Scott Neubauer, HN’s nephew and probable heir to the farm, has become the black sheep in his workforce. The average age of an United States farmer is 57, leading the 28-year-old Scott to be an outcast among his fellow farmers. While he may be young in age, he offers a different view on farming that is hard to obtain. I was able to question the young farmer on what his thoughts were for the future of the farming industry and the approaching departure of his aging coworkers.

After climbing into his tractor, Scott pointed to a GPS screen installed directly next to his driver’s seat. Thanks to advancements in the field of technology, GPS is responsible for steering tractors to ensure farmers that their crop fields are producing at the highest level of efficiency. By producing more crops, farmers will be able to generate a higher income level for their families.

There is a “drawback” for these advancements, as technology disallows farmers from advertising how “straight” their rows are. For this reason older farmers, which are the vast majority of farmers, believe technology has destroyed the art of farming. While a farmer could take pride in his hand-made rows back in the day, I do not believe that technology has destroyed the art of farming. A reason why these “straight” rows were desired among farmers was due to the inclination that they would be able to produce more crops on their land. Therefore farmers should embrace the technology that assures a better utilization of their land, not critique it for destroying an art that was largely based on making money.

While farming is definitely an old man’s game, Scott proves to me that the future is not as bleak as older farmers have painted it to be. Young farmers are willing to make advancements in technology regarding agriculture, allowing them to be more productive in their “art” than their predecessors. My only concern is if there will be enough young farmers to replenish the fields after the older generation is no longer a viable option.

I have never been a morning person, so today when my alarm began blaring at 6:30 AM alerting me to wake up I was not pleased. After flinging my body in the direction of the shower, I met up with Caroline – a fellow student – in the kitchen to begin preparing breakfast for our group. For this month to be a successful experience, our group has to cooperate with each other. One way to ensure that our group does not rely on only certain individuals is to have a rotation system in place for who prepares breakfast. While the group enjoyed scrambled eggs and oatmeal, I was busily putting an IV of coffee into my arm in an attempt to wake up.

Luckily Dr. Butt – a professor at Ellsworth Community College – had coffee and donuts prepared for our arrival to his class room. In preparation for our upcoming endeavors on the farm, we spent the day learning about farm safety. This included me trying on a safety suit to prevent spreading disease among farm animals. If you have ever seen Monster’s Inc, this suit replicated those of the CDA – Child Detection Agency – in the case of a possible child contamination.

These suits were not the only type of modernization occurring on the farm, as Professor Butt introduced our group to Precision AG. Precision AG is a developing field within farming that relies on satellites to guide farming machinery when planting and fertilizing or applying pesticides to crops. These advancements in technology are allowing farmers to achieve efficiency in their farming and production operations. I am interested to see whether these advancements in technology will reduce injury rates in the field or create a society that becomes reliant on these fast-developing pieces of technology. While I believe that preventing the loss of lives is important in our world, it is just as important to prevent a society that is dependent on a piece of machinery that could malfunction. We all know how frustrated we become when the application on our IPhone isn’t working properly, could you imagine the loss in crops if this piece of machinery were to malfunction? While the convenience of pushing a button to activate a planter may be nice, our society must ensure that we still understand the value of hard work and how to be productive if and when technology fails. From the hard work I have witnessed on the farm thus far, I have come to the conclusion that current Iowans are at no risk of falling into this trap. However future generations might become susceptible to the dangers of technology, a fear that should deeply concern our society for years to come.

Friday May 17^th

Today was a very busy day.  In the morning we went to the Iowa Pork Producers Association, and then we went to the Wallace Farm and had lunch at The Gathering Barn, before speaking with the chef and the CEO. After lunch, we headed out to the garden to help out and learn more about the actual practices of keeping an organic-farm to table production going.

At the Iowa Pork Producers Association I was not surprised to find that they were in support of gestation crates, however I was surprised as to the reason why. Keeping an animal in a small, enclosed place like the gestation crates will make it easier to manage and most likely make it gain weight faster. I thought that this would be the sole reason that the Pork Producers Association required to form their positive opinion of the crates, but I was wrong. They have absolutely no interest in treating the animals inhumanely and referenced a study that showed that when given the choice between living among other pigs or by themselves in the crates, which they could voluntarily enter or exit, the pigs most often chose the crates. Why? Surprisingly, pigs are quite nasty, and the crates create a safe place for the animals to be.

I found today to be very interesting, the food was very good, probably the very best lunch I have ever eaten, and included an absolutely delicious ham sandwich. I am always surprised when organic farms are not vegetarian or vegan. I’m not quite sure why, but I think that when people care enough about their diets to be concerned about the residual chemicals that may enter their bodies through the fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides that were applied to the plants before they are picked, they should care enough to not consume the unhealthy fats contained in animal meats and byproducts. Although I am neither vegan nor vegetarian, I do not care enough to eat exclusively organic either. It does strike me as strange though, that people who refuse to use nitrogen fertilizers and to eat corn-fed beef have no trouble eating ginger gelato or mayonnaise, neither of which are especially healthy. However, the delicious tastes of these foods are definitely a draw for people debating the value of local foods.

The farm to table movement is quite new and exciting in the culinary world. People are excited by the chance to eat locally grown, in season fruits and vegetables grown by people that they know and like. Even the decision to add a salad to your dinner can help support a local farmer and make a difference. Although the movement has been very trendy recently, and that may be a draw to some people, I believe that most people are excited by the ability to know the land and the people on which their food is grown. Every bite of an apple is sweeter if your close friend and neighbor has grown it. Not to mention, when people know and trust the farmers who grow their food, the can be more sure that the food has been grown safely and they are not being tricked into eating anything that they are not aware of. With local foods, what you see is what you get and this fosters community support and love.

Caroline Lepczyk

Thursday May 16th

Today we toured the corn ethanol plant, Lincolnway Energy, in Nevada Iowa. The plant used coal energy to turn a bushel of corn into 2.8 gallons of ethanol to be used as fuel. The resulting ethanol can provide 1.3 times as much energy as is required to create it. I was surprised at how simple the process of creating the ethanol was. With the proper enzymes, the process was fairly easy and straightforward. Like the high fructose corn syrup, it struck me as something that would be quite simple to create in a home.

More important than the proof of the ethanol, what we have been hearing a lot about recently is that the energy required to make ethanol from corn is much higher than the energy to make ethanol from sugar cane. Corn ethanol can only produce about 1.3 times as much energy as is required to create it, while sugar cane ethanol can produce 8 times as much energy as is required to create it. The issue then is, why do we not use sugar cane ethanol? The corn lobby teamed with its sugar counterpart to put a tariff on sugar cane ethanol, and so it protected the corn ethanol industry. Under intense pressure, Congress allowed that tariff to expire in December 2011.  We are still waiting to see the impact that lifting the tariff will have on the ethanol industry.  Lincolnway Energy seemed to be functioning quite well during our visit.  Perhaps in the future, the more environmentally and economically friendly sugar cane ethanol will be widely available in the United States, but for now it seems that we are stuck with corn ethanol and gasoline.

Farm 05/14/13

Today again, half of the group went to Annette Sweeney’s cattle farm and the other half went to the Friest’s hog barn. I was one of the students who went to the Friest’s hog barn. We left for the Friests later than the group that left for the Sweeneys, and spent the morning touring the hog barns, learning about the care of hogs, and artificially inseminating them.

On par with the safety precautions we had learned about with Professor Kevin Butt at Ellsworth Community College on Friday, we suited up in painters suits, breathing masks, and plastic booties to go into the hog barns. Although these barriers prevent us, the students, from coming into contact with any dangerous excretions, bacteria, or viruses that may come from the pigs, their main purpose is actually for the protection of the swine themselves. Although the pigs are big, sturdy animals, up to around 250 pounds at the time of slaughter, they get sick surprisingly easily. An illness can sweep through a hog barn and wipe out all of them with little trouble. This is also one of the reasons that hog barns from different farms are placed so far apart; so that the wind does not carry diseases from one barn to the next. In fact, when Scott, Dr. HN’s nephew, was planning on putting his hog barn in, the Friests asked that he move the building plan from a half mile from their barn to a location that was farther away. There is now a mile between the two barns, which prevents the pigs from sharing diseases between farms.

During our tour of the barns we learned that the Friests run a ‘farrow to finish’ farm, meaning that they breed the hogs and raise them from birth until they are sent to slaughter. To do this, there are different barns for each part of the project. We did not get to see a finishing barn, but we did see a farrowing barn, a wean barn, and the barn where the hogs are bred, and kept in gestation crates. In the farrowing barn we saw many tiny newborn piglets and even saw Mr. Friest both pull piglets right out of a sow, and castrate a little male piglet. Both sights were slightly traumatic, but the piglets didn’t seem to mind all that much, which was surprising. By far the strangest thing we did that day was artificially inseminate the hogs, it wasn’t as gross as I expected it to be, but it was still unpleasant.

One major controversy lately in the hog raising industry has been the use of gestation crates. These crates are metal, cage-like stalls, which keep the pigs separated from one another. Many animal advocates oppose these stalls because they are not large enough for the pig to turn around, only allowing it to move forward or back up in a very limited space. To someone with no knowledge of pigs, this may seem very cruel and indeed there has been a public outcry by many outside of the agriculture industry against the gestation crates in recent years. This outcry has lead some large restaurants chains to refuse to sell pork from hog farms using the gestation crates, because they are afraid of losing business if they continue to support farms that the public view as inhumane.

Although these gestation crates may seem cruel, when we were at the Iowa Pork Producers Association, we learned about a study that had proven that when given the choice between roaming free with other pigs, or laying alone in the stalls, most pigs chose the stalls. Why is that? Surprisingly pigs can be quite vicious to each other, they have been known to pick on each other sometimes until the weaker pig dies of stress. With this in mind, it is not surprising as to why both the Friests and many other hog farms use gestation crates. However, the refusal of restaurants to purchase these hogs has been devastating to many farmers who may not be able to afford to update their barns, or perhaps would not be able to afford the loss of pigs to stress if they did update. Although the restaurants are simply trying to stay in business, the outcry of the public is mostly the result of a lack of education, if it is good for both the farmers and the hogs, is it really so bad?

Today was interesting, to say the least. At 8:45 this morning we hopped in the mini-van and took a short drive to Iowa Falls, Iowa. Our visit to Ellsworth Community College was absolutely highlighted by the colorful personality of professor Kevin Butt. He is the quintessential Iowan. However, he was very informative on tractor safety and safety in hog pens. I learned that manure pits are a very dangerous place due to how easy it is to get stuck in them and basically suffocate from lack of oxygen. I also learned all about the necessary equipment to actually be in a hog barn. I enjoyed the various stories from Mr. Butt—he was especially insightful in the practice of precision agriculture. Precision agriculture is the future of farming. It involves almost no work on behalf of the farmers. With precision agriculture, to my understanding, all that is necessary is very expensive GPS equipment and a tractor suited for the job. I found that very interesting, as most people (including myself) saw farming as extremely physical rigorous work that required hard labor. Now, it is apparent to me that none of that is going to be necessary. We even watched a commercial recently released by John Deere that showed their “forward vision” of farming. That was cool. After we finished our delightful stay with Mr. Butt, we headed home for a delightful casserole prepared by Mrs. Nancy. Following that, we watched Ocean Frontiers. Essentially, the film covered the massive impact humans have on the environment. In relation to Iowa, the film covered how the nitrogen used in fields by farmers actually negatively impacts many other states in the Union, and even more, the Gulf of Mexico. The runoff of nitrogen from excessive rain that enters the streams and creeks of the Iowan water system eventually end up in the great Mississippi, which in turn enters the Gulf of Mexico. These buildups of nitrogen create a “dead zone” in the Gulf. Who knew Iowan farms had such a national impact on the environment? I sure didn’t. We also finally got to meet Denny Freist, who participated in the Iowan part Ocean Frontiers. He gave a great description of the nitrogen and phosphorus problem in Iowa, and what he’s doing to help reduce his environmental footprint. I’m excited about getting to work with him in the coming weeks.

6:45 AM came way too soon. After a long day of travel and preparing my sea legs for a new adventure, tired was an understatement. However I had a duty this morning, and the crew was in desperate need of my talents. Unfortunately, my talents in making breakfast quickly dissolved after I broke the handle to our one and only waffle iron…Oops? Well, that’s no matter, Mrs. Nancy bought a new one this afternoon. After my destructive morning, I hopped in shotgun of the wonderful soccer-mom mini van to head to the Wallace House in Des Moines. I didn’t know what to expect—I didn’t know which Wallace family we were about to explore. On the way there, I read a few articles describing the Wallace legacy and what it means in the context of Iowa history—and specifically VP under FDR, Henry A. Wallace. What interested me the most however, was the controversy surrounding Henry A. Wallace’s life. The National Review article, which I read on the way to Des Moines, really showed just how controversial the man was—and specifically in relation to the USSR and other communist countries. Our meeting with Ms. Ann Taylor was nice, and after we had lunch at the Gateway Market. I branched out (except not at all) and had “Chicken Bacon Mac N’ Cheese”, or simply put, diabetes on a plate. It was dang good though. After our meal we headed into Des Moines and toured the Pride of Iowa museum, which was a little too modern and new age for my taste, but it was interesting. Then after a wonderful dinner we watched Forks Over Knives, which was a documentary recently made about nutrition. It was fascinating, and although I believe all their evidence to be true, I still don’t think I’m going to have a problem eating bacon when I wake up tomorrow. Nutrition and a healthy diet were the two main theses of the movie, and with stable control substantial weight loss and disease reversal were really possible. I guess my problem with the video was how it lacked to show the fitness side of nutrition and the diet. I’m just waiting to see for myself if these ways are actually practical.

Here I am, sitting on a not-so-packed flight from Atlanta to Des Moines. Furman classes are over, and grades are out. Although it feels as if I couldn’t get anymore school, here I sit on the way to the “fly-over” country. In the past few days at home, I’ve been able to catch up with old friends and see and few relatives. Of course, I told them things are going well—school is hard but education is important (especially Furman’s). And when the absolute question came up, “what are you doing this summer?” I found myself in a vacant space to tell them “Oh, I’m going to Iowa!” Of course, I knew the follow up question was going to be, “well why Iowa?” For me, the answer is simple. Although many of my Furman colleagues chose to spend their May in Bermuda, Belize, Italy, and Ireland, I’ve chosen to take my talents to Garden City, Iowa. Why? I’ve always wanted to visit a fly-over state like Iowa. Us eastern elites see this land not as the steps of the stepping-stones, but the gap in between. On my many trips to Colorado and Utah, I’ve always been interested in the thousands of green and yellow squares I see on the ground. But I’ve always been curious to know what those green and yellow squares represent. Now, I have the opportunity to not only visit, but also live in one of the green and yellow squares on the ground. How does one farmer distinguish which land belongs to him? My expectations are not too high—I’m expecting nice people and unfamiliar faces, but I’m also expecting there to be a lot of work (manual and mental). However, I couldn’t be more excited to get there!

After arriving in Garden City, Iowa at around 5 PM today, I found myself in a very neat place full of windmills and grain silos. I met Dr. HN’s sister, Mrs. Nancy, who in my opinion is doing a phenomenal job with cooking so far. Shortly thereafter I settled into my small upstairs Iowa farmhouse room, which is cozy and quaint; both qualities that remind me of my childhood home in Snellville. My expectations of nice people but unfamiliar faces were met when we had a pleasant encounter with Dr. HN’s brother, who clearly knows absolutely everything there is to know about the farming business in Iowa. I think tomorrow should be fascinating, as we will get to explore some cool places in and around Des Moines.

Iowans will tell you that conversations among the natives tend to revolve around daily weather, especially for those Hawkeyes that work on a farm. The weather determines when farmers can plant their crops. This morning I was able to wake up to the peaceful sound of pouring rain and a displeasuring groan from the farmers whom I am staying with. Unfortunately the weather in Iowa has prohibited anxious farmers, such as my host, from beginning their planting. While I could sense some restlessness throughout the house, the weather did not impede me from learning about the history of Iowa.

The journey started off with all six students and our teacher, HN, hopping into a car and driving to Des Moines. While HN was busy being critical of a work sign attached to the back of a truck ahead of us, we were busy brushing up on our Henry Wallace family history in hopes of avoiding any possible embarrassment upon our arrival at The Wallace Centers of Iowa. After learning about the accused “communist” Vice President Henry A. Wallace, I was disappointed to see that a politician that showed backbone in politics was fired because he was honest with the power brokers. Instead of being glorified as a true “man of the people,” Wallace was betrayed by an ailing President Roosevelt. FDR originally chose Wallace as his running mate, despite the numerous complaints from the head of the Democratic party, due to Mr. Wallace’s popularity among rank and file citizens. When President Roosevelt ran again in 1944, instead of facing the criticism from his party heads again, FDR chose to replace Wallace with a “safer” option in Harry Truman. Wallace’s replacement Truman would later fire him for making a controversial speech that President Truman himself had previously approved. Fortunately, the end of his Washington career did not stop Mr. Wallace from being able to make many other contributions to society with his numerous writings and work on chicken breeding.

The contributions that Mr. Wallace and his family provided Iowa led our group to investigate who else contributed to Iowa’s history. We stumbled upon a museum called “Pride of Iowa,” believing we would be able to further our education of Iowa upon entering. Unfortunately, the museum was focused around the “glory” of the state’s high school sport teams rather than the history of the state. After briefly taking a tour around what felt to be a high school coach’s trophy room, HN and I found a Dance Dance Revolution interactive video game and proceeded to have a dance off. Luckily the screen mistakenly indicated he “won” our dance off, meaning he would have no extra incentive to fail me in this course.

Dancing, among other activities, left our group hungry and tired, and our group once again piled back into the car to head back to the farmhouse. After enjoying the company of our house patrons at the dinner table, we headed into the barn to watch a documentary based around the benefits of a whole foods, plant-based diet had over a “Western” diet. A “Western” diet is one that promotes eating animal meat and milk over vegetables and produce, resulting in a higher cholesterol count and a higher probability of heart disease. Our group was shocked and a bit disarrayed by how our “main” source of protein and calcium in meat and milk was not as healthy as the “Got Milk” ads had originally suggested. After discussing the health risks that a bad diet could present, our class retired back into the house to enjoy a piece of cake with a whipped cream topping. Ironically this type of meal had the ingredients, dairy, that the movie had advised us to remove from our diet. I never realized how sweet the taste of irony was until tonight.

Today I will be flying out of Greenville en route to Des Moines, Iowa to begin a month of living on a farm. To study away during May at Furman University – this course is known as a “May Experience” – is fairly common among students, but usually students choose a program that will allow them to spend the month on a beach in Bermuda or do a pub crawl in Ireland. This is where I am different from my classmates,  I wanted to experience a different lifestyle instead of being a tourist who is only able to see a shade of the environment in which they are living. By living and working on a farm for the next 21 days I will hopefully will be able to encompass what it truly means to be an Iowan.

I keep visualizing a setting similar to the one in “Smallville,” – a show that reveals the upbringing of a local farm boy named Clark Kent who would later become Superman – where there is only open land and friendly town-goers who wave as you walk by. While I know working on the farm won’t be as easy as depicted in the show, in part because I do not have Clark’s “superpowers”, I am rather looking forward to doing some “good ole fashion hard work.” Through this hard work I can hopefully gain an accurate perspective on a different lifestyle and become more aware of life in a different region in our country. By living in a suburb for the entirety of my life I know little of a place as rural as Iowa and the culture that goes along with it.

While the barn itself was just as I had imagined, the inside of the house took me by surprise. Instead of walking into what I had imagined as an old outdated house, I was pleasantly surprised to see Iowans were as modernized as the east coast. However the rushed feeling of the northeast was countered by the calm and relaxing pace of the Midwest. Dinner – or supper as they call it in Iowa – was not being rushed to be thrown onto the table, instead everyone in the house congregated to have simple “how was your day” type of conversations. I feel as though my life has already begun slowing and I am interested to see if it will pick up during the duration of the course.