Victory Gardens

In honor of Memorial Day today I found this very short video on Victory Gardens. You can read more about Victory Gardens on Wikipedia, but if you have any historical facts and on them I would love to hear them!

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.