Do Iowa Farmers Feed the World?
by Clark Wolf, Director, ISU Bioethics Early this spring, I rented a tiller and used it to dig up a large portion of the lawn on the east side of the house. I made eight good-sized plots for tomatoes, corn, beans, lettuce, squash, spices, and a large patch of sunflowers. Since the time for weeding is still a long way off, our family was ambitious this year: we planned big, feasting on anticipatory thoughts of sweet corn and summer gazpacho. For a family garden, ours is a large one, but it is no more than a summer hobby. Its bounty will provide joy, flavor, labor and sweat, but it will not produce enough food to satisfy our family of two adults, two hungry children, and three insatiable cats. Even if we put up vegetables for the winter months, we will need to rely on others for most of the food we eat during the coming year. Road-Weary Food We know some of the people who grow our food. I have met the woman who makes delicious local goat cheese, farmers who grow vegetables for the market
