Looking to Iowa

I remember driving through Iowa in mid-summer about a year ago. My son lives in Minnesota so I rush through Iowa farmland annually on the route to Minneapolis. But the last time I drove along I-35 North, I'd just finished Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. What passes for American "farmland" looked very different after that drive. I realized that the farms of my Wisconsin childhood were nowhere to be seen. While there were vast fields of corn and some other green crop (was it soybeans? Who knows what that looks like in the ground?), there was no real sign of life. No livestock. No trees, or chickens, or vegetables. Just acres and acres of a single crop. Monotony, endless monotony.

I'd read in Pollan's book that if you closed the borders of Iowa, some of the richest farmland in the world (at least theoretically), the people there couldn't feed themselves. Why? Because their crops are all grown to feed cattle, pigs and chickens, not people. There is no crop diversity, no traditional permaculture that can actually sustain the nutritional needs of a population. When you read that, you suspect that Pollan is exaggerating to make a point. Then you take a cold hard look at Iowa, and realize it must be true.

But while Iowa has come to exemplify all that is wrong with our food system, it might also be starting to offer hope for the emergence of a new era in farming. Recent statistics from the 2007 Census of Agriculture revealed that Iowa gained 4000 new farms since 2002 ("Good News From Iowa", New York Times). More fascinating, these farms are smaller (many only 9 acres), grow diverse crops, and are run by much younger farmers, many of whom are women. Their target market is local populations, not large food processors. Better yet, nationwide, there have been 300,000 new farms established in that same period.

I live in another state with rich farmland, and I'm hoping that this is a trend, along with family kitchen gardens, that takes root and flourishes. We desperately need to source as much of our food as possible, close to home. One day, maybe my children and grandchildren will be able to experience the richness of local farms as an integral part of their suburban life.