Iowa is worth protecting.

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

Stories from a New Food System

Image showing panelists seated at the event.

Our panel of Iowans took the audience on a journey from farm to table. We heard firsthand about the challenges and opportunities local foods present, and we heard the personal stories of the people who literally bring agriculture to life.

Angela Tagtow, M.S., R.D., L.D., moderated the panel. Tagtow operates Environmental Nutrition Solutions, a consulting service that focuses on creating sustainable food systems. Tagtow co-founded the Iowa Food Systems Council, which started operations as an independent nonprofit in 2010.

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

Ron Rosmann

Ron Rosmann described how his USDA certified organic crop and livestock operation near Harlan, Iowa, functions as a natural system.

“We are a very traditional farm, in the sense that we never gave up the crop rotations, we never gave up the cattle and the hogs,” Rosmann said. Rosmann, a past president of Practical Farmers of Iowa, has not used pesticides or anhydrous ammonia on his farm since 1983. He uses ridge tillage practices to control weeds, and the farm’s extensive rotation of crops helps it maintain fertile soils.

“I prefer to work with natural systems because I know they work,” he said. “Our yields are comparable [to other farming methods]… we’re using less energy, and we have the facts—our data from Practical Farmers of Iowa shows what our yields are.”

In addition to supporting a healthy bottom line, Rosmann’s farm supports a healthy natural environment. One afternoon last winter, Rosmann counted over 80 rooster pheasants in a two acre patch of forest on his land—and he said the area typically supports about 30 each year.

Rosmann and his wife, Maria have raised more than livestock and crops on the farm—all of their children are involved with agriculture; two of their three sons and their daughter-in-law work on the farm.

And the family’s next goal is to involve the community in their work—Ron said the family plans to open a retail store in mid spring next year. It will offer products from the family’s own farm as well as local produce from the surrounding area.

Melissa Dunham

In 2007, the death of her mother provided Melissa Dunham the moment of clarity she needed to change her life and take a new path which ultimately led her to Grinnell Heritage Farm, which she manages with her husband, Andrew.

“Everybody has these life experiences and you kind of figure out what you want in life,” she said. “And I wanted to do something that I knew I could sell and I could be proud of.”

Today, the Grinnell Heritage Farm produces more than 40 types of vegetables which are available in central and eastern Iowa including through CSA (community supported agriculture) shares.

With CSA, customers purchase shares of the farm’s produce at the beginning of the season and then receive deliveries of that produce throughout the season (usually weekly). Collecting the cash up front helps the farm manage its risk, and, if the harvest is good, customers receive the additional produce in their shares.

Dunham said she has no qualms about feeding her produce to her kids because she is confident the farm’s USDA certified organic products are healthy and safe.

She described how her daughter will eat asparagus right out of the garden plot—and only the top two inches, which are the most tender. “She’s got standards!” Dunham quipped.

“She knows [broccoli] romanesco; she knows her different varieties of kale, and she shoves it all in her mouth,” Dunham said. “And I know at the end of the day, I can walk around, and she can graze openly, and I don’t have to worry about it.”

Phil Danowsky

As a food distributor with about 35 years of industry experience, Phil Danowsky has a clear set of objectives in mind as he manages Local Harvest Supply, the 2-year-old subsidiary of Hawkeye Foodservice Distribution focusing on local foods.

“The bottom line is the bottom line. For us to be in business…we need to generate a profit,” he said.

And like others in the food distribution business, Danowsky and his superiors recognized that local food is in demand in the marketplace. He cited research by the National Restaurant Association suggesting local foods are a top trend in the marketplace today and consumers have expressed a strong preference for restaurants that feature them.

But as he worked to build his company’s distribution network, Danowsky quickly learned that brining local foods to market brings its own challenges. First, he had to find the farmers and ended up putting in a lot of miles going out and meeting with producers on their farms.

Second, there was the issue of price. Danowsky said he works hard to ensure farmers get a fair price for their produce, but customers with tight budgets will only pay so much. But he said the quality of the local products he sells is a big asset.

“When I get a chance to sample product and let people try the taste difference—the quality difference—the freshness difference, it’s definitely something that you can sell—and you can sell it for more money,” Danowsky said.

Sue Honkamp

For much of her life, Sue Honkamp had not thought much about local foods—she bought her food at the grocery store, and that was that. But it was later, while she was working as a brand manager for Kraft Foods, Inc., specifically for the Oscar Mayer brand, that she started to think about where her food came from.

She enjoyed working at Oscar Mayer, but at the same time, “I didn’t have a passion for the products that I was working on,” she said, “and despite having a large company store at my fingertips with pretty steeply discounted prices, I wasn’t buying anything that I was working on.”

Later, Sue left her position at Kraft and moved to Iowa, where she joined the Buy Fresh Buy Local campaign as a volunteer and has since become a local foods advocate. “I work with local foods now because I believe in them,” she said. “For me, knowing where my food comes from now means a lot to me.”

Honkamp acknowledged that bringing more local foods into her family’s diet has required some extra work. She makes extra trips to buy ingredients from different sources. And she had to learn the differences between different food labels—for instance understanding how chemical or pesticide-free foods differ from those labeled organic.

But over the last two years, Honkamp said great progress has been made in the Des Moines area, where she lives, to make local foods more accessible. She is hopeful that more restaurants will turn to local ingredients and better educational offerings will develop for area kids.

“I want to continue to help spread the word,” Honkamp said. “I think things like Buy Fresh Buy Local are a great resource, and I just hope to see the community continue to evolve."

Emily Krengel

Emily Krengel got involved in the local food movement in 2005 because of her strong belief in supporting local businesses. She thought her workplace, the Cass County Memorial Hospital, could set a positive example.

She’s been humbled by the positive public response. “We have gone to the county fair for four years and bought local livestock,” she said, “and we got a standing ovation the first time we went to the fair to buy livestock.”

“When we go, we are thanked for being there before we have purchased anything.”

Bringing local food into a hospital meant Krengel had to learn more about what she could and could not do—though she said most people are surprised by how much freedom she has to choose local products.

And her staff has been extremely supportive of the local focus, “except [one time] when the dirty potatoes came into the kitchen at noon, covered in mud, I was the person who got to wash those,” Krengel joked.

She described how the hospital sits on a piece of land that was once a vegetable farm that grew produce for sale in Des Moines and Omaha. Krengel takes pride in bringing local produce back to that location in a new way.

“Now I kind of think we’ve gone full-circle, and we try to serve those foods at our hospital,” she said.

You can find resources for bringing more local foods into your own life on the conference resources page.