Bye, Bye, Barns...

I'm not sure how I missed it, but there was an interesting article in the New York Times (that is why I missed it) on page A1 about Iowa's vanishing barns. But, in reality the article is about more than that. It is about the size of today's Iowa farms. It is about the young people who desire to farm but run into brick wall after brick wall. It is about the older generations who are now involved in the larger farms, but still see that there may be something wrong. In a nutshell it is kind of the same thing about large farms vs. small farms that I have written about before on this blog. But, since I have been blasted a time or two for writing those things I'll just leave you with some interesting quotes from the article ... including quotes from regular ol' Iowans.

• "What had in the 1930s been an ordinary farm here — 80 or 160 acres and a few cows and sheep and chickens — is today far bigger and more specialized to pay for air-conditioned, G.P.S.-equipped combines and tractors, so much fuel and the now-skyrocketing price of farmland."

• "All of that has left some of Iowa’s youngest, newest farmers doubtful that one could make a start in farming anymore without roots and connections and land dating back, say, to the W.P.A. era."

• "“We just don’t neighbor like we used to,” said Donald Wedeking, 81, of Nemaha (A “Mighty Small Town,” as its sign somewhat ambiguously promises), who grows 830 acres of corn and soybeans with his son, far more than his family once did."

• "These days, a farmer’s land can stretch into thousands of acres. When the W.P.A.’s writers came through, they wrote that Iowa had 221,986 separate farms on land totaling more than 34 million acres. Today, on only a little less land (31.5 million acres), Iowa has just 88,400 farms. More than half the farmland is owned by people 65 years old or older, an Iowa State University farm economist says, and about half of that is owned by those 75 or older."

• "But the notion that young people, lured by big cities, have left purely by choice is not always so. On a gravel road near Albert City, a machine — some surreal cross between a spaceship and a gargantuan Transformers toy — suddenly appears in the distance. Cars pull over to make room. It stands 19 feet off the ground, its gaping boom, full of insecticide to battle the aphids in soybean plants, jutting out 90 feet. This sprayer ($168,000, used) is the latest tool in the kit of Josh Bellcock, 31, who farms 3,000 acres with family members. Without his family land and his longstanding ties to older farmers who live here (and from whom he rents land) Mr. Bellcock says he probably could not succeed as a young farmer starting out. Not now."

• "“I’m pretty lucky,” Mr. Bellcock said. “People aren’t willing, unless it’s a family member, to go out of their way to help someone else.”"

Young Iowans Don't Like the Stink...

"Livestock pollution turns off young Iowans" is the title of an article by Brian Depew from the Jan. 13th edition of the Des Moines Register. I was turned on to this article by Kelli of Sugar Creek Farm. Lately she has be doing some "Ag Speedlinking" with links to lots of interesting articles. In fact if you haven't been over to her blog I encourage you to check it out just so you can keep up on some of the current issues in farming. But, back to this article...

Mr. Depew grew up in Laurens, IA and currently lives in Nebraska where he works for The Center For Rural Affairs. But, in this article he is writing about a recent trip back to the family farm in Iowa. His family farm will soon be within three miles 13 "industrial livestock" buildings and he points to that as one of the reasons that young Iowans are not staying in the state. He recounts some of the recent efforts by the state to keep young Iowans in Iowa (basically people like me) and offers that one of the reasons people around my age and younger are leaving is because they are looking for "places with vibrant natural resources, thriving communities and healthy economies". He contends that they can't find those things in Iowa because our state government has sat by as the Big-Agri Business has entrenched itself in the state. Also, this embracing of the big business agriculture has squeezed out the small farm families.

While I do agree with that last sentence to a point (I'm not sure I want to blame just the government, because I know a lot of people that have benefited from those big farms), I'm not sure if I fully appreciate or agree with his main idea ... that young Iowas have left because confinement agriculture has ruined our natural resources, killed our small towns, and ruined our economy. I have lived my entire life in Iowa and have no desire to live anywhere else, but all my friends that have left have gone to larger cities or suburbs that offered a completely different lifestyle than Iowa. Not a better lifestyle, just different. I will admit that confinement agriculture does do its damage when it gets out of control and never will I support it as the right choice, but I'm also not going to legislate how people farm ... if I want to change the opinions of people I will do it by providing a great alternative (I think I can).

As I mentioned I agree with much of the ideas behind this article, but I'm not sure if I can take the entire message. Besides, since when did Nebraska become so great :) (really just kidding!!!). I do believe that the changing agricultural world has changed the life and economics of our small towns, but it will take more than legislative reform to change this. It will take people opting out of the "big systems" and beginning to buy locally. It will take farmers willing to do things differently and invite the cities out to their farms to experience, shop, and eat. It will take a cultural shift ... and those always take time and effort, not government.

I appreciate what Mr. Depew wrote and I encourage you to click on the link to the article. It is a nice article with a lot to think about and the responses from readers at the bottom of the article bring out a lot of back and forth discussion. I will say that I hope Mr. Depew buys local food and supports the small farmers in his area ... I do believe he has a genuine concern for rural America because of his job so he just might already be buying local.