This past week we celebrated my mother-in-law’s 90th birthday! My wife, Janice, conducted research and gathered photos to make a 22-minute video that showcased her parents’ lives – as well as told the story of farming – during the past nine decades.

Honestly, many of those photos from the family album showed the hardships of farm life. Just imagine farming before tractors and electricity! Yet, year after year the Rewerts family kept farming. You can see how everyone in the family pitched in: planting crops, taking care of those crops including pulling weeds by hand, picking ears of corn, storing those ears until they were dry and then shelling corn in July. I remember those hot, dusty days! I also remember cold, winter days when we had to go outside to do chores in snow so deep that it almost went over the barn!

It was fun to journey down Memory Lane. After looking at photos of those old cars and trucks, I’m truly amazed at how those old trucks got the job done. Those first vehicles didn’t have radios either. Speaking of radios, notice how big those first radios were. They took up a great deal of space in a house, so there was no way they would’ve fit in a dash. Of course, there weren’t computers, cell phones, video games or GPS systems then either.

What a contrast between those first tractors without even power steering to today’s tractors that can actually steer themselves! Combines now can harvest the same amount in minutes that was harvested in hours when my mother-in-law was young.

Not only has farm machinery and equipment changed, but even the crops have changed. Honestly, farming has changed drastically just within the last 20-25 years due to the introduction of first Roundup Ready® soybeans and then traited corn products. Now we have corn hybrids that fight weeds and bugs on their own.

Even the food on our tables has changed in the last 90 years. When Grandma was young, everything was made from scratch. No one worried about how many calories were consumed because it was all worked off by the enormous amounts of manual labor that was done. Today’s society is not only concerned with calories and nutritional content, but many consumers want to know how the food was produced.

So much has changed! I’ve had a great time the last couple weeks reminiscing about the good ol’ days, but I’ll be the first to admit that I’m glad to be farming today. Earlier this fall I attended a Threshing Day where I saw them harvest the same amount of oats in three hours that could be harvested by a combine in just 10 minutes! Earlier this month I participated in the 4th Annual Franklin County Harvest Blogger’s Tour where we visited our county’s agricultural museum and then gave non-farmers rides in combines.

My understanding of farming history helps me appreciate farming today! It’s great to be able to use today’s technology to grow my crops, raise my pigs, and even be able to communicate with all of you!

Guest Blog by April Hemmes,

On Wednesday, October 15, I shut down harvest and headed to Des Moines Iowa for a 7 am breakfast. Not an everyday event for the middle of October for this farm girl! I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) Communication Award Ceremony.

My good friend Annette Sweeney invited me, knowing it wasn’t going to be easy for me to get away. She lured me with a panel of discussion on GMOs after the presentation, and I couldn’t say “no” to that!

But first I want to explain a little more about this CAST award, which is presented annually to a scientist who has shown leadership and passion for communicating agriculture technology. The recipient was Alison Van Eenennaam, an Animal Genomics and Biotechnology Cooperative Extension Specialist in the Department of Animal Science at the University of California—Davis. She has an active research and extension program but also works tirelessly and creatively to relay important information about agriculture and food production.

Annette and I got to meet Dr. Van Eenennaam, and we had a great discussion about how more farm women are needed to speech publicly. More women are needed to get the truth disseminated about what farmers are doing. In Alison’s statements (since I met her, I feel like I’m on a first-name basis with her now), she pointed out that there are 16 million fewer dairy cattle than in the 1940s yet we’re producing 60% more milk! How? Mainly through genetic selection. Then she talked about the “spiral of silence,” meaning that even though someone might think GMO’s are acceptable, he or she won’t say anything due to the people who are speaking out against it.

My favorite quote from Alison’s acceptance speech was a true story she told about her experience on Twitter. People were smack talking a peer-reviewed paper she had written, and she said, “It’s very difficult to defend a scientific paper in 140 characters or less!”

Now about the GMO panel… This panel was part of the Borlaug Dialog at the World Food Prize. What a great group of people! The moderator was Mike Pearson, Host of Market to Market. Panelists were: Jay Byrne, president of v-Fluence Interactive, company that does research for public affairs and issue management; Julie Kenney, a farmer involved with CommonGround, a group of farm women who talk with other women (consumers) about what they do on the farm; and David Sutherland, a blogger and activist who is a Vegan but has no problems with GMO’s.

This panel discussion provided some great tips on how to best communicate with the public about GMOs. First of all, we must realize that the Anti-GMO people are “story tellers.” While they have no facts to back up what they say, they are very well funded. They use those funds to spew untruths about those of us who farm or whose jobs are related to agriculture. We have “real jobs,” need to make a living plus defend what we do!

So what do consumers want to hear? Honestly, those involved with farming are proud to help feed the world. Consumers don’t care! They also don’t care that the science is sound and safe. Consumers just want to know that there isn’t going to be a problem with eating food. Basically the take away is something that I have heard over and over: “We must keep telling our family’s farming story, so the truth gets made public.”

There are many different topics I want to cover yet this month, but I’m running short on weeks!

October is National Pork Month, and as a pork producer, I like to do all that I can to promote the product I raise. Then there’s that nasty land grab on the ballot in New Jersey. But this week the World Food Prize is being awarded in Des Moines, so a story about food will take priority.

“Food” has become such a broad subject, and there seems to be almost an obsession with food labels such as locally grown and organically produced. Recently, I’ve read too many articles proclaiming that small farms are the best way to feed the world.

Say what? I’m under the impression that our society had moved beyond subsistence living thanks to advancements in agriculture. Innovation and technology helped free up labor, so people could pursue something other than raising food. Advances we’ve made in the last 100 years have allowed us to go from farming with horses to tractors that drive themselves! As a result, Americans’ standard of living has increased exponentially.

Don’t blame farmers for the “system” that may not be getting food to the mouths of those whom need it! Politics, regulations, weather, war, incomes… so many factors are involved with feeding the world. In China, for example, the government is moving millions of people to big new cities. The purpose is two-fold: (1) those living in the city will have a better standard of living, and (2) the farm ground can be utilized to grow more food.

China needs to grow more food to feed its population. They’re looking at way to increase efficiency. One innovation that has led to the increased efficiency of food production is biotechnology. Yet, stories are circulating that new technologies, such as GMOs, are putting small farmers out of business.

Speaking from personal experience as a small farmer, I’m not being forced to buy any technology I don’t want. I could save back my own seed. I could pull all the weeds by hand. And I’m sure my yields and profit wouldn’t suffer… yeah, right! (I know my yields would suffer, and I don’t want to pull any weeds by hand if I can help it!)

Truth is, GMOs have led to increased soil conservation and better water quality. My favorite newspaper (insert sarcasm) recently reported that GMOs have falsely taken the credit for moving conservation forward. Of course, the GMOs aren’t holding the soil themselves! But this headline that ran in last week’s newspaper is simply misleading: “Study: Biotech crops not reducing soil erosion.” (Read a bit further and you’ll see that the “study” was funded by an environmental group. It’s just one more example of why we must consider the source and use critical thinking skills.)

Speaking from personal experience, GMOs allow me to farm differently. Forty years ago, I tried no-till farming. It flat out didn’t work with my soils! Technology evolved during the last decade – redesigned equipment, new seeds and reformulated pesticides – came together to make no-till work now.

Better seeds and better equipment will help farmers of any size. That’s how farmers in this country have advanced; it’s how farmers in other countries like Ukraine and Uganda want to advance. But that doesn’t mean that we all must farm alike. After all, farmers grow different crops and raise different livestock based largely on where they live in addition to personal interests. I raise food primarily through animals here in Iowa, which is America’s number one pork-producing state. The way Tyson Roberts raises food in Utah is much more direct, right to the consumer. Yet, we’re both farmers trying to make a living.

It’s going to take farmers of all sizes to feed this world, and this week the World Food Prize will highlight some great people doing amazing, innovative things to help feed our growing world. In fact, Dr. Norman Borlaug of Iowa founded the World Food Prize to recognize people for their contributions to ending famine and starvation. Borlaug, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been called “the man who saved more lives than anyone who has ever lived.” His legacy lives on as other agricultural researchers around the world work to integrate viable technologies into today’s food systems.

Stay tuned to the Borlaug Dialogues, which focused around “The Greatest Challenge in Human History: Can We Sustainably Feed the 9 Billion People on our Planet by the Year 2050?”

RELATED BLOG POSTS:

• Be an Advocate during World Food Prize Week
• Celebrate Ag in a Big Borlaug Way
• Recognizing People for Improving the Environment

Harvest is underway in North Central Iowa, however, I’ve been spending as much talking about combining as I have actually spent in the field during the past two weeks.

In last week’s blog, I wrote about the opportunity I had to visit Mason City schools and answer some great questions from sixth graders about #RealPigFarming and crops. My main message was to remind these middle school students, who are like sponges absorbing information, to keep an open mind when reading information. I reminded them to consider the source of information and to not take all printed material as fact.

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to spend time hosting a group of bloggers on our 4^th Annual Franklin County Harvest Blogger’s Tour. Honestly, this is one event that I always look forward to as its main purpose is to showcase our county’s rich agricultural heritage and to help bridge the gap between farmers and consumers.

This event has been held the first weekend of October since 2011. This year, bloggers begin arriving at the Country Heritage B&B on Friday afternoon. We then took them on a tour of the first farmer-owned, rural electricity generating plant. In the 1930s, only 10 percent of U.S. farms had electricity. Interestingly enough, this electric utility plant in rural Hampton was the first rural electric utility plant west of the Mississippi. We made history right here in our own backyard – and this was the first time I’d actually visited the museum myself! I had a great time walking through the REA Museum, which is full of fascinating things from the beginnings of electricity.

From the REA Museum, the bloggers toured Beeds Lake State Park. This lake was constructed by manual labor during the Great Depression. One focal point of the park is the 170 foot-long spillway – built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s – that consists of horizontal layers of limestone that abruptly drops 40 feet. Another unique feature of Beeds Lake is the causeway near the lodge, providing more than one-third mile of shoreline fishing, as well as a convenient pathway for hikers and joggers.

Our final stop on Friday evening was the Learning Tree Lodge at the Carlson Tree Farm. The Carlsons have built a very nice retreat in rural Franklin County, and there is no charge to use their comfortable learning center. Great food and wine tasting was combined with the entertainment Dennis has a reputation of providing. As a former county conservation officer, he always teaches us something new about nature. We had the the opportunity to taste roasted meal worms… did I mention the wine tasting? Yes, Franklin County is home to Townsend Winery!

Saturday morning started early. We arrived on the Franklin County Fairgrounds at 8 AM where we toured our county’s farm museum. Many questions were asked and answered about the history of farming while we looked at old farm equipment. Every time I go through this building, I see something I had not noticed before. There’s such so much to see! It was a great stop.

From the fairgrounds, our busload of bloggers went downtown to shop the Hampton specialty stores. I had to head out to do my chores, but from the pictures posted, it looks like the shoppers had a good time. With shopping bags in hand, they boarded the buses for a trip to Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds, with headquarters on a Franklin County Century Farm.

John and Shannon are the third generation of Lathams to manage the family-owned seed business. They have added hybrid seed corn and Hi‑Tech forage to the product lineup, providing farmers with even more choices for their fields. Bloggers enjoyed learning how the Lathams contract with local farmers to produce seed beans, which are then brought to their plant in Alexander upon harvest. Controlling the handling of the soybeans from harvest through conditioning and bagging is what the Latham believes is key to their reputation for quality seed.

Following a soybean facility tour, we all enjoyed celebrating October #Pork Month with succulent loin sandwiches and Val Plagge’s Sweet & Spicy Hog Wild Baked Beans. While we enjoyed our delicious lunch, we also enjoyed a presentation about the North Iowa Ag in the Classroom group. Just four women talk to 10,000 kids a year about farming! Even though we live in a rural state, we learned that some North Iowa school kids believe corn stalks are bamboo. These ladies provide classroom materials about #RealPigFarming, ethanol production and soil conservation to name a few. All are important topics – topics that are greatly misunderstood by many adults.

As enjoyable as all of these tours were, the highlight of the weekend was definitely the combine rides! Saturday afternoon we traveled to Roy and Jeanie Arends’ farm. Although the soybeans were a little wet from all the rain we’ve had, Roy used it as an opportunity to explain why his ground needed to be tiled. This turned in to quite a question and answer session! Roy’s son, Andrew, even explained about GMOs.

Half of the blogger group stayed at the Arend’s farmer and half went to Ian and Val Plagge’s farm to combine some corn. Val even gave bloggers the chance to visit their pigs.

All of these tours and visits led to great understanding and some really interesting blog posts! Follow along with the hashtag #FranklinCoHarvest on Twitter and Facebook for a great recap from these bloggers:

• Corn, Beans, Pigs and Kids
• Donna Hup
• It’s Just Life – Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary
• Jeni Eats
• Sawdust and Embryos
• The Walking Tourists

Thanks to everyone who participated this year! It was an honor to help host this group of enthusiastic bloggers. Not only do they share their experiences here in Franklin County with many more people, but we have an opportunity to learn from them, too. It was another successful weekend, and I’m proud to have been a part of it.

Related Links:

• Field Fare & Family Fun Abound in Franklin County
• Bloggers Tour Proves the Power of Internet
• Small Steps Lead to Amazing Journey