we went.

Seeing the horses was the highlight of my day. I am homesick something awful. I miss my cats a little, my family a lot, my dog a whole lot, but I think I’m actually going through horse withdrawal. Seeing them comforted me entirely. Smelling them, seeing them, hearing them, touching them was just such a good feeling. I’m so grateful that Mr. Butt was able to get us into the equine center, even if only for a short time.

Dinner was incredible. The Wallace Center was not at all like I expected. It was nothing more than a house! An adorable old house, but a house in a neighborhood! The workers clearly knew a lot about the Wallace family and the house that they were in. Katie was a phenomenal cook as well! My whole family is pretty picky, but not me. I love trying new things, so being here with such different food is really an adventure! My favorite part was without a doubt the cheese. Talking to the man about farmer’s markets was interesting, too. It made me think of Herdklotz, the park right by our local farmers market. Happy memories. I’m glad it was such a noncontroversial topic and not something that sparked a lot of debate. I think I’m still too tired and cold for debating right now! Maybe when it warms up…