

Practical Farmers of Iowa Newsletter	Vol. 17, #1 Spring 2002

Telling Our Story

Robert Karp

As moisture returns to the Iowa soils and spring planting begins I find myself reflecting on the past months of intense and often bitter debate over new hog lot legislation in Iowa. Listening to the different sides of the issue has made one thing abundantly clear to me: it is time for PFI and our extraordinary members to tell their story to the rest of Iowa.

On the one hand, there is a growing and increasingly vocal group of citizens who want clean air and water and an attractive countryside. Feeling powerless in the face of large-scale agribusiness, these folks have turned to legislation and the legal process for a remedy.

[Real change requires] the willingness to learn how to effectively communicate with and educate a diverse and ever widening circle of people...

On the other hand, there is a strong segment of the farm population who believe that the citizens described above haven’t got a clue about the realities of farming. As one farmer put it “the environmentalists want to turn Iowa into a park.” This group is struggling to imagine that a happy and prosperous marriage is possible between agriculture and the growing environmental values of society.

Somewhere between these two perspectives stand the bulk of Iowans, who find themselves not quite sure who to believe or what to think. Sensing there is some truth to both perspectives, they have perhaps decided to sit back and watch.

The voices we have heard less of, however, and the voices we need to hear more of on behalf of the future of Iowa agriculture, are those of the environment-minded farmers and the farm-minded consumers—in other words, the bread and butter membership of PFI. Because it’s one thing to find a way to mitigate and control the harmful side effects of an unbalanced approach to farming, and it’s another to farm in a way that is ecologically sound and profitable from the start. This is what is so unique and important about the efforts of PFI members.

I N T H I S I S S U E

1 Communication and Outreach
– Robert Karp

3 New PFI Address and Phone

4 More Than a Fair Trade
– Intern: Katherine Parker

5 Notes and Notices

7 Summer Field Days

7 Youth and Family Camp

8 Community Days
– Nan Bonfils

8 South America in Iowa?
– Rick Exner

9 All-Iowa Meals
– Rick Hartmann

10 Pork Niche Marketing Group
– Gary Huber

10 Pasture-Raised Foods
– Gary Huber