“When I was a kid in the 1960s, you could drive from Carroll to Storm Lake, and see cattle lining green hills the entire way,” Art Cullen said in a matter-of-fact voice. “Now it’s all row crops, and cattle in feedlots. It’s a different situation. Those green hills are plowed up.” That transformation, the economic […]
Sustainable Agriculture
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa Food Systems Coalition sees future of state’s agriculture in food diversity, not ethanol and animal feed
A new plan for Iowa agriculture seeks to increase the state’s production of food rather than ethanol and animal feed, the Iowa Food System Coalition announced at a Monday press conference. The plan, known as Setting the Table for All Iowans, outlines the coalition’s policy goals which include producing more locally grown food, getting more […]
Posted inStatewide
Small farmers are being the change they want to see in Iowa agriculture
It will take a lot to turn the massive ship of Big Agriculture around in Iowa, even if the benefits — from improved water quality to a more competitive food market — are many. It is important for those who reside in the city and are generations removed from farm work to understand the perils […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
Forced to downsize, Sweet Tooth Farm focuses on self-care: ‘We can come back stronger’
In the summer of 2021, Monika Owczarski was informed by the City of Des Moines that the land she was leasing for her urban farm, Sweet Tooth Farm, would no longer be rented to her. Owczarski was devastated. On these two plots of land, she had been able to grow a little over an acre […]
Posted inCommunity/News
A lean guide to local meat
You don’t have to give up your favorite fleshy entrees in order to eat ethically — but it won’t be as easy as swinging by Walmart for a $6 pound of ground beef, either. Cutting out the middlemen in the food supply chain takes some legwork on the part of farmers and consumers, but has […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Wilson’s Orchard evolves their image with a focus on new crops, sustainability
Since Wilson’s Apple Orchard first opened to the public 35 years ago, the visitor experience has been centered around exactly what you would expect: apples. Over the last four decades, thousands of visitors have journeyed to the orchard in autumn to pick apples, sip apple cider slushies, eat apple turnovers and buy Wilson’s merch featuring […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Have fun and learn how to help an iconic butterfly at the Iowa City Monarch Festival
The fourth annual Iowa City Monarch Festival on Sunday is a celebration with a purpose. The two-hour event at the Iowa City Municipal Airport not only gives people a chance to enjoy monarch butterflies—as well as family-friendly crafts and snacks—but also learn what they can do to help the icon butterfly.
Posted inCommunity/News
How planting prairie strips on Iowa farms could save soil, water, wildlife and money — in-state and beyond
A solution to some of the biggest problems facing farmers, and some of the biggest environmental challenges in the state, has deep roots in Iowa’s past. Roughly 85 percent of Iowa’s 36 million acres were covered with prairie plants when the U.S. frontier pushed into what would become the state of Iowa in the 19th century. Now, less than one-10th of one percent of that 30 million acres of prairie exists.
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa’s dwindling bee population is part of a larger, frightening trend
Deep in the belly of the Vermeer Science Center at Central College in Pella, Iowa, cardboard boxes are stacked against the wall in a dimly lit laboratory. The boxes contain thousands of bees — carefully preserved and meticulously categorized based on their Latin genus and species — each with a unique tale to tell. Some are as small as a gnat; others are the size of a cockroach. Their colors span the spectrum, too, from rich, reflective blues to the familiar striped yellow and black of the common honey bee. Paulina Mena, an associate professor of biology, is their veritable warden.
Posted inCommunity/News
A local conflict over sustainable farming and zoning goes viral
Grant Schultz says the farm he runs could be a new model for local agriculture is he can change how it’s zoned. The farm’s owner are worried he wants to turn the farm into a resort.
