I woke up to the sound of my alarm to find that it was pouring rain outside. It continued to rain through breakfast and through our drive to Grinnell Heritage Farm where we met Andy Dunham and his employee Eric. We arrived at 9 am and the second we arrived we were bombarded with aggressive arguments against conventional ag. This continued for a while until they realized that we were not the enemy, and we shared a lot of similar views after nine days in Iowa. After we got the politics out of the way, we went out to look at the farm. Some of it was planted and some things were still in the transport pots. It was much smaller than I had thought it would be. Heritage Farms is the largest organic vegetable farm in Iowa. It is around 25 acres. The difference is that each acre has a much higher value than a conventional farm of corn or soy beans. It was cool to see how productive a small area of land can be. We talked with Omar yesterday, the man working with the STRIPS project that just became part of the Farm Bill. Andy plants buffers between his crops but does not do it through any government funded project. He said that he does not go through the government because he wants to be able to do whatever he wants with the buffers without regulations or requirements. I think that the idea of STRIPS is seeking a solution for people like Andy who want more freedom with their strips. Andy said that all of the prairie plants in his buffer zones were native to the area so it seems like they would qualify if he were to look into it. With all of the perspectives I have been given, I think that I fall somewhere that promotes more diversity and a smaller scale but does not totally aim to cut out existing systems.

For lunch we went to a local restaurant called Relish. It is family owned and the family opened the restaurant up for us during hours when it was usually closed. It was good food and conversation.

We met another Adam in the afternoon at Red Earth Gardens in the Meskwaki Indian Settlement. Adam Ledvina led us around the Red Earth Garden to show us how it works and what they are growing. They work with members of the tribe that have gotten a rough start to life. They hope to rehabilitate people and give them a new beginning. Diabetes is also a problem among Native American populations and the farm also helps to spread awareness of healthy foods and ways you can incorporate them into a diet.

Tomorrow marks the first day of our overnight travels so we are all getting to bed early tonight to prepare.

May 24, 2019

We started our day at the Grinnell Heritage Farm in Grinnell, Iowa and met with Andy Dunham, and one of his staff members, Eric. They shared their very strong view about agricultural in Iowa and their commitment to organic farming and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). CSA’s provide a direct link between the producers and consumers of food. They showed us different aspects of the farm, specifically the impact pesticide drift had on their asparagus. Unfortunately the crop was affected by pesticide drift from a nearby farm that took the organic label off the product for three years. This was a first- hand account of our discussion at The Practical Farmers of Iowa about various problems and prevention methods regarding pesticide drift.  They also showed us a species of bird known as the Red-Winged blackbird, which has an important role in protecting their farm. The birds scare off any crows (which have been known to peck holes in the drip lines that provide water to the vegetables) that cross into their land and drive them off the property by pushing them away from one side to the other. This is an example of the importance of biodiversity on farmland.

After we left the Grinnell Heritage Farm, we met with Adam Ledvina at Red Earth Gardens at the Meskawai Settlement in Tama, Iowa. This part of the day was a refreshing change of pace from our normal meetings which have taken place inside presentation rooms due to be being sidelined by the rain. We were able to help Adam pick weeds in the fields of his farm which was a good way to get our hands dirty, help him with his farm, and get immersed in the environment.  As a sustainability major I really enjoyed this experience and felt like I was in my element. After we assisted Adam with the weeds, he showed us their greenhouse where they keep their plants and do composting with worms. As Sammy, Adare, Hannah, and I just learned about composting at the Wheatsfield Cooperative in Ames, it was good to see worm farm composting in action. After a rainy morning, it was a fun to be outdoors with the plants.

After visiting Bayer, the Iowa Environmental Council (IEC) was like a breath of fresh air. Jennifer was passionate about the environment and the changes that need to be made in the immediate future. IEC advocates for more regulations. I too think more regulations are needed especially since farmers have had plenty of time to prove that they do not need government rules and regulations to do the right thing. Since leaving it up to the individual to make changes has not work it only makes sense to try a new approach. IEC hopes that big businesses will see the changes needed for water quality as an investment for the future. An improvement of water quality would help tourism, realty, and overall state success. If big businesses get behind regulations to help the environment and improve water quality, the regulations are much more likely to be put into action.  Something I really appreciated about IEC is that their opinions and stand on issues were very clear and out in the open. This felt like a breath of fresh air after trying to decode the agendas of Corteva, Bayer, and the Agribusiness Association. I also appreciated that while they were talking about pretty serious and devastating thing going on in Iowa, they had humor and positivity. They had a plan to make things better and the enthusiasm and will to do it. The obvious passion and eagerness they exuded was infectious and made me want to be a part of what they were doing. Unfortunately, I do think it is a bit unlikely that big agricultural businesses will get behind restrictive regulations because in the end it all comes down to money. They want to make the most money with the least amount of work. Changes like the ones IEC wants to make will mean a lot of money will be spent and the businesses will have less room to do whatever they want.

We visited the World Food Prize today. The World Food Prize is an award of prestigious honor presented to those who have made significant advances scientifically and technologically in agriculture. I had the capacity to appreciate the work that has been done and the steps that were taken the move closer to ending world hunger. I start to things get a little problematic with the presentation of the founder of the award, Norman Borlaug. Borlaug was an American Agronomist who dedicated his research and work to find ways to bring better agricultural practices that would in turn help feed people who suffer from starvation. Borlaug was being painted as man who just came in and fixed all the food problems in these nations full of Black and Brown people. As an English major I love rhetoric and symbols. The imagery that recognition of powers like this do is inherently make solutions to the global problems like this white. It can be very toxic to outsiders who do not have full access to entire histories or bodies of work that recognize all of the powers at work. The World Food Prize does a little damage control because they have a whole room dedicated to other winners of the prize. This is an award that has international reach, so there are people from all over the world that get recognized by the organization. There was also beautiful art that recognized other individuals of color that have played a role in the World Food Prize. There were two amazing mosaics of World Food Prize Laureates; Dr. M.S. Swaminathan of India who won the first prize and Dr. Evangelina Villegas of Mexico the first female laureate.

The most problematic, to me, was the huge recognition of George Washington Carver while also having a tip of the hat to Thomas Jefferson in the same building. Carver is a famous Black agriculturalist that had success in growing and making products out of peanuts. What is also significant about Carver is that he was a former slave who eventually found freedom and had the opportunity to attend Iowa State University. The homage to Thomas Jefferson is so small that many could possibly miss it. In one room of the World Food Prize there were the notable names of people from distant history who would have been recognized for their agricultural achievements had the award been around then. I find extremely insensitive for the organization to recognize a slave owner, Jefferson, while simultaneously appreciating the work of Carver, a former slave. The brutal history that Jefferson holds is harmful to the history and impact of Carver. Besides, after Jefferson returned to America from France with new seeds for crops, who was really doing the planting?

I say all of this to simply say, stories and narratives are important, and how we tell them are even more crucial. It is the responsibility of historians and scholars to present fair and equitable history. I say equitable because there have been some voices that have be silenced for long times. It would be enough at this point to just start adding in the lost voices. These stolen voices deserve there own books, there own museums, their own guides/specialists. That is when recovery happens and representation is obtained. It is not just a matter of telling the story, but letting those who have experienced the erasure have the space to step into their truth, their story and tell it.

How does this fit in with farming? Well there are issues surrounding agriculture practices, soil restoration, and environmentalism that all use the power of narrative explain why their perspective should be the deciding factor on the issue. How do we know all stories are being heard and if there are people out there who have more power or capital than another to project their story further and louder, how can we as consumer advocate for the redistribution that power/capital?

“We have become ninety-nine percent money mad. The method of living at home modestly and within our income, laying a little systematically for the proverbial rainy day which is due to come, can almost be listed among the lost arts”

George Washington Carver

On Wednesday, May 22nd we went to Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) in Ames. Most of our discussion centered around pesticide drift, specifically, Dicamba. Dicamba is a volitile pesticide and once it is sprayed, it quite literally is gone with the wind. It can move for miles and with no way to determine who sprayed it, effected farmers find it hard to get recompensed for damages. Even if they can prove who the pesticide drifted from, vegetable and other specialty crops are not eligible for crop insurance like Mitch Meyer and Renae Zoske sell, and most will not receive damages.

PFI also mentioned that good applicators of pesticides will use DriftWatch. DriftWatch is essentially an app that makes specialty farmers visible to conventional farmers. Applicators can notify specialty farmers if they plan to spray near them but there is no regulations to do so.

Later today after stopping for lunch at Noodles we headed for Monsanto (now Bayer). Once again the hot topic was Dicamba and pesticide drift. Bayer’s stance is that they did not originally know that Dicamba would drift so far and the way to control Dicamba is through applicator training. I find it amusing that applicator training required for Glyphosate (Round-up) is less rigorous than Dicamba, when there are health effects to exposure. In fact, it seemed that Bayer was trying to push their idea that exposure to organophosphates, pesticides and Round-Up was entirely safe. They even handed out a fact sheet on the safety of Glyphosate. I’m not convinced, and I’m sure the OSHA fact sheet would tell a different story.

Regardless, the scientist in me is completely in awe of the way DNA can be extracted. We even got to play with the small version of the chipper machine. It takes a small sample of the corn seed enabling the scientists to extract genes. If done correctly, the corn seed retains its ability to grow. We each got to place a corn seed in the machine and received a chipped seed to keep. My next venture will be trying to grow my corn kernel in my backyard.

We ran back to Des Moines for the day. The first stop was the Iowa Environmental Council with Jenny Terry and her posse of female attorneys who sent us through a series of interview questions before we began. They were very aggressive in their strategy to push for policy. I understand why they are so defensive after visiting some of the places they are up against. Something that Jen said stuck with me “funding is fundamental”. I have seen that across the places we have visited, funding has indeed been fundamental. The groups with more money are having it their way and the ones with less are following along or trying to work around them. We went to an example of a group working around the powerhouses later in the day.

Upon the suggestion of a woman at the IEC, we went to Zombie Burger for lunch. Zombie Burger is probably exactly what you think it sounds like. It was a burger restaurant with a zombie theme. The décor did not make any of us less hungry. Four people got a burger with fried mac and cheese buns as big as their faces. No one finished the whole thing.

After our huge lunch we met with Omar de Kok-Mercado to visit the STRIPS project which stands for Science-based Trials of Rowcrops Integrated with Prairie Strips. The STRIPS were located on the Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge in Prairie City. I really liked being at the reserve it was awesome to actually see the landscape so many people have been talking about. The STRIPS that we looked at were really effective after the week of rain we have had. There was no runoff. Which was amazing because typically there would be tons. We also saw bison on our way out at their bison reserve where they currently have 67 bison living.

The Knutson’s made dinner at Morris’s and Mr. Knutson showed us a demonstration of how nitrogen leaks out of soil more than herbicides. We have heard a whole lot about this, but it was really helpful to visualize it.

The highlight of today for many was seeing buffalo in the Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge; however, the largest takeaway of the day for me was discussing runoff and water pollution with the Iowa Environmental Council. The focus of the conversation centered around nitrogen runoff as Jennifer Terry had worked for Des Moines Water Works for a period of time which overlapped with the water lawsuit. First, we discussed drainage districts and how it is a powerful political entity. A drainage district is owned by two or more farmers. Jen said that these districts have power with little accountability, a dangerous combination in her estimation.  They can tax property and use eminent domain to make those within the drainage district upgrade their tiling systems. I believe that drainage districts could be used as a solution to the water problem, but more on this later.

Tiled water does not stay local, and the runoff goes into the Des Moines or Raccoon rivers and to the water filtration facilities, where local taxpayers pay for the nitrates to be filtered out at the tune of up to $8,000 a day it is used. A solution proposed is to monitor tile drainage and keep the source below levels and if this is done give the farmers/ drainage district a bonus. Usage of oxbows, no-till, and wood chips to filter nitrates are all valid solutions; but after visiting the Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge and seeing their STRIPS project, I am convinced that prairie strips could be the most practical solution.

Omar de Kok-Mercado, a STRIPS Iowa project coordinator, showed the class how practical it is. You must grow the strips to be at least 30 ft. long and they help strengthen the soil, and capture runoff. They must use all local plants in the area and have two blooming flowers. The solution that seems practical to me is to create laws (possibly on a state level) to use the drainage districts as a tool, and to require any use or areas that pool water easily or are extremely unproductive to be turned into prairie strips. They will help to reduce runoff, and the landowners will receive incentives from the government that are listed in the 2018 Farm Bill for participating. Omar had said there were about 65 prairie strips on farms in Iowa currently, and all were created before it was listed in the Farm Bill, so this number is expected to increase.

What the STRIPS project does is similar to what Heath Stolee is doing, however, it is on a larger scale, and is not permanent as a farmer may remove the prairie strips whenever they choose. This project is one of many solutions currently being researched to reduce runoff and to me looks more promising than Miscanthus.

When compared to what we did previously, the beginning of the week was an entirely different beast. Instead of on-farm activities, we met with different representatives of various agricultural groups throughout Iowa. Our first stop was at Corteva Agriscience where one of its agro scientists passionately informed us of Corteva’s mission and how it was using new technology to revolutionize the seed markets. CRISPR technology enables scientists to pinpoint exactly where in the DNA they can add or subtract new traits. This means that it will be easier to dictate what traits are exhibited in a seed.
The second half of our day involved meeting with representatives from the Iowa Soybean Association and later the Iowa Corn Growers Association. Evident by their names, the focuses of these two groups are to ensure that the soybean and corn industry in Iowa remains profitable. While both groups have similar interests in mind, the Iowa Soybean Association reps certainly seemed more prepared and knowledgeable about the subject matter being presented.
The final part of our day, while not farm-related was still an integral part of our trip. Our motley crew had the honor of meeting with Dr. Angela Franklin, the president of Des Moines University and a Furman grad. This meeting’s inclusion in our itinerary was a no-brainer as Dr. Franklin is the most successful Furman alum in the entire state of Iowa.
Tuesday began similarly to Monday. At 9 am sharp we had a meeting with the Agribusiness Association of Iowa. Unlike the Iowa Corn Growers Association and the Iowa Soybean Association, the Agribusiness Association of Iowa represents all agronomic interests in the state. While one of their goals is to institute cleaner and progressive farming practices all across Iowa, they believe that policy and rulemaking is not the correct avenue with which to pursue these goals.
As Iowa is a predominantly agrarian state, it makes sense that The World Food Prize Foundation’s headquarters are located in Des Moines. The brainchild of Dr. Norman Borlaug honors those who have made advancements in all things food focusing on helping those who are unable to help themselves.
While on Wednesday we also met with representatives from lobbying or activist organizations, the experience was different. Instead of meeting with so-called “big ag” supporters we met with the Practical Farmers of Iowa whose goal was to foster the career of the small farmer. Similar to the “big ag” supporters, PFI focuses on helping new farmers get into farming as well as holding field days showcasing new more environmentally friendly farming techniques. The main topic of conversation we covered was pesticide drift and how in rare cases, it can wipe out or severely reduce the yield of a farmer.
The merger of Monsanto and Bayer was also a topic directly tackled in this course.  We met with Dave Tierney, the governmental affairs director, and three other Bayer employees at one of its learning centers to talk about what Bayer Agroscience was doing in the farming world. Surprisingly the employees present did not shy away from questions concerning the whole RoundUp Ready- Monsanto debacle.

On Tuesday, May 21st, we started out at the Agribusiness Association of Iowa. It seems that a main feature of the organizations we have been visiting is the lack of representation of the farmer. Why does a big company like Corteva or Monsanto (now Bayer) need representation? If agriculture is consumer driven, they definitely have a huge customer base. Who in Iowa is not planting GMO corn (besides the rarity of farmers like Heath Stolee, Mark Tinitjer and Brian Wosepka)?

I find the lack of direct farmer representation alarming. Farming demographics show that young people are moving away and not getting jobs in agriculture. Thus, increasing the average age of a farmer to 60 years old. Also small, family farms are being replaced with large corporate farms. Yet companies like Corteva say they support the farmer by giving them as much choices as ever even though there are fewer seed companies. I think this actually gives them fewer options. Yes, they may have a plethora of corn seed to choose from within the company but where else would have they gotten their seed if they had a choice. Companies like this seem to be on the edge of becoming a monopoly that limits competition and accountability to their consumers.

After a tour of the World Food Prize (a foundation and award established by Norman Borlaug) we passed go and advanced to Des Moines Water Works (DMWW). Des Moines Water Works was part of a lawsuit in which it sued a couple of towns above them for polluting public waters. The complaint of DMWW was that nitrates from upstream agriculture was causing it to have to run its nitrate removal system. This system cost a lot in finances and energy every day to run to remove nitrates from drinking water. DMWW does not remove all nitrates from the water. They use dilution as a way to meet the MCLs for nitrate levels. The nitrate removal system processes a portion of water removing all nitrates. This nitrate-free water is mixed with the other water that still has nitrates in it.

This process also creates another problem. How do we dispose of the nitrates removed from the water. DMWW dumps the nitrate slurry back into the Des Moines River. This might seem counterintuitive, but DMWW justifies this because the nitrate pollution did not come from them to begin with. They want to push for farmers to be more responsible for their agricultural runoff.

Heirloom seeds. What are they?

Heirloom seeds are seeds that have been passed down through several generations and carry the traits of the parent plant. They are grown to preserve plant diversity and deviates from the uniformity of plants that are produced for commodity. Heirloom seeds are intended to track the heritage of the seed. Neat right?

This is truly where narrative and farming meet. The importance of each seed can be measured by both it’s genetic traits and by the story it can tell simultaneously. Who planted this seed? Where did it come from? Did it immigrate over oceans and mountains? Who did it feed? How does it grow now? These are all the questions that the plant could answer.

I learned about these specialty seeds at the organization, Practical Farmers of Iowa, because of Steve Carlson and his passion for the seeds. After leaving I could not stop thinking about them. I just became fascinated about all the many historical secrets that the seeds hold, and what unlocking them would look like. Well initially, I was thinking about writing historical logs for the different kinds of seeds and creating cool little profiles for them in database, but then I realized that this idea actually already kind of exist because of seed banks that hold heirloom seeds. Today though, I got a chance to see heirloom seeds in action. We visited the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge. This refuge falls under the US Fish and Wildlife Services and here in Iowa they have focused a lot attention on restoring parts of Iowa to it native habitat, prairie!

The indigenous lands of Iowa were covered for miles and miles of tall grass prairie lands and some plants have the capacity to grow up to ten feet tall. One reason the refuge has taken so much time to study and restore the lands was because prairie actually works as a great tool to reduce field run-off of top soil and different pesticides that are used on fields. On our tour of the prairie one of our guides asked us to imagine what the land would have looked like before the European settlers came, to the now state of Iowa. I loved this comment because it gave recognition to the lost land of Native Americans and also recognizes some of the lasting effects of colonization. Even though the prairie lands probably don’t exactly count as heirloom seeds, one can understand how conservation and agricultural diversity go hand in hand. The conservation literally brings history to life, they show how the land used to be. Not only do they restore the plants, but they restore the wildlife bringing some of the first inhabitants of the land. The gateway between the conservation efforts, environmental protections, and of historical reckoning is amazing (the best of three worlds).

I want to begin to investigate and this heirloom seed could be used to study the history of American slavery. When I imagine this research I imagine the results could function as a way to connect the painful history of slavery and how that affects how young Black adults view agriculture as a profession. Also maybe heirloom seeds could function as a form of reparations; tracing the genetics of cash crops and produce crops to specific regions in America and giving descendants of slaves the opportunity to buy a share in cotton stocks, tobacco, rice, or sugarcane. This would definitely start shifting agricultural dynamics.

Heirloom seeds. What are they? Plant heritage, history books, prairie fields, and justice.