Things feel a bit different when you’re on the other end of an interview!
That’s where I found myself at this year’s Iowa State Fair. Anna Jones, a British journalist, was my guest. We met several years ago when she visited the U.S. on a Nuffield Farming scholarship to study agricultural coverage in the mainstream media. We connected again this summer as part of a British Broadcasting Corp. project she is doing about Iowa and Midwestern agriculture. I told her if she wanted to see a slice of Iowa, a good place to start was the Iowa State Fair.
British roots
The fairgrounds buzzed with enthusiastic 4-H members and others busily leading their livestock from barns to show rings. Accompanying Jones during this time reminded me of how Great Britain has impacted the U.S. livestock industry. Guernsey, Ayrshire and Jersey dairy cattle all have British roots. The Hereford and Angus beef cattle breeds originated in Great Britain. Several sheep breeds — ranging from Cheviot to Suffolk — also have British beginnings.
British farms are deeply rooted in family, as are Iowa farms. This point was reinforced when we attended an Iowa Master Farmer program in the Agriculture Building that Rod Swoboda, Wallaces Farmer editor emeritus, graciously hosted. Glenn and Bev Rowe, 2008 Iowa Master Farmers from Lorimor, and John and Joan Maxwell, 2025 Iowa Master Farmers from Donahue, discussed their farms’ histories and how they have grown their farms over time.
After Jones interviewed each couple, we stopped by the Iowa Egg Council’s booth that served up “egg on a stick.” Jones was captivated by the concept, and further intrigued by discovering that you can eat just about any fair food on a stick.
We next stopped to view the Butter Cow, carefully carved by Iowan Sarah Pratt.
European fascination
Not surprisingly, Jones’ interview with me included questions about President Donald Trump. He fascinates Europeans. Whether you agree with his politics or not, Trump is a master showman and brander, which naturally magnetizes attention toward him. Jones said the British consensus is that the Midwest is stocked to the brim with fervent followers donned with red MAGA hats who raucously attend Trump rallies.
It’s true that Trump generates much enthusiasm in Iowa among his voters, I told her. Still, I said there’s more to Iowans than politics. Iowans also frequently talk about their farms, businesses, workplaces, and children’s activities that include 4-H and sports. (The last one ties in with my favorite T-shirt saying of the fair: Moms against white baseball pants. One baseball mom I mentioned this to nodded, as she’s spent hours scrubbing her son’s baseball uniform to shine a gleaming white!)
The vastness and productivity of Iowa agriculture amazes Europeans, particularly the endless summer sea of soybean and cornfields. Along with this, though, were questions Jones had about Iowa’s water quality concerns and agriculture’s contribution to it.
This is simultaneously vexing and concerning. Although prices are currently in the cellar, corn after corn and a corn-soybean rotation has generated long-term profitability. It’s also a leaky system that leaves the soil vulnerable to leaching nitrates when the crop is not using nitrogen, says Matt Helmers, an Iowa State University Extension agricultural engineer who directs the Iowa Nutrient Research Center.
Yet, good news exists. Helmers outlined ways in this column last month that Iowa farmers are adopting practices to improve water quality, such as:
- improving manure management
- better matching nitrogen with crop needs
- covering soil cover crops
- intercepting nitrates through prairie strips and saturated buffers
Will farmers change, Jones asked? They already have, I told her. Iowa tops the nation in several conservation practices to protect soil and water quality, according to USDA and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. They include:
- water quality wetlands
- bioreactors
- saturated buffers
- grassed waterways
- filter and buffer strips
- conservation tillage
There’s room to grow, of course. But such steps add costs during a time of dismal crop economics. And not every acre is conducive to the same practices.
On the plus side, much cost-sharing exists to adopt steps that fit a farm. Offset and inset programs pay farmers to produce crops in ways that sequester or squelch greenhouse gases and also boost water quality.
Ditto for Section 45Z tax credits given to biofuel producers who produce low-carbon fuels that may also be shared with farmers who grow low-carbon crops. Over time, such practices simultaneously can help farmers better manage inputs while increasing the worth of their land and tenant’s land through improved soil health.
Reflections
It’s always fun visiting with a citizen of another country and forging foreign friendships. Yet, such exchanges make me more appreciative of my own state and country. It may seem like visiting cliché corner, but remember the line Dorothy Gale uttered in “The Wizard of Oz”?
There’s no place like home.