Iowa is worth protecting.

Introduction | Frances Moore Lappé | Ricardo Salvador
Practical Solutions for Iowa | Stories from a New Food System | Resources

Practical Solutions for Iowa

Image showing panelists seated at the event.

In the afternoon, our panel of policy experts discussed ways to bring more fresh, local, sustainable foods into Iowa's food system.

Neil Hamilton, J.D., moderated the panel. Hamilton is director of the Drake Agricultural Law Center and Dwight Opperman Chair and Professor of Law at Drake University. Hamilton has 30 years of experience teaching agricultural law and research interests including local food, sustainable land tenure, and creating policies to support new farmers.

Below are summaries of the presentation each panelist made before the audience.

SARAH WILLIS

Sarah Willis told the story of how her father, Paul, came to be the first pork producer in the Niman Ranch system. She also explained that while Niman Ranch is a nationally-known brand, its guidelines for sustainable farming practices set it apart from others on the market.

“We have over 600 family farmers and ranchers now who supply Niman Ranch--these are all people who are not using any industrialized methods at all--who are raising their animals according to their natural behaviors,” Willis said.

When consumers make choices about what products to buy, they should consider more than whether a product is local, Willis said. Niman Ranch farmers do not use antibiotics or added hormones and raise their animals outdoors.

Willis said local producers may or may not set similar standards, and consumers should ask questions to make sure the products they buy match their expectations.

“A lot of the conversation today is talking about local foods--local production--[and] ‘support your local farmer,’” she said. “But there’s even more to this conversation that needs to take place,” she said.

MATT RUSSELL

Matt Russell described how he and his husband are progressing with Coyote Run Farm, their 110 acre farm near Lacona, Iowa. He explained his vision for how farms like his can coexist alongside larger commodity farms in the marketplace and on the landscape.

“If you think we’re going to set up a regional food system based on competing with conventional prices and conventional convenience, we’re going to fail,” Russell said.

Russell explained that in his approach, which focuses on building relationships with customers, quality of the product and its taste drive success. “You can only be successful if you differentiate yourself in the system and you identify what it is you’re doing as valuable,” he said.

Because of this focus on taste and quality, Russell said, the products he sells play a different role in the marketplace than typical products. He searches for customers who understand that.

Despite the fact that it sells different products, Russell said his farm fits well in the community. He buys plenty of products from the local co-op, and neighbors appreciate having new people moving in and committing to stay.

In the future, Russell said, a wide range of farming types will continue to exist. He is hopeful public policy can do more to support coexistence between them and pay more attention to farms like his.

“We’ve very well developed the industrial end of that continuum,” Russell said. “We’ve put a lot of public policy into it, and a lot of resources. We’re just now starting to look at the other end of that continuum.”

FRITZ NORDENGREN

Fritz Nordengren is a self-described “city boy” who came to farming later in life. Running his poultry farm, Two Mile Ranch, in Decatur County, has taught Nordengren a great deal about food and farming, which he is now working to share with all Iowans, urban and rural.

Nordengren is currently president of the Iowa Food Systems Council, an independent nonprofit organization founded in 2010 to continue the work of Governor Vilsack’s Iowa Food Policy Council, which operated from 2000-2006.

“What that’s empowered us to do is bring lots of people to the table” to discuss the food system, Nordengren says. By taking this approach, the Iowa Food Systems Council can focus on a wide range of issues concerning how food is produced, transported, purchased, consumed and disposed of in Iowa.

Nordengren is hopeful the organization will be a forum for people who do not usually work together on public policy problems to gather and find solutions. “Even if we have different ideas about how our food should be grown and how our property should be managed, we can sit down and talk about what we have in common,” he said.

PENNY BROWN HUBER

For the last ten years, Penny Brown Huber has been helping small market farmers develop successful business models with her training program called Grow Your Small Market Farm. She shared some of the wisdom she has gained from helping farmers transform their dreams of farming into successful businesses.

First, “owning land and having some skills actually matters,” she said. “And when I say skills, I mean business skills.” She said that people she works with have big goals for their operations, like returning to family roots in agriculture, teaching children lessons of self-reliance, or managing land in a way that’s helpful for the environment.

But Brown Huber’s role often involves helping farmers determine what is realistic. “I listen to their dreams, and I love their dreams--I want them to have their dreams, but we have to think about how to practically make that happen.”

The roles of family members are especially important, Brown Huber said, emphasizing that farmers need to have realistic expectations about what those closest to them can contribute to the farm.

She also said that must think carefully about what their land will support. “Not all enterprises are compatible,” she said, “and we have to figure out--based on the landscape of the farm and the resources each farmer has--what’s compatible.”

But the biggest challenge that Brown Huber identified was the need for starting farmers to identify the unique market niche that works for them. “The biggest challenge we have with these folks is not to let them get lost in their ideas--we need them to build credible businesses.”

Brown Huber emphasized the importance of working with small farmers to develop individualized business plans rather than treating all small farms the same way. She argued that the United States Department of Agriculture should increase its offerings of support to small farmers and that Iowans should work to provide more services in-state as well.

FRED KIRSCHENMANN

Fred Kirschenmann said it is unrealistic to expect dramatic changes in agriculture in the short term. He suggested planning for where agriculture will go next rather than changing it today.

“There are already a lot of farmers... who have already made the transition to a different kind of system,” Kirschenmann said. Some use less energy intensive methods, he said, so they will be better able to resist rising energy costs. Others have diversified their operations, better preparing them to face a changing climate.

He suggested that all people can participate in planning for the future by engaging in a broad public dialogue about how the food system of the future can work.

Kirschenmann described hearing a lecture by a food company executive who had noticed today’s consumers are asking more questions about how food is produced and demanding greater quality from a food system they can trust. The executive recognized that fulfilling these demands was a growth opportunity for his company.

When consumers express these expectations for the food system, Kirschenmann said they are exercising their “food citizenship.” He said food companies are very reluctant to lose customers and will react to consumer demand.

“We can be active participants in the food system,” he said. “And if you’re an active participant in the food system, you have more power than in any other enterprise that you can imagine.”

At the end of the day at Agriculture for Life, a panel of Iowans gathered to share their inspiring stories about embracing local foods in their own lives.