Rob Faux
Mar 16, 2023
March in Iowa is a peculiar crossroads between seasons. It is not at all uncommon to have snow and ice storms and it is also possible to have warm days bathed in golden sunshine. At my farm, there is still frost in the ground, so the cold rain simply sits in the low areas. The remnants of dirty snow drifts, evidence of wind erosion from neighboring row-cropped fields, are still visible.
As I walk around the farm, I am tempted to describe it all as ugly and inhospitable. But, I know this is not the truth. There are signs of change that portend an amazing and... Read More
Pesticide Actio...
Mar 16, 2023
Last Monday, hundreds of farmers from across the country converged on Washington, D.C. to demand that legislators respond to the climate crisis in the upcoming Farm Bill. This legislation, which is currently in the early stages of being drafted, will dictate much of the US’s farm policy for the next five years — crucial years for changing course in order to mitigate the worst effects of climate change.
The “Farmer Climate Action Rally for Resilience” and subsequent days of lobbying underscored the strong leadership of farmers who are Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and those who... Read More
Zoe Hollomon
Mar 02, 2023
Hello! Zoe here bringing you an update from your PAN team. The first few months of this year have flown by – I haven’t been able to be out at the farm much, and I miss its effect on me. Being there reminds me that I am, and we are, nature. As many of you know, I co-lead the Midwest Farmers of Color Collective and we just had a wonderful convening, where we talked a lot about seeding our cultural foods and organizing – and ‘tis the season!
If there was ever a time to come out of the starting gate sprinting, it’s now! With almost one-third new members in the state legislature, and the DFL (... Read More
Lorilani Keohokalole
Feb 28, 2023
Aloha,
I was honored when Lorilani, PAN’s organizer for the Hawai‘i Region, asked if I would write the introduction to this edition of Hawai‘i News. I have had the opportunity to be a guest on the island of Kaua‘i and I take the responsibility (kuleana) that comes with visiting seriously. It is my intent to walk lightly and live respectfully in another’s home.
I call the Land Between Two Rivers (Iowa) my home and I see myself as a child of that land (keiki o ka 'āina). I do my best to respect and care for the land (mālama i ka 'āina) as a grower of healthy food and a citizen of my local... Read More
Rob Faux
Feb 25, 2023
It has been a busy four weeks for me since the last Iowa News landed in your inboxes. So much has happened that I probably wrote three or four versions of this edition in my head since then.
I recently had the opportunity to share my experiences using intercropping techniques with a new audience at the Iowa Specialty Producers Conference. One of my primary goals was to promote intentional diversity and complexity in our growing systems — which is one of the tenets of agroecology.
Speaking of agroecology, I was also honored to be one of three people speaking about solutions to the vicious... Read More
Rob Faux
Feb 23, 2023
Perhaps the most well-known tool a farmer can use to introduce diversity into their growing system is the crop rotation. A simple crop rotation used widely in the midwestern United States is the two-year, soybean and corn rotation implemented by many large-scale farmers. Each farm is different and may benefit from a crop rotation designed specifically to fit the needs of the land and the stewards who tend it.
Our farm has produced a wide-range of food crops for nearly twenty years, and we continue to make adjustments to our rotation plan. We believe that our growing system... Read More
Pesticide Actio...
Feb 23, 2023
The Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act (PACTPA) was re-introduced in the Senate by Senator Cory Booker on February 6 and is due to be reintroduced in the House mid-March. We are pleased to announce that PAN is among the organizations that support its passage! This bill would overhaul U.S. pesticide regulations, ultimately mandating new rules to protect people and the environment. The full text of the bill can be found here.
Current law is outdated
The current law governing U.S. pesticide regulations, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (... Read More
Rob Faux
Jan 25, 2023
If you drove around my area of Iowa prior to the last snowfall, you probably observed a fair amount of “snirt” on the edges of fields and in the ditches by the roads. If you're not from around here or you are not a person who periodically drives in rural areas where row crop fields are the predominant feature in the landscape, you might not know what snirt is. Snirt is snow intermixed with topsoil – an indication that wind erosion has taken place.
Snow is, of course, typically thought to be white in color. But, that's not true if a fair amount of dirt came for the ride as... Read More