Legacy is a seed in a garden you never get to see grow.

That is what the fight against climate change should be, a legacy. A situation that is left better for the next person who has to take it on.

Connie Mutel, plant ecologist, explains that the fight against climate change should not be a fight that makes a younger generation feel hopeless, but instead instills a feeling of hope. She says, “Think Positively, Cultivate Hope.”

Imagine a land where the soil was so rich and absorbent that when it rained no water was left on the surface on the ground. Imagine there were roots so thick that you couldn’t plow through the soil with simple garden tools. Imagine such an abundance of animals that when birds migrated to different regions of the Earth it took days for a single flock to pass by.

This was Iowa. This how the land used to be, before colonization and mass groups of people moving to the area looking for refuge. There may not be a way for the state to back to its origin, but we can still mend the damage that has been done. In the play Map of My Kingdom, Mary Swander writes about how farmers in Ireland used seaweed to bandage the damaged soil and the breakdown of the seaweed replenished the organic material that was lost. Now Iowa may not seaweed, but there are still so many resources avaliable to help faciliatate Earth-freindly practices in farming. Beyond the range of the farmer, the state could take the lead in implementing programs that help slow down climate change.

Mutel mentioned that largest role we can take as fighters against climate change is to hold elected officials accountable. If anyone has the resources necessary to fight climate change it is the government. Government rules the land, with slack regulations and continuous pointless debate over climate change there might come a time when all the effects become irreversible. It is time to tell our elected officials that it is not a matter of whether or not climate change is real or not, it is a matter of when are we going to make a change.

This is no new phenomenon. Scientists have recognized the signs of climate change since 1824. It’s time to push for a farm bill that lays down the law. We need regulation and we need government help. If nothing is changed then we can count on losing farm land, food sources, healthy water, and further peace of mind.

It’s not about who is the bad guy. It is all of us. Every time we leave a light on when leaving the house, forget to recycle a plastic bottle, or plant a corn or soybean field using synthetic fertilizers and chemical pesticides followed by no cover crop; we are the bad guy. It’s not much, but it is a seed that grow into health and benefit for those to come.

AgArt. The term and genre used by Mary Swander. Mary was Poet Laureate of Iowa from 2009-2019. Her work is niche in the art scene and in the agriculture scene.

We should appreciate this work. Farmers and consumers. She highlights serious issues in both communities and presents it in way so that everyone can consume and understand the message. That is the power of art.

Swander, Emeritus Professor of English at Iowa State University, is poet and a playwright. Her plays travel around the country and tell the stories of small-town farmers and the struggles they face such as; farm succession, conventional practices versus organic practices, and meat processing.

After viewing one of her shows last night, Map of my Kingdom, I was really intrigued at how she presented the need for proper “land stewardship” which involves things like good environmental practices, farming organic if possible, and passing the land along to someone who would appreciate it and take care of it. How does she do this? Well for one she does not explicitly say farmers are farming wrong. Her rhetoric in the play has strong religious undertones. Examples of these undertones include reference to the Pope and many biblical stories that allude familial consequences if the land is not properly taken take care. The strongest of the biblical references, in my opinion, was Cain and Abel.

This literary approach allows for the audience to more susceptible to the message. In small towns, like the town we visited last night to see the show, have strong social ties and one of those ties is in the church. It acts not only as a temple of religious learning, but a social meeting place. So, it would be place where farmers of the community come together to talk about how good or bad their crops are doing, share tips on what they could better, and exchange products that could better help them achieve a successful season.

For the farmer, land stewardship could also be best received from the church community. Swander imparts a critical job on to the church, to teach farmers how to love the land. Loving the land and tending to the land should be centered around not poisoning the fields with toxic chemicals, monitoring what by-products occur because of farming, and not leaving it bear. Land has potential to always give something. That gift may not always be food for people, but it could be a nestling space for traveling animals, pollen hubs for flying insects, or just beautiful scenes of green grass for passing visitor.

The message of tending to the land and taking care of it was a strong message brought forth by Swander and her crew. Her presentation maybe well suited for farmer versus the convoluted jargon of Congress-passed bills. She uses her art and her mid-western farm culture to educate and challenge farmers to review how they run their own operations.

It is not the goal of art to persuade people to change their minds, and although art easily often gets caught up into performing the role of activism that is not its exclusive role. Art is simply made to reflect experience. That is what Swander does, she reflects experience.

Friday was spent in Storm Lake with Public Safety Director and Chief of Police Mark Prosser, and Storm Lake City Councilor Jose Ibarra. The meeting with the Chief of Police had some very interesting info in it. The way Chief Prosser directs the police reminds me of a lot of my home town, which is not surprising because both have an immigrant population. They both try to get their officers to create a connection with the community so there is no tension between the community and police. One point that Chief Prosser made that I had never considered before is that these immigrants are not used to how the police here work or things they can and cannot do within the city limits and the officers have to take care of it. Another issue they face is the language barrier. Storm lake has a diverse immigrant population so there are around 30 languages spoken in the community. This becomes a challenge because they need to find a translator which can be hard at times.
Later that day when we talked to City Councilor Ibarra, we got the perspective of an immigrant who has gotten involved within his community. He said the reason he got involved was that there was no diversity within the leadership and it did not mimic the community. Councilman Ibarra said he was so surprised by how much he won by but thanks to his job he knew a lot of people which helped him out a lot. He said that a lot of the presidential candidates want to meet with him to secure his assistance with the immigrant vote. He says his biggest issue is trying to fix the city’s image because it is seen as a town of immigrants, so when there is a crime it will get blown out of proportion. The things that he wants to see changed is the immigrant population more active in the community and that everyone needs to take more pride in the place they live. Councilman Ibarra also found that a lot of voters are one-issue voters, and they vote for the candidate who is pro-life or pro-gun and that consideration overrides all other issues.

Do you know what it is like to meet a celebrity?

We Pulitzer Prize winner Art Cullen. He is an owner and writer for The Storm Lake Times and also the author of the book, Storm Lake.

When faced with the opportunity to meet someone with notable status it is imperative that you make the most of the opportunity. You have to ask the right questions, laugh at all the jokes, and make a connection if you can. Meeting Art Cullen was great.  It was wonderful hearing his political drive and his take on agriculture. Cullen started his investigative writing, which led him to the Pulitzer, with a search for clean water. He followed a lawsuit between The Des Moines Water Works, a water plant in Des Moines, and tillage districts in Northwest Iowa (notably the Storm Lake area). I think what made this story such a commitment for Cullen is that he grew up in a farm family. He knows what it takes to manage land and produce yield that is going to provide for the family. As a citizen he also knows what clean water means. It is a balance of responsibility and accountability.

While being with Cullen I should’ve taken the to question about how he fights against the negative stereotypes that come along with journalism. As a journalist what you write as a news story cannot be incorrect. Incorrect or unsupported defamatory statements cannot be published and if it is a newspaper could lose its credibility and face very serious implications like a law suit or jail time for the journalist. When listening to him speak I trusted a lot of what he was saying and valued his opinions because of his professions. He has the sources and the evidence he needs to validate what he says. I speculate the most challenging part of his job is be balanced reporter and making sure that other writers at his newspaper do the same. In a community where there is such a diverse population of citizens how do you know you’re incorporating concerns or news that directly affect those communities.

So much goes into journalism and it is a tough job. It is art that has to be mastered and I am confident that Art Cullen has done that. The platform that he has been placed on is further being used to spread the word of things that impact all of Iowa, the state of water quality, something that he proves to be passionate about.

Journalism is given a bad rap these days, and it unfair to all of the writers out there who work diligently on their craft. Journalist and writers like Art Cullen prove that fair honest news reporting still happens. Education in journalism is necessary to be a good active citizen and knowing what good practices looks and sounds like is the best way to judge trusted news sources.

June 1, 2019

We’ve spent the last two days in Storm Lake, a city of diverse cultures, and today, a Pulitzer Prize winner was added to the list of Iowans we have met: Art Cullen. He is the editor of The Storm Lake Times and author of the book Storm Lake. His writing covers the issues facing small, rural areas, describing how agriculture, the environment, and immigration play a big role in heartland communities.

Cullen began our talk with how his book Storm Lake got its start. He mentioned that the water levels of the lake in Storm Lake has been rapidly decreasing, falling from 26 feet to 7 feet over the last couple years, likely due to new agricultural practices being used to adapt to climate change. After he discussed the background of his book, he talked about various issues relating to water quality, including how agricultural runoff pollutes the Raccoon River which affects the Des Moines water supply and eentually finds its way to The Gulf of Mexico resulting in the dead zones, with a devastating impact on the shrimping industry. Cullen opined that in the 1980s everyone thought that Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) were crazy people, since their ideas about pollution and their toxic environmental effects seemed so far-fetched. However, now the issues that Practical Farmers talked about way back when are becoming more apparent and thousands of people are coming to the organizatiom’s Field Days. This is a huge difference from years ago, as only ~30 people used to attend. We visited the Practical Farmers of Iowa earlier this trip, where we were able to learn about many concepts such as pesticide drift, which people didn’t understand as much in the past. These were interesting things to hear Cullen talk about, especially since we were later able to go the Des Moines Water Works to learn about that organization’s general water processes, how they control water quality, and visit their filtration station. At the Water Works, we learned more about the issue of nutrient runoff into The Gulf of Mexico, which we had previously discussed with different organizations, one of which being the Iowa Soybean Association. The Association promotes and taught us about nutrient reduction strategies to combat runoff. It was nice to have a refresher for these issues and to be able to relate new information to issues discussed at other places we have visited.

To end our day, we drove to the Lakeside Laboratory in Milford Iowa to meet with Mary Skopec. Skopec is the executive director of the Laboratory and also a member of the National Water Quality Monitoring Council and the National Advisory Committee on Water. While at the Laboratory, she discussed the history of the facility and she showed us how to do water quality tests, such as calculating oxygen and nitrite and nitrate levels in water samples and measuring the clarity of water. This was a fun way for me to end the day, since water quality testing is something I have had a lot of experience with throughout my major coursework.

Thursday, May 30th

This morning we headed to Seed Savers Exchange in Deborah, IA to help a crew work on weeding their gardens. Seed Savers is an organization that strives to preserve heirloom seeds. They have over 25,000 different varieties of seeds. Of this 25,000, they have 750 different varieties of potatoes and hundreds of varieties for other plants also! Each season they plant a couple hundred varieties of seeds for the purpose of gaining fresh seeds. Seeds can last for a long time if they are kept in the right conditions. However, each year the germination rate decreases, so periodically the seeds have to be planted. This is a large undertaking for an organization that only plants seeds on approximately 20 of its 890 acres each year. This is further complicated because certain plants have to be spaced out large distances to prevent cross-pollination. How does Seed Savers determine which of its 25,000 seeds to plant each year? Seed Savers has a computer system that sorts out its inventory of seeds, showing those with the highest priority to be planted. They also have volunteers who will plant seeds for them. Unfortunately they only have 25 volunteer gardeners who are helping with this. Another tactic they use is tissue culture. Potatoes must be planted each year, but Seed Savers has over 750 varieties of potatoes and not enough room to plant them all. They are able to grow them all in tissue cultures and house all 750 in a refrigerator.

I really enjoyed this organization. It was a nice contrast to the Cortevas and Monsantos of the seed industry. I would to see farmers go back to a system where heirloom seeds are used. It would free up the farmer from having to buy seeds each year and release them from the chemical company system.

Wednesday, May 29th

For a second time, I missed the early morning chores that Mark Kruse performs everyday to run his organic dairy farm. The life of a dairy farmer starts very early and I chose not to be sleep deprived. Later that morning Mr. Kruse gave us a tour of the dairy farm. There were similarities to the other dairy farms but also differences. Mr. Kruse also uses rotational grazing but unlike Mr. Peake and Mr. Dietzel, he only moves them once a day. It is a less-involved process then you would think. Kevin Dietzel builds a fence every time he moves his cows but Mr. Kruse simply opens up an adjoining pasture. He has close to 30 of these pastures to give a fresh pasture everyday. It also allows the pasture to put on new growth so as not to overgraze.

After the tour and breakfast, Marcia and Mark Kruse became our personal tour guides to Wisconsin. Organic Valley’s headquarters is located in Cashton, WI, and Mr. Kruse’s farm along with Mr. Peake, and the Welsh family are a part of the Organic Valley Co-op. We took a tour (I thought Iowa was cold last week until I stood in a negative 10 degree freezer) and met with Jim Wedeberg.

Organic Valley is a farmer-operated, democratic organization. They have a board of seven farmers that are elected every three years. Organic Valley brings together small family farms providing strength in large numbers. One of their success as a co-op has been the price of organic milk. In 1997, the farmers set a pay-price of milk to be $17.50/ cwt. As of today, they have met this goal and have even exceeded it. However, current trends are bringing struggles to the organic market. The consumer milk consumption patterns are changing. People no longer want to buy skim milk (instead there has been a shift towards full fat milk) and also the consolidation and industrialization of farms has made it hard for them to keep up. A bigger company is able to demand more and produce cheaper products. However, the coalition of small farmers within the co-op benefits everyone by giving them more power and resources than if farmers were on their own.

“Why do you do it?”

A question posed to me by Storm Lake’s City Council member Jose Ibarra.

I didn’t know how to answer. Why do I do it? I put myself on the line and I express myself because I want to represent people who look like me. Who sound like me. Who have experienced similar lives as me. I came on this trip because I thought I would find answers to my questions. So far I have only acquired more questions. I have found that there are privileges for white farmers across the state. I can’t help but question how farming looks so different for Black farmers. I want nothing more now than to find and support advocacy groups that rally for Black farmers. I question presidential candidates and critique how their plans for agriculture may not fit or exclude Black farmers. Most importantly I have learned the language. Just other spaces I occupy at school I understand the way the people talk about their issues. People only need to say what they know. I don’t push for translations by making people cater to me, ask I only that they speak earnestly and honestly about their experience. Being in Iowa I have learned the language and I can now apply the language.

That’s why I did it. I wanted to hear the narratives. They are not my stories nor should they be. I can take these stories as a template and discover how these stories intersect or match with other stories that I can express.

Council member Ibarra does it because he wants to urge his community to be more active. He is one of the many citizens that gives Storm Lake its vibrant diversity. He does because he wants to see more representation in places that makes decisions for his community.

This experience has taught me so much. That’s what the immigrant community has done for Storm Lake; it has made people learn. Learn how to interact with those different from them and learn how to teach others how to navigate new and different spaces.

Storm Lake is template. It proves what merging communities can be and it allows room for itself to grow.

Storm Lake has stories.

Iowa has stories.

I have stories.

They all connect, they are all different, but they all have purpose and all these stories are the reason why I do it.

On Wednesday we ventured into Wisconsin to visit Organic Valley. Organic Valley is a marketing co-op that was founded in 1988. One of the main goals of the co-op is to save family farms. Organic Valley is a leader in the development of organic standards. They have zero tolerance for antibiotic use. They pride themselves on representing the needs of farmers. The co-op is run by a board made up of farmers. Although the board plays an important role in the organization, the real power is in the hands of the members Every farmer in the organization has one vote no matter the size of their operation. They make sure every everyone has an equal say in how the co-op is run. Organic Valley is a large organization that makes up 13.8% of all certified organic farms.

I really loved Organic Valley. The office building had a really nice atmosphere. My first impression was that everyone was dressed very causally. This sounds like a weird thing to notice but I don’t think I have ever been to a place of work where I saw people wearing leggings or t-shirts with beer jokes on them. As we continued the tour, I was impressed at how the building incorporated sustainable practices. I also liked how they put the power in the hands of the people that know the business best, the farmers. Overall, I was very impressed with the organization.

Friday morning we arrived in Storm Lake and had a meeting with Police Chief Prosser about the town. He described his career history and how he never believed he would stay in Storm Lake as long as he has, and how it has become his home. Storm Lake is a small town in Northwest Iowa where the community has grown while many small towns in the Midwest have become depressed and abandoned.  Storm Lake’s economic vibrance is due to its two Tyson plants and large immigrant population. The Chief then discussed an ICE raid he helped to organize at a local food hog processing plant, and how it is the biggest regret of his career. It destabilized the trust the community had in law enforcement, and the feds had, unbeknownst to the chief, contacted national news to be on site during the raid to get front page coverage.

Reaching out to the community and showing involvement, care, and compassion has been a key to integrating the community according to Chief Prosser. Instead of punishing those who are not maliciously breaking the law (ex. slaughtering a pig or lamb in their yard and cleaning the carcas within city limits), the police will talk to the individual, explain how it is wrong, and issue a warning.

Later in the day, we met with city council member Jose Ibarra, who echoed much of what Chief Prosser had said, and then spoke about the city council. He is the only minority member of the council and ran under the encouragement of a few friends. He ran to encourage those who do not think they have a voice in the community or are not focused on civic engagement to look at him and see it is possible. Mr. Ibarra also discussed voter turnout as an issue that seems to harm Storm Lake.

Saturday morning, the group met with Pulitzer prize winner Art Cullen and discussed many issues ranging from big agriculture to Storm Lake immigration. Art was extremely concerned with representatives within the government being in the pocket of big money. He showed less concern that the research being produced at land grant universities such as Iowa State, should be dismissed out of hand, despite his concern that big corporations were having an undue influence there. For example, he expressed some concern about the pro-big agriculture perspective at ISU, as he has been told by some professors to keep up the work (such as advocating for the Des Moines Water Works perspective on clean water) that he is doing because the professors cannot say what he is saying. According to Art (and enforced by others on the tour), the Farm Bill has resulted in practices that harm soil health. Planting fence row to fence row is not sustainable. He constantly criticized Nixon’s Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz, for bringing the “feed the world” mentality to US agriculture in general and Iowa in particular.  Art also agreed with the police chief and Councilor Jose Ibarra with their statements on immigration, and that the Storm Lake community has done a good job coming together and embracing their diversity. He believes that Storm Lake is a model of what future American small towns will look like in the future.  As immigrants move up the economic ladder, they will move out of small towns where their advanced degrees  result in jobs that are less prevalent in small towns. Finally, the most interesting point I took away from Art Cullen during this meeting was that farmers don’t want to be told how to farm by the government (relating to the Des Moines Water Works lawsuit) have all kinds of people who are telling them how to farm.  Cullen contends that farmers are being told how to farm by the bank; they are being told how to farm by Monsanto; they are being told how to farm by John Deere; and they are being told how to farm by ISU extension.  But, when it comes to government telling farmers how to farm, that is viewed in a different light.  It is interesting when the government gets involved how people’s views shift.  Even though farmers constitute about 2% of Iowans, everyone in Iowa is related to a farmer and knows the impact and implication of any political decision involving agriculture.