How practical is vegetable farming in Iowa? To me very practical and very necessary. We had the opportunity to go to two farms, the Grinnell Heritage farm and the Red Earth farm in the Meskwaki settlement. Both farms work toward providing fresh produce to the communities in which they reside. Grinnell Heritage practices organic farming and some of its acreages produce thousands of dollars in vegetables. Red Earth farms feeds the people of the Meskwaki community, these are native peoples who have bought their own land back to start building services specifically for them. The Meswkakis have their own health clinic, school, and senior living program. What both farms had in common is that they did not need a lot of land to provide all the food they produce. I cannot remember the exact acreage of Red Earth, but I remember that Grinnell Heritage sits on 25 acres.

One significant factor that farmers must have to thrive here in Iowa are huge amounts of land. The average farmer tends to about 1000 acres of land. These two farms go against the most important thing average farmers have in Iowa. So, what does that say about Iowan farmers? Are they doing it wrong?

Well not exactly. Farmers who grow the Iowa prize of corn and soybeans are doing what is best for them and their crop, but the idea of big agriculture seems to fall apart when those same farmers fall into believing the rhetoric that they are participating in feeding the world. The bottom line is they are not. Sure, their grain feeds livestock, but all that’s really doing is getting the animal big and quickly. Also, I haven’t heard anyone talk about the animal agriculture feeding America. All the world hunger talk is about the corn.

When following the history of this rhetoric a good place to start is with Norman Borlaug and the Green Revolution. Borlaug wanted to use science to increase the productivity of seeds. He did achieve this goal; he found himself now being able to increase the output of commodity crops. It is this same science and technological advances that seed manufacturing companies use to make and sell their hybrid and genetically modified seeds. In the text Food Politics, Robert Paarleberg, discusses how the Green Revolution did not reach long term success in many areas around the world. Some places where the Revolution did have a lasting positive impact included Latin America and countries in Africa where is was attempted to be implemented. Looking at Latin America specifically, Paarlberg writes about how the revolution could not sustain because the feudal system already in place due to colonialization. Profitable farmland was reserved for those with more economic and social class.

As we see the continuity of the Borlaug rhetoric to promote scientific advances it is imperative that we also recognize what already disenfranchises these global communities, and understand that a seed which produces a little more corn is not going to fix the problems that already inhibit development.

In my opinion there needs to be fewer commodities and more food.  People can’t live off of grains, and it seems unfair that grain is the only option Iowa seems to want to offer.

On Friday, May 24th, we started out by going to Grinnell Heritage Farm. Grinnell Heritage Farm is a family organic operation. The land has been passed down to Andy Dunham, a 5th generation farmer, but has not always been farmed organically. We met with Andy and also Eric, an employee at Grinnell Heritage. Thus began an aggressive rant about the evils of industrial farming. I think most of us would hold similar opinions but I still felt personally attacked. After what seemed like hours of this we finally moved outside where another tangent began. Eric is a weed eater. The kind of weeds that grow in your backyard. Nettles and all, you name it, he probably eats it. I got the sense that he doesn’t mind weeds like other farmers who try to battle the weeds with herbicides and take pride in their fields being weed-free. That was one difference in Grinnell Heritage that I haven’t seen at previous farms. Weeds were everywhere. I would be lying if I didn’t admit that it bothered my need for perfection. An especially weedy part of the Grinnell farm, was the asparagus plot. (One could argue that asparagus is actually a weed. In Iowa it grows everywhere. In ditches and even in Morris’ yard. Wild asparagus is still foreign to me. I guess you could say I also eat weeds.) Andy doesn’t mind the weeds in this part of his farm but what he does mind is pesticide drift. A couple years earlier, Grinnell’s asparagus plot was polluted with pesticides from a neighboring farm. For an organic farmer this is a huge loss. They lost $25,000 from this plot alone and have to wait three years before they can sell asparagus from that plot as certified organic.

Later we visited the Red Earth Farm on the Meskwaki settlement. Once again we talked about weeds and pulled them. Pulling weeds is time consuming unless you have a large workforce. To prevent weed growth, Red Earth covers unplanted beds with tarps. This keeps the soil moist, retains organic matter and houses many worms. Another way they prevent weeds without pesticide use, is by planting clover. This is multi-faceted: it looks pretty, doesn’t grow tall so it has little maintenance and helps keep weeds out. 

Red Earth Farm was one of my favorite places that I visited so far in Iowa. One reason is because the benefits of the farm are directly affecting the Meskwaki community. Food grown goes to this community, but others can also buy food, too. They also offer jobs and rehabilitation programs to help those with a rough start get another chance. Another reason is that community farms provide an outlet for physical activity and access to local, healthy food. Native Americans are further disadvantaged as the rates of diabetes and alcoholism are higher than other groups. Therefore, the work that Red Earth is doing is important to this community.

Over the last two days, the group has visited an organic farm, community farm, and a conservancy across Iowa. At Grinnell Heritage Farm, Brandon and I were immediately singled out for wearing our Corteva hats, not worn intentionally, but out of convenience. This would set the tone for the first half of the visit… doom and gloom. The world will end if we do not mitigate the environmental issues pesticides cause! And pesticides and herbicides kill all organisms in the soil, were along the lines of what we were told. Following the lecture, we moved outside and the assistant took over the conversation as the owner of Grinnell had to step away for a moment. He continued the doom and gloom speech and was then asked about his diet. He discussed foraging for his food, as he eats almost no meat, and eats weeds out of his yard, such as stinging nettle. We then were taken on a tour fo their land and taught about their agriculture principles; as they do not use any chemicals to be an organic farm, they instead use other plants to shade out weeds and add nitrogen back into the soil.

Our next stop was at Red Earth Gardens on the Meskwaki Settlement. The Meskwaki is the only Federally Recognized Indian Tribe in Iowa, and they own their land, thus are not on a reservation. This results in more autonomy. Red Earth Gardens goal is to help the community become more educated on what they are eating and to help in assisting the community. An example of this is a job program where those who might have struggled with jobs in the past are employed and guided through the process and taught new skills with the goal of helping them start their own business or become employed in a field of their choosing. They grow organically and also use plants and cover crops to assist instead of crop controls. The farm’s permaculture specialist, Adam Ledvina, believes strongly in rotational grazing, like Brian Wosepka, and will be using the same method with chickens, when he introduces them to Red Earth later this year.

We then slept, and the next morning traveled to Whiterock Conservancy where we first helped in removing thistles and Dame’s Rocket, another invasive weed, from the land after goats had already grazed the honeysuckles away. As the group did this we befriended the goat’s guard donkey “Raji” who was extremely kind until someone encroached on the goats, proving his worth. After a great lunch outside we then met with Liz Garst, a prominent Iowa Democrat and soil conservationist. She discussed all sides of soil problems but came across as having a reasonable view and not too extreme. She believes that the free market should exist and should not be regulated but knows that regulations must be put in place to achieve safe water and healthy soil. She believes that like the ’86 Farm Hill subsidies should be linked to performance. However, because soil only regenerates 1/2 a ton of topsoil a year we can not revert to the ’86 Farm Bills regulation of 5 or fewer tones a year. The subsidies should assist the farmer in achieving this goal, and there MUST be enforcement of these standards for it to work. She attempted to be modest my saying she has a small 3,500+ acre farm, however, that is massive compared to what we have been told is even a large farm. She uses pesticides, but also no-till. She believes in a balance and no extremes. We ended the night with a great meal of rice, beans, burgers, and hot dogs followed by a bonfire with smores. Whiterock Conservancy has been a great destination.

A rare day of sunshine on back to back days was extremely welcome among the group. The morning started with a drive to Des Moines to meet with the Iowa Environmental Council. This meeting was unlike all of our other meetings with groups like Iowa Corn or Iowa Soybeans. The major difference was this group was made up of all women and were very to the point when talking about the issues that mattered to the council. They also had a very different view than the other groups we talked to. They were fed up with the farmers because they believed they were not doing enough to help save the environment, especially the water. They thought the only way they could fix the issue was through regulations by the federal government to get what they needed to be done. Another major difference, that should be called into question when looking back at their discussion was none of them still work on a farm and two of them grew up as “city kids.” With no experience on the farm, they have no direct knowledge of how some of the policies they are trying to implement may affect the farmers. The conversation as a whole was probably one of the best ones we have had on the trip so far.
After, we had another drive to get to Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge to meet with Omar de Kok-Mercado. Here we learned that Iowa had been all prairie before the settlers came and tiled the land. The refuge is making efforts to restore the prairie on its land with the indigenous plants. Omar’s job on the refuge is applying prairie strips to fields to help with runoff and to restore wildlife habitat. His view was similar to the Iowa Environmental Council but he does not think it should not be done through legislation and the government because it will not get enforced. The change needs to come from the farmers and especially the bigger corporations.

Today we arrived in the Whiterock Conservatory around 9 am to work in their goat grazing land until 12:30. We met the guard donkey as soon as we arrived. Yes, a guard donkey. They are apparently a popular thing here to guard herds of goats from coyotes and anything else that may disturb them. I guess the donkey though it was disturbing them because he dropped his head and charged me, but I was able to win him over with ear scratches later in the day. We spent the day weeding out the weeds that the goats do not like. The goats had controlled another invasive, honeysuckle, but our crew of volunteers was responsible for pulling the invasives at the ground level. While we were pulling the weeds, the goats were basking in the sun watching us sweat. It was a little funny because the goats’ purpose is to weed the area by eating the weeds. While there I befriended an eight-year-old boy named Elliot who threw weeds and rocks at Hannah and me the entire time we were there. Overall, it was really fun, and it was good to get outside for a while.

In the afternoon we spoke to an interesting woman who lives in the biggest house that I have seen in all of Iowa. Liz Garst is renowned in Iowa for a list of things she is or has been involved with. She had an opinion on every major thing that we have talked about since arriving in Iowa. We talked to her for three hours, and I think she is the person that my views have aligned with the most. She thinks the solution to the water quality problems in Iowa are actually soil problems. I think she’s right. Many of the places we have gone so far have centered their focus on water quality and how to fix the water. If we fix the soil, the water will also be fixed. The small microbes in the soil are dying because of the chemicals and single crops we are planting on them. They are losing their ability to absorb rain or chemicals that are being put on them. She had some awesome ideas, and I wish I could go back to places we visited earlier in the week and tell them about what she thinks.

Since we are far away from our home base, we spent the night in in a cabin. To complete the cabin experience, we roasted marshmallows and sat around the camp fire. We even talked about something other than agriculture, which is rare in Iowa.

On the 23rd of May, we got a different piece of the agriculture story. We once again made the hour drive to Des Moines where we met with the Iowa Environmental Council (IEC). The IEC favors a regulatory approach to address Iowa’s water quality issues. High nitrates in drinking water is what it is causing Des Moines Water Works to incur high costs running its nitrate removal system. Iowa as a whole is contributing 88% of the nitrate pollution in the Mississippi River. This doesn’t account for the other industrial livestock based pollutants like hormones and antibiotics that could be that water. As of now our water treatment plants have no way of dealing with these substances. Tiling is what made Iowa farmable, yet, tiling transports nitrate laden water to public waters. These waters then have to cleaned for human consumption.

After this we went to Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge. Its mission is to try to restore the prairies by planting native prairie species. The prairies are more endangered than the rainforests. It’s sad that such an iconic landscape is disappearing. We also saw the work that is being done with the prairie strips project. Prairie Strips are planted in between rows of corn to help mitigate nitrate and phosphorous runoff. They also serve another important purpose: an ecosystem amidst the vast corn fields for birds and other species. As we walked the refuge’s experimental corn fields we saw the difference that the prairie strips make. On the field with the strip, there was little standing dirt or water in the collection flume. The field without the strips had a flume covered in field runoff. This is just one of the many solutions that people have been testing. Agriculture has the tools to reduce nitrate runoff, but the question is when and who will adopt them.

On Friday we went to tour an ethanol plant, Poet. It was pouring rain and just about the gloomiest day you can imagine and pulling up to the huge ethanol plant in seemingly the middle of nowhere was a bit of a daunting sight. I am embarrassed to say before this visit; I had no idea what ethanol was. I can’t say I was extremely surprised that it was made out of corn because if nothing else, we have been learning that corn plays a role in just about everything we do. I was excited by the idea of a gasoline substitute. Ethanol can help America stop leaning on foreign markets for oil and make some of the necessary product right here in America. It is not a perfect process, but it is at least on the way to improving the pollution in the environment.

Interestingly, we learned yesterday that Ellsworth College has gotten rid of their biotechnology program which is essentially what prepares a college graduate to work at an ethanol plant. This would make one assume that Ethanol plants can be very successful as people are having a hard time getting hired. Instead we learned that the training to operate the Ethanol plant takes a long time and they have a high retention rate of keeping the same employees for a long time and have no need for a new hire. This seems like it could become a problem as if colleges no longer have this program, when Poet and other plants like Poet eventually need to hire someone new, there is no one qualified. On the other hand, we learned that the plant has a really fast turnover in its maintenance division. They have found that no one that comes to work for them already knows how to do the job. After training them, the individual goes on to leverage this new knowledge for a better job and the plant has to go through the hiring process again.

May 25, 2019

Stewardship Day at Whiterock Conservancy felt like a throwback to what we called workdays in my high school Enviro class. During the course of the year we would grab our work gloves and head outdoors to tackle the buckthorn or other invasive species in one of six Open Lands nature preserves in my hometown. The Open Lands Association in my hometown maintains over 800 acres of highly diverse native landspace, minor in comparison to Whiterock Conservancy’s 5,500-acre spread.

The Whiterock Conservancy is a land trust dedicated to conserving and protecting Iowa’s natural resources and engaging the public with the environment through outdoor recreation and education.  This mission is consistent with what I know about the Open Lands association back home. Whiterock’s three-part mission is to protect and restore the area’s natural resources and wild beauty; to provide people of all ages with safe, meaningful and unique outdoor recreation and education experiences; and to demonstrate and promote sustainable agriculture practices that respect the land, clean the water, and improve the soil.

Our stewardship work at Whiterock Conservancy involved pulling out an invasive plant species known as Dame’s rocket and shoveling out a colorful yet deceptively prickly and stubborn weed known as thistle, which can inhibit the growth of other plants. We were also able to see their goats, which are guarded by their very aggressive guard donkey Rafi, who cuts in between you and the goats if he thinks you are getting too close. Goats are useful in rotational grazing and restoring and maintaining a sustainable habitat. Today’s workday was a refreshing change of pace–it was great to be outdoors.

Once we finished our stewardship activities, we met with Liz Garst, Whiterock Conservancy’s treasurer, who provided background on the land trust. Part of her discussion covered how farmers are using precision agriculture technology, like GPS, to improve their crop production.  This reminded me of how the Open Lands staff back home uses drone technology to identify invasive species to direct the work volunteers. Technology is improving many agricultural processes. We also discussed soil runoff issues and the leaking of nitrogen and phosphorus, the impact of runoff on water quality and solutions to runoff. Liz emphasized that more enforcement of existing regulations is needed to prevent nitrogen and phosphorus runoff into the rivers. This issue has become a common theme in many of our discussions throughout the last week.

Today we arrived at White Rock Conservancy. First, we spent a couple hours removing invasive species and picking up sticks on land that the conservancy is restoring to Oak Savanna, and endangered land form. This turned out to be pretty back-breaking work. If nothing else, I learned that I certainly do not have a future in gardening. The saving grace of this time of laboring was the donkey. The donkey, named Raji, was the guard donkey. Ragi was the ‘guard dog’ for the goats. The goats lived on the land to serve as browsers–they eat the plants that are above ground, notably the honeysuckle. Our group and a few other volunteers, were doing the work on the savanna floor removing the invasive species so the native ones could flourish. Following our volunteer activity, we had a quick lunch before going to Liz Garst’s house to pick her brain on all things agriculture. Ms. Garst is the grandaughter of the Iowa legend, Roswell Garst, who became famous for selling hybrid seed corn to Iowa farmers during the 1930s and for forming the Garst Seed Corn Company. To say Ms. Garst was a wealth of knowledge would be an understatement. She had very strong opinions, but from what I could discern, she was a much more middle-of-the-road person than many of the people we had thus far. She was a realist without being pessimistic. I found that the most interesting thing that she talked about was Iowa State. She spoke about how Iowa State was in big ag’s pocket. Big ag businesses pay for the research they conduct which means that the research has a bias and a desired outcome. Additionally, they only employ people with their point of view. This is especially upsetting because a place of learning should promote and display a diversity of viewpoints. She was not a fan of the philosophy that the University was required to speak “with one voice on agriculture” because it was imperative that it did so to “feed the world’s growing population.” This was interesting and made me reflect on after talking to Professor Heaton who was doing research for Iowa State.  Looking back, I do see that she did display the point of view that Ms. Garst talked about. I also liked Liz Garst’s argument that markets need to be less politicized. Trade and politics need to try to be kept more separate for the sake of everyone’s well-being.

Today we visited the Grinnell Heritage farm as well as the farm on the Meskwaki settlement. The message and overall stance on the ag business at the Meskwaki farm was very much like the message we heard at the Grinnell farm. I was surprised at how little I connected with the people at the Grinnell farm. The Grinnell heritage farm is an anti GMO- anti pesticide anti big ag, organic farm. We chatted with the owner of the farm, and he illustrated an apocalyptic point of view that America was in a state of failure and was on the path to major destruction. He portrayed the agriculture industry as evil and almost beyond saving. I found that the rhetoric he used, such as strong negative language, put me as a listener into a defensive place as I felt a bit like I was being told I was a part of the problem and I should be doing more and if I wasn’t on their side I was dumb. I found that this put me off just as much as the extreme other side displayed at Corteva and Monsanto. I also found that I actually even preferred the more positive rhetoric of moving to a better future and making a difference and excitement toward the future and new opportunities that Corteva and Monsanto had. On paper, I felt like I would be very gung-ho about Grinnell and their mission but the language and framing of their message was very aggressive and I found it to be very off putting. The message at the farm on the Meskwaki settlement was much more positive and hopeful and I really enjoyed my time there.