Farm Indiana by AIM Media Indiana

photos by Josh Marshall

DECEMBER 2013 | Section A

Tools of the trade Above: Evan Daily right: Ben Daily

We asked local farmers what they couldn’t live without on the farm. Not surprisingly, they gave us a wide range of answers from the practical to the philosophical, from the large to the pocket-sized.

“Technology-wise, I’d say GPS technology is getting to the point where it’s just about indispensable.” — Ben Daily

By Jeff Tryon

armers “pretty much use a tractor all the time,” says Evan Daily, 20, who helps his brother, Ben Daily, with the family’s 2,500 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat in Bartholomew County. “You’ve got to have it to plant, and then you use it to do a lot of other stuff, too,” he explains. Evan says they use several different tractors around the farm, from a little John Deere with a bucket and scoop on it to a big four-wheel-drive John Deere, “and some stuff in between.” And as for the longevity of the tractors? “My dad bought a tractor new in 1992 — the year I was born — and we still use it all the time,” Evan says. They also grow about 100 acres of truck crops, like sweet corn and tomatoes, for the family’s farm market on the west side of Columbus. His brother, Ben Daily, 24, had a range of possible answers. “Tool-wise, I guess I’d say just wrenches in general, because you use them all the time, working on the equipment and that kind of stuff,” he says. “Equipment-wise, I’d say the thing we couldn’t do without would be the combine. That’s one that, if you didn’t have it, you might as well forget about it. Plus, all your planting equipment, your planters and your seeders, corn planter.” But Ben, just a year out of Purdue University, also says technology will become indispensable. “Technology-wise, I’d say GPS technology is getting to the point where it’s just about indispensable,” he says. “You need it for auto-steering and for precision fertilizer application,

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

Jeanie Coy

“It’s easy to operate, and I think it’s an easier job than hauling wagons to the grain bin.”

tool // cont. from a1 variable rate technology.” While they have been using GPS applications for approximately six years, he says there are still some older farmers who didn’t grow up with computers and find it difficult to use. Jeanie Coy is one of the older generation of farmers who is now returning to a technologically changed lifestyle. She helps her husband, Jim, farm about 900 acres of soybeans and corn in northern Decatur County. The Coys were named the Indiana Farm Family of 2011. She says her most indispensable tool is her John Deere

9560 combine. “Because I’m the driver,” she says. “It’s easy to operate, and I think it’s an easier job than hauling wagons to the grain bin.” Twenty years ago, she first learned to drive farm equipment on a gleaner-combine. “If I had trouble, I’d just have to turn the flashing lights on,” she says. “Now, the communication is unbelievable with the cellphones and the way they GPS the fields. “And the magnitude of how we do things; now we have a huge grain cart and semi trucks,” she adds. Those changes have taken place “in just 20 years.”

— Jeanie Coy

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

All they want for Christmas

“I use it for just about everything. I move hay with it; I move dirt and gravel with it.” — Keegan Poe

They’re a little bit large for sitting on Santa’s lap, but farmers, too, sometimes entertain visions of what would make a perfect gift. By Jeff Tryon

Keegan Poe

When harvest time arrives, she gets a little thrill as she climbs up into the machine. “It’s so comfortable,” she says. “I make it all girly; it smells good.” Keegan Poe, who operates a cow-calf operation in Johnson County, says he couldn’t do without his New Holland skid-steer loader. “I use it for just about everything,” he says. “I move hay with it; I move dirt and gravel with it. I borrow my brother’s attachments and dig post holes with it. Trench water lines, split wood, clear fence rows. … It’s used almost every day.” Tom Schneider, of Schneider Feed and Seed

in North Vernon, was thinking smaller, but even more indispensable. “I would say my best tool that I just have to have every day, I carry a small pair of vise-grips in a little pouch on my belt on my side, and I’m telling you, I just use those things for everything,” he says. “I’ve even used them to turn a hot dog over on the grill.” Along with the feed mill, Schneider raises corn and soybeans and some hay. In all the varied and ever-changing chores he encounters every day, he finds that the small set of adjustable pliers are “just like an extra set of fingers. If you’re try-

What is the number one thing on the wish lists of local farmers this year? Their responses ranged from upgrades of current equipment to new, cutting-edge implements. “I’ve got a lot of the tools I need; I just want them newer,” says Keegan Poe, who raises Simmental cattle in Johnson County. “This year, it would probably be a new hay mower because my hay mower is down right now,” Poe says. “I don’t even know how much it’s going to cost to fix it.” Gary Nobbe, of Nobbe Seeds in Greensburg, would also wish for a farm equipment upgrade from his current go-to combine, a John Deere 9550. “I’d like to trade combines,” he says. “I’d like to go to the new John Deere STS … but I don’t think that’ll be under my tree right away.” The combines sell new in the $290,000 to $400,000 range, depending upon the model. For the Daily brothers of Bartholomew County, both just starting out in a newly sophisticated world of agriculture, high-tech toys are most appealing. “Something that I would like to have would be one of the new draper headers for soybeans,” says Ben Daily. Unlike an auger bean header, the draper header has a conveyer belt, so it dramatically cuts field loss and is less likely to “choke” on big masses of material. Meanwhile, brother Evan Daily is dreaming of finding a variable hybrid and seeding rate

See tool on a4

See wish on a4

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

tool // cont. from a3 ing to hold something in place, you can adjust them and clamp it in place and hold it. Or clamp something under it to rest it on.” Gary Nobbe of Nobbe Seeds near Greensburg took a more thoughtful approach to the question of what is the most indispensable farm tool. “I gave it some thought, and I would have to say it’s a shovel,” he says. “Just think about all the uses for a shovel. You use it to shovel your grain; you use it to work your garden; you use it when you’re building a fence to keep in your livestock.” The shovel, he adds, “lays the foundation for your house and your life. When you use a shovel, you learn the

responsibility of hard work.” Along with the seed business, Nobbe farms 1,000 acres of corn, beans, wheat and barley about six miles northeast of Greensburg. He says the shovel is symbolic of new beginnings. “You see in the paper, whenever the community is starting a new project, you always have the leaders of the community with a shovel in their hand to turn the first shovel of dirt,” he says. “You just think about all the things you can use a shovel for in your life and on a farm, and you’ll soon find out that the shovel is the handiest tool around,” he says. *FI

“When you use a shovel, you learn the responsibility of hard work.” — Gary Nobbe

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From left, Ben, Carol and Evan Daily have differing Christmas wishes.

wish // cont. from a3 planter in his stocking. “There’s a company called Raven that has a new thing, ‘OmniRow,’ that lets your planter change hybrids on the go and vary your seeding rate as you’re going through the field,” Evan explains. “It would make us a lot more productive, because you can map your soil types in the field, and the hybrid that best fits that soil type is what you would plant on it,” he adds. “Each row can receive each different hybrid type, and you can switch in between them.” The machine also allows farmers to vary their seeding rates. “On a sandy hill, you don’t want as many plants there because there’s not enough water, moisture and nutrients,” Evan explains. “But if you go down in a low area where there’s a lot better dirt, you want more plants, because there’s a potential for higher yields.” Their mother, Carol Daily, who works at the family farm market on the west side of Columbus, also has a Christmas farm tool wish. “I spend my time in our certified kitchen,” she says. “My farm tool wish would be anything that could make the kitchen larger.” And she’s not the only one thinking of facility improvements. Jeanie Coy, who farms land in Decatur County, has been dreaming of a new equipment shed. “The number one thing that I want is a nice, big tool shed to have at our house,” she says. “I keep thinking and praying that I’m going to win one in a giveaway or a raffle or something. That would be my perfect Christmas present.” And Tom Schneider, of Schneider Feed and Seed in North Vernon, well, he isn’t dreaming of farm tools at all. “For Christmas, the best thing I could have would just be a vacation,” he says. “I know that’s not a tool, but it would help my life tremendously.” *FI

Farm Indiana // December 2013

Whistling while I work » It seems like only yesterday that I wrote my editor’s note for the November issue of Farm Indiana. And now here I am writing for December. In fact, it has been a month already since I last wrote to you, and if memory serves, I groused about the coming winter in the last issue. November was a hard month for me personally. The idea of the coming cold got me down more than the actual cold does each year. So I decided to make some changes early to ward off my inevitable winter blues. I made a pact to see friends more often, even when it’s cold outside. (It’s so easy to blame the weather for staying in.) I have planned lunches with friends and already made the drive into the city a couple of times to reconnect with them. I joined a Crossfit class to increase my weekly exercise regime, which hurts (sometimes in an “I can barely walk” kind of way) and feels good all at the same time. And I’ve lined up a number of farm events that I want to attend. One, the

Greening of the Statehouse, takes place in downtown Indianapolis this coming weekend, and the keynote speaker will spend the morning talking about sustainable agriculture. Even making these small changes has brightened my mood a bit. And living in this new house of ours — it will be our first winter here — has been a real treat. I’ve found new things that I enjoy doing. I tend to the fire in the wood stove like a champ. (At least I think I do.) The flames warm my face and body enough that the rush of cold air that hits me when I open our front door doesn’t affect me in the least. Out go our dogs to play in the front yard, while I traipse back and forth with wood for a day’s worth of heat. In the afternoons, I take an extra minute to appreciate the quiet, crisp air, to wave hello to the cows across the street, and to whistle a little tune when I make the long trek with our dogs to the mailbox. I’ve been so happy in our new home that I don’t mind the extra dust that seems to settle everywhere, or the fact that I get to sweep these beautiful wood floors every day … sometimes twice a day. I’m also feeling so good-natured that I’m OK with the bugs that have found their ways into our home. I can’t blame those little ladybugs for wanting to beat the

DECEMBER 2013

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Henry Breeding Farm Darlage Custom Meats Fiber artist Barbara Livesey Indiana in the Lens

B1 B5 B6 B8 B10 B12

Nature’s Gift Aquaponics Indiana Tree Project Indiana Agricultural Fencing Farming and the government shutdown Quick Bites Green energy and the environment

winter chill, and — truth be told — there’s room enough here for a few of them, too. On top of all this, we’re hosting our families for Thanksgiving dinner this year, and the approaching holiday season has us full of good cheer. I’m feeling so confident about these little changes and so in love with country living lately that I almost dare to retract any terrible things I might have once said about winter. I mean, winter isn’t that bad. Is it? For full disclosure, it should be noted that it’s nearly 50 degrees out today, and the coming week’s temperatures are expected to be in the 40s and 50s. If you were to talk to my husband, he’d quickly let you know my good mood’s sure to end when the temperatures hit single digits. To be sure, when it’s 9 degrees outside, I’m wearing six layers of clothes and four pairs of socks, and someone reminds me that I once said winter isn’t all that bad, I’ll undoubtedly deny it until the end. After all, newspaper serves as good kindling for a fire, doesn’t it?

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Comments, story ideas and suggestions should be sent to Sherri Lynn Dugger, The Republic, 333 Second St., Columbus, IN 47201, call (812) 379-5608 or email farmindiana@hnenewspapers.com. For advertising information, call (812) 379-5690.

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

Breeding

Tradition

Edinburgh’s Henry Breeding Farm represents a piece of local history

By Jon Shoulders

f there were one word that most aptly describes the Henry Breeding Farm in Bartholomew County, it would probably be longevity. For over six decades, Henry Elza Breeding and his wife, Blanche, owned and operated the Edinburgh farm, located on North County Road 100W, raising cattle and chickens and tending vegetable and flower gardens. In 1916, the Breedings first moved into the home, which was formerly owned by Henry’s grandfather, Elza Breeding. Eventually, Henry took over the farm and worked until age 90. That’s some remarkable staying power by anyone’s standards, but despite the fact that the Breedings did not have children to carry on their agricultural tradition, the farm was destined to endure even beyond Henry and Blanche’s long-lasting tenure. Just months after Henry’s death at age 96 in 1982, the farm was donated by his estate representatives to the Bartholomew County Historical Society in Columbus, and to this day it remains functional both as an event rental facility and for an annual series of educational programs and events open to the public. The BCHS offers tours of the home and showcases early farm implements, some formerly belonging to the Breedings and others belonging to the historical society, dating as far back as Civil War times. “We basically got the farm along with pictures and artifacts and furniture, which belonged to Henry and Blanche Breeding, so we had that with the pieces that we already had in our collection,” says Kellie Todd, public services coordinator at the BCHS. “We try to make it open for tours during some of our own events and let people experience this piece of history.” Tours of the Breeding home are available during the Reeves Pancake Breakfast and Silent Auction held each summer in late July. The event features crafts and games for the whole family, an all-you-can-eat pancake and sausage meal and a plowing demonstration with the historical society’s authentic Reeves steam engine from the early 1900s — a period when Columbus was home to Reeves and Co., a large-scale manufacturer of engines, sawmills and industrial pulleys. A silent auction with donations from local businesses and community members is held throughout the day to raise funds for BCHS programming.

About the Bartholomew County Historical Society

photos by Josh Marshall

The Bartholomew County Historical Society and Cline-Keller Library, which preserves Bartholomew County artifacts and documents and provides services, including local genealogy research and photo restoration, is located at 524 Third St. in Columbus. Hours of operation are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and appointments may be made separate from normal business hours. Visit the BCHS website, www. bartholomewhistory.org, or call (812) 372-3541, for additional information on services, educational programs and upcoming events.

Top: A wooden fence on the Henry Breeding Farm. Center: The farm features a large cattle barn constructed in 1947. Bottom: The Breeding home was built in 1874.

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

photos by Josh Marshall

Top and center left: Old farm equipment sits rusted and idled on the farm. Bottom left: A log cabin that was moved from a different location onto the Breeding property is used by students during educational programs to re-create the period lifestyle. Top right: A modern farmer who leases property on the farm stores equipment in one of the barns.

Kids take the lead for Spring on the Farm, an annual event held by the historical society in conjunction with eighth-graders from Columbus’ Central Middle School. Alongside a group of mentors, the students present an interactive program on the farm about pioneer living from the 1880s to the 1920s, offering visitors a chance to learn about rope making, gardening, steam engine use, basket making and the raising of farm animals. During the presentations, which are open to the public, attendees can find themselves face-to-face with famous historical personas like Thomas Edison and Susan B. Anthony. Todd, who also works as a hands-on demonstrator during the Breeding Farm’s public events, stresses that Spring on the Farm provides an opportunity for young people to appreciate a period in history when the daily hobbies and interests of children differed distinctly from today’s indoor-oriented pastimes. “Kids have a lot of fun with the pioneer games,” she says. “I also do a butter churn program with them, and they love that. I think my favorite was when I was doing string figures, where you make a cup and saucer with string. I was in front of the kids for an hour, and they were just blown away.”

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

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breeding farm // cont. from a7 Guests who are 21 and older can learn about Bartholomew County through the history of alcohol at Vintage Spirits, an interactive BCHS event held each fall. Guests can stroll the farm grounds and view scenes from the county’s history dating from the 1820s through the 1940s, while sampling vintage drinks like Widow’s Kiss, Bee’s Knees and Jersey Lightning along the way. Each scene features characters in authentic dress from each historical period, including a Civil War soldier whose dialogue is composed from preserved letters sent from several actual Civil War soldiers to their Bartholomew County homes. From April through the first week of November, with the exception of days reserved for the historical society’s public events, the farm is available for rent for corporate meetings, retreats, auctions or weddings. The 3,500-square-foot barn, which is equipped with a kitchen and seats up to 200, is not heated or air-conditioned, offering a rustic charm in lieu of a modern setting. Todd attributes the spot’s ongoing popularity as a wedding venue to the individuality of its setting. “It’s a very unique niche to be in,” she says. “Some brides love it for the meadow, others love it for the barn, and others for the whole look and space. They like being able to have that freedom to make it into their vision without too many restrictions or limitations.” While the BCHS does not offer wedding planning services, it provides a written guide to couples that includes local catering, hotel and rehearsal dinner options to aid those coming from out of town or state. “It takes a special person to say, ‘I’m not really feeling a church or any other indoor place. Let’s do this outdoors on a farm.’ We try to help them achieve what they want to do,” Todd says. So how has the Breeding Farm remained a fixture of the local community decades after Henry and Blanche’s days raising cattle and chickens? According to Todd, its perseverance lies in a combination of public involvement and appreciation of history. “A lot of people want to learn about local history because it’s part of them,” she explains. “The farm is unique because it has some of that history and it lives on through its uses today.” *FI

The meat man

photo by Marcia Walker

Farm Indiana // December 2013

Gary Darlage stays a cut above in the beef business by Marcia Walker

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ackson County’s Gary Darlage is holding down a place in history. He owns a business that was established years, perhaps generations, ago. Today it’s known as Darlage Custom Meats LLC, but the name has changed as new owners have come along. The service — meat processing — however, has stayed the same. Darlage, 54, does not know when the business and retail store were established, but it has been around for a long time. “Longer than I know,” he says. He rattles off several names: McKain, Wischmeier, Joe Hackman. “I bought it from Joe,” Darlage says. “I’ve heard names of people who used to have the place. I have no idea (when the business was started.)” Darlage had been working for Hackman part time for about eight years when Hackman approached him about buying the company in 2005. “I just decided it was something to try,” he recalls. In addition to cutting meat to a customer’s specifications, Darlage sells ground beef, bacon, steaks, ribs, chops, roasts and even white fish and cod tails. The products that are sold retail are purchased from three different USDA distributors. “It’s all USDA-inspected,” he says. Darlage’s customer base includes several restaurants, most of them in Jackson County. He sells any quantity, but popular options are his package deals: bundles of steaks as well as family value packs, which include a variety of cuts. Darlage grew up on a farm in Sauers in rural Jackson County, and he still lives there. The Seymour High School graduate figured he would end up in a career related to agriculture, although not necessarily meat processing. He has learned the trade hands on, by “just kind of watching,” he says. A typical work day begins at 7:30 a.m. with the preparation of the meat case, grinding hamburger and setting out bacon. Customers begin arriving around 8:30 a.m., and Darlage Custom Meats LLC, workers prepare orders and make deliveries. 5974 Schleter Road, Seymour, The last customer leaves about 5:30 p.m., but (812) 522-1635. Darlage’s day isn’t done then. There’s paperHours: 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., work to be done, a bank deposit to be made Mondays through Fridays; and on some days, he stays as late as 9 or 10 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. p.m. to cut chops and stuff burgers. His family still farms and, after wrapping up his day job, it’s not unusual to find Darlage sitting in the seat of a combine by night. Likewise, several members of his family help him run the shop. “I’ve got a good family,” he says. “They pitch in and help a lot.” The processing company stays busy year-round, with beef, pork and the occasional sheep or goat meat passing through its doors. Steaks are popular during summer months. Some 250 to 300 pounds are sold during grilling season. With the arrival of autumn, sales of roasts increase. Business picks up during the Jackson County Fair. Darlage Meats supplies the meat for the food stands operated by church groups and other organizations: pork burgers, cube steaks and tenderloins. “It’s a busy week,” he says. “We probably deliver 25 to 30 boxes a day to them.” After the fair, he then processes many of the 4-H animals that have been raised as projects and are sold at auction. The arrival of hunting season in the fall brings more deer meat through the doors: Some 100 to 125 deer are processed each week, and another 35 to 40 during bow season. Some of the deer, he says, are donated to a program called Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry and is sent to local food pantries. Darlage enjoys the work, especially the opportunity it affords him to meet new customers and to see new and old friends. “Every day, new people come in, (and) you see some of the same customers,” he says. But he admits it is hard work, especially being on his feet all day. “I’ll probably stick with it,” he says, when asked about his plans. “Being on concrete 10 or 12 hours is hard on your legs and knees, but as long as I’m able, I’ll go.” *FI

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

photos by Josh Marshall

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

Opposite page: Barbara Livesey holds a basket of spun and unspun wool. top: She pulls bits of golden rod to place in a pot as she prepares to dye wool. bottom: A small jar of powdered indigo. right: She holds a pot of Mexican hibiscus as she demonstrates the procedure for dyeing wool.

By Robin Winzenread Fritz

aking do with other people’s cast-offs is a common thread woven throughout the life of Barbara Livesey, a seamstress, designer and fiber artist. From her childhood spent playing with scraps in her grandmother’s hayloft in Wanamaker, to her many days spent searching for interesting objects in East Coast flea markets and garage sales, to fall afternoons spent collecting weeds for dyeing fibers at her Brown County farm, Livesey has made a life out of seeing beauty and value where others don’t. “Late in the season you’ll get more yellow greens,” says Livesey of the fall blooming goldenrod piled high on her kitchen counter. While most Midwestern farmers may view the plant as an obnoxious weed taking up valuable space in pasture and field, to Livesey it’s a treasured ingredient destined for the dye pot. Grabbing ample handfuls of goldenrod, she adds stems, leaves, blooms and all to a large stockpot of water simmering on her vintage stove. Immediately steam rises into the air, filling her kitchen with the sweet smells of both an autumn field and a barn packed with fresh mown hay. For Livesey, dyeing day is an opportunity to play with both triedand-true methods of dyeing fibers while experimenting with new approaches as well. Turning toward the kitchen counter, she grabs a bowl filled with what looks like potpourri and pours it into another simmering stockpot of water. “This is hibiscus. My daughter brought me a whole bag of it from Mexico City,” says Livesey. “They make tea with it. This was from the market.” Stirring the hibiscus, Livesey stares down at the water, which is

already turning a vibrant reddish purple. “I’ve never used it before,” she muses as she studies her handwritten notes. Livesey only uses natural ingredients for her dyes, adding, “I don’t know anything about other kinds.” When asked if she grows and cultivates plants specifically for dyeing her handspun fibers, Livesey is quick to laugh. “Not on purpose,” she explains. “I live in the woods so I use what’s here. You can get yellow from almost anything. Pokeberry is extremely beautiful.” Mushrooms, she says, also offer gorgeous color, and “one of the most beautiful kinds of mauves comes from lichen on a white oak branch. You can tell immediately if something like this is going to work because if you put it in a glass and put a few drops of ammonia on it, if the ammonia turns blue or some other color, you’re going to get a neat color.”

Learning As She Goes When it comes to dyeing fabrics, “you’ve just got to start somewhere,” Livesey says, “and then read books. I’m self-taught for almost everything. I learn best from pictures and from reading about it.” Insatiably curious, she is undeterred by never-before used ingredients or methods as, for her, the art of discovery is a driving factor in her life. Surrounded by hundreds of books, collections of fabric scraps and unusual flea market finds, Livesey is forever searching for discarded bits of history to research, primitive skills to learn or new knowledge to test in person. “I can stand all day watching a man use a tractor,” she says. “I’m

See dye on a12

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

dye // cont. from a11

top: Livesey demonstrates the use of a drop spindle.

interested in everything. Especially if someone does something beautifully, I’m right there with the program. How could I not be interested?” Evidence of her curiosity abounds in her Brown County cabin, where old glass bottles in shades of brown and blue fill windowsills, and the discarded head of a broken porcelain doll peeks at visitors from its perch atop a dollar store vase. Books on pottery, art and history fill the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in her living room, and what spare inches aren’t taken up by fabric, yarn and spinning tools are filled with the tail-wagging presence of Happy, the Great Pyrenees dog who shares her home. In addition to Happy, she also offers her 10-acre farm to a mohair goat named Hari, a Sicilian donkey, silkie chickens, a flock of guineas and angora rabbits. “If you go near the donkey, keep your fingers to yourself,” warns Livesey, who collects fibers from her many animals to spin. The eclectic collection of ephemera, animals and fibers mirrors her artistic eye and unique approach to life. “People began to spin 30,000 years ago or more, and there was no international agreement of what was right,” she says, as she teases a handful of fibers and demonstrates a simple drop spindle, while waiting for the dye bath to simmer. “They used what they had, they did it this way once and that was nasty, and they did it another way and some woman says do something this other way—trial and error. It’s still like that. There’s no right way to spin.”

Finding Beauty in Life As a child, Livesey first developed her love of fabrics, flea market finds and history in the hayloft and attic at her grandmother’s farm. “We went to my grandmother’s every Sunday for dinner in Wanamaker,” she says, “and everyone on this road was a 19th cousin, I called them, and we would have dinner and I would go up to the attic. And when it was nice out, I would go up in the hayloft where there was a Civil War trunk and a Spanish American trunk and a World War I trunk. It was bliss.” In the attic, there were broken dolls, watches, spectacles, and bits of silk and lace. “It was all nothing special,” adds Livesey, recalling her favorite childhood memories. “It had rips and was broken, but it was just great. It set me for life.” Intrigued by fabrics, clothing and accessories, she went on to complete a degree in fine arts at Miami University in 1959 and promptly moved to New York City “five minutes after graduation,” she says. Livesey then spent the next 40 years living, teaching and raising her two children in New York, including years spent teaching the history of costume at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the prestigious Pratt Institute. She further developed her skill as a seamstress and her sense of style while designing fur and leather accessories for an upscale women’s specialty store, Henri Bendel. In 1998, she returned to Indiana, moving next door to her brother, Steve Grubbs. “My brother has lived here for 25 or 30, oh I don’t know how many years,” says Livesey. She returned to her home state, she explains, when “it was time.” A timer buzzes on Livesey’s stove, announcing the dye bath is ready, and she adds handfuls of both raw, white-washed wool and handspun two-ply wool yarn to the pots. “This is sort of tricky though,” she says, as she gently presses the wool down into each pot, careful not to agitate it to avoid felting the fibers. “You sort of want to keep things moving because they’re tied up. If the yarn weren’t tied up, it would fall apart and tangle and you would never get it separated.” Livesey cautions that you don’t want to boil the water. “And you want to only use utensils that you’re not cooking with,” she adds, saying that certain metal pots and pans can be used to “mordant” wool, a crucial step that fixes the dye to the fibers, creating a lightfast color that doesn’t quickly fade. “This is stainless steel. You don’t want to use reactive metals unless you’re using iron or copper or brass.” She gently lifts a deep yellow hank of wool from the simmering pot of goldenrod on the stove. “Oh boy, look at the color,” she says. “If you leave it in over night, the color will get very intense.” Each time you dye wool, she explains, “you get something different. Each wool is different.” Livesey sets her timer once more and turns to a neatly folded pile of nearby fabric. Picking up a piece of cross-stitch on linen, which she purchased for 50 cents just days before, she holds it up and examines the stitching. “It’s Slavic in nature, a pillow case I believe,” she says. “It’s the stitching that’s so remarkable,” returning it to her collection of fabric odds and ends. And that, for Livesey, is part of the joy of playing with fibers and natural dyes, learning new skills, searching for cast-off treasures and, basically, living life in general. It is the journey and the art of discovery that continue to add meaning, value and beauty to the deeply inquisitive and satisfying life of this talented Brown County artist. *FI

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

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Dyeing To Try An At-Home Guide

yeing fibers—much like spinning—is simple in theory but is mostly learned by trial and error and practice, according to Brown County fiber artist Barbara Livesey. Dyeing fibers combines several steps, including treating the fibers with a mordant before dyeing them in a bath composed of water and dyestuffs—natural materials that impart color to fibers. A mordant is a naturally reactive chemical that enables dye to affix to the fiber, becoming lightfast in the process. A variety of mordants are available to the home dyer, including cream of tartar and alum. Also, mordant qualities can be achieved by using different types of metal pots, such as copper, brass and cast iron, though the latter will result in a much darker color. For example, dyeing fibers with black walnuts while still in their green hulls in a cast iron pot will result in a color that’s nearly black. Several natural dyestuffs need no mordant to become lightfast. Many plants— such as black walnuts, which are plentiful throughout Indiana in the fall—contain tannins which, themselves, act as a natural mordant. Black walnut, in particular, is so staining that unused dye can be kept for several years, eventually growing so strong it can be used as a natural wood stain. Natural ingredients or dyestuffs to be used for at-home dyeing projects are limitless in number. Onion skins, sawdust from hedge apple trees, pokeberries, grapes, wild raspberries and weeds like goldenrod, in addition to leaves, bark, roots, blossoms and berries, can be used to great effect. In fact, Livesey says, any number of natural ingredients are still left to be discovered and seeking them out is part of the fun. While experimentation is a vital component, the following steps can be used as a basis for simple at-home dyeing projects. When in doubt, Livesey recommends turning to books for additional information regarding mordants and natural plant dyes. And for home crafters who lack raw fibers and/or spinning tools, interesting results can be had by playing with white T-shirts or purchased yarns in white and pale colors, such as yellow, which can be over-dyed with blue to achieve a new shade.

Day 1—Preparing the Fibers

Soak clean wool, yarn, fabric or other fibers in hot (not boiling) water until it is wet. Livesey suggests letting the fibers soak overnight so water is absorbed thoroughly.

2 3 4 5 6 7

Bring the water to a simmer. Again, never boil the dye or fibers.

Fill a pair of pantyhose or a lingerie bag with the natural ingredients or dyestuffs used for dyeing, such as goldenrod, onion skins, etc. This will help keep the plant material out of the fibers.

Add the pantyhose or lingerie bag of dye materials to the pot of water and simmer for 60 minutes, again, not boiling. Livesey notes that most dye recipes suggest a ratio of dye material to fiber, but again added that there is no one right way to dye fibers and fabrics, only suggested steps. Add the wet, mordanted fibers to the dye pot, gently pushing beneath the surface. Any fibers above the dye bath will not receive as much dye as fibers beneath the surface, so sink it beneath the liquid for an even color. Let the pot of dye bath and fibers gently simmer for 60 minutes.

At this point, the at-home dyer has a choice. The fibers can be left to cool overnight in the pot. If left overnight, the end result will be a deeper, richer color. The next day the fibers should be rinsed in room temperature water and allowed to dry outside in the shade. Never wring wet fibers, especially wool. Or the fibers can be removed from the pot after 60 minutes and rinsed in water of a similar temperature as the dye bath to remove the dye. The fibers can then be dried outside in the shade.

The remaining dye bath—now called an exhaust since it has already been used once for dyeing—can be reused immediately, though the end result will be a lighter shade of color. Livesey adds that the remaining exhaust can be reused as long as there is color to the water, but each subsequent batch of fibers will result in a continually lighter shade of the original color. She says at-home dyers should also note that the end color of the fibers from any dye bath will be lighter when dry. Again, these steps form only the basic foundation of any home dyeing project. For additional information on dyeing fibers with natural dyestuffs, a variety of books is available on the topic. Livesey’s favorites include “Harvesting Color” by Rebecca Burgess and “Wild Color” by Jenny Dean.

Day 2 — Mordanting the Fibers

1 2

Fill a large pot (used only for dyeing and never for cooking) with water. Add a mordant to the water and bring to a simmer. Never boil when dyeing, especially when working with wool as any agitation or significant temperature changes will felt the wool, essentially locking the fibers together.

Add the wet fibers to the mordant pot and gently simmer for 60 minutes. Remove and rinse the fibers in water approximately the same temperature as the dye bath (especially important when working with wool) to remove any excess mordant. Some mordants, if not removed completely, will leave the fibers permanently sticky to the touch, essentially ruining them.

Day 3 — Dyeing the Fibers

Fill a large nonreactive pot (used only for dyeing) with water. A nonreactive pot is used when the fibers have already been treated with a mordant to avoid reacting with the dye, possibly creating an undesirable color.

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

Indiana in the Lens 2013 has certainly been good to us. We visited your farms; we learned from you; we laughed with you; and we shared in the many fruits of Indiana's seasons. Here, we offer up several beautiful images of the Hoosier heartland, as captured by Farm Indiana photographer Josh Marshall while out on assignment this year

Farm Indiana // December 2013

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December 2013 | Section B

Fishing for customers top and bottom: John Woodbury removes the net from his 200-gallon aquaculture rearing tank to take out one of his growing Nile tilapia. Middle: Lettuce is grown using a nutrient film technique (NFT). The NFT channel feeds the lettuce with nutrient-rich water that is supplied by fish rearing tanks in the adjoining fish house.

Johnson Countyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Woodbury family focuses on a unique way to grow their crops

O By Ryan Trares

n a cold November morning, John Woodbury trudges from his Morgantown home to the barn and greenhouse. The air outside is biting, and frost crunches underneath his feet. But upon opening the door to the barn, he steps into balmy 75-degree warmth. Here, Nile tilapia, which will eventually be packaged and sold as food to local restaurants, circle in bubbling tanks. The nitrogen produced in the waste from the fish, after being clarified, then goes on to fertilize beds of lettuce, cucumbers, Swiss chard and other vegetables. Woodburyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s farming operation, called aquaponics, is unique in Johnson County. It combines farm-raised fish with water-based produce. The two systems help support each other, leading to an efficient manner of production that is increasingly appealing to people who support local food. With a family tradition of farming in the southwestern part of the county, the Woodburys are paying tribute to agriculture as it always

See fish on B2

Farm Indiana // December 2013

Left: A sign made by John Woodbury’s sister, Dana Grimmer, welcomes visitors to what the Woodburys have nicknamed the “fish house.” right: Woodbury holds a menu from Hillview Country Club featuring food produced by the aquaponics farm. Fish, lettuce and peppers are among some of the offerings.

fish // cont. from B1 has been while paving the way for a new way to grow crops. “We’re putting the farm to a different use,” says Max Woodbury, John’s father. “We’d been looking to do that for a long time.” Aquaponics has been around since the ancient Aztecs grew plants on floating rafts in the middle of their city lakes. But in modern times, the concept has grown out of the needs of fish farmers and hydroponic growers. John raises tilapia in tanks, where waste is created and pumped through a system of clarifiers and filters to remove heavy particles. Bacteria, which culture naturally in bodies of water, break down waste from the fish into food the plants can use. Ammonia is created in the water, but the plants filter that out and clean the water so that fish can still live in it. That natural balance between the three has helped lessen the learning curve that has come with this new venture. “The good thing about aquaponics is it’s forgiving,” John explains. “You can make mistakes and not completely ruin its system. It’s a natural cycle. Nature can balance itself, and so can aquaponics.” John had never even heard about the emerging practice as a biology student at Franklin College. After graduating in 2012, he was planning on going to work in a national park or other responsibility within the Department of Natural Resources, but he found that long-term, stable positions were scarce. “I did a lot of internships, but it was hard to find anything that paid,” he says. “Job security was so far gone.” While looking for something to use his degree, he and

his father visited Worm’s Way. The Bloomington-based store specializes in indoor cultivating. A display on hydroponics, or growing plants in water rather than soil, intrigued the Woodburys. They started investigating it more and came across the practice of aquaponics. John attended a pair of three-day seminars on the practice and studied it in a series of books that walked people through the process of setting up a system, how to raise fish and how to use those fish to fertilize crops. “I’ve always loved working with plants and animals, and this gave me a chance to work with both of them in a completely natural way of growing,” he says. “It was awesome that you could have both together in one package.” John founded Nature’s Gifts Aquaponics in late 2012. On the family’s 150-acre farm near Morgantown, the Woodburys have raised corn, grain and soybeans, with about half the land left as a timber farm. With such a small plot, diversifying crops became a necessity, Max says. John works in a 1,000-square-foot greenhouse to seed, plant or harvest the produce. In the mornings, John stokes the fires in a woodburning exterior furnace that vents hot air to both the greenhouse and his fish barn, ensuring the heat is constant. In order for the system to function and both his crops and fish to stay alive, everything has to remain about 75 degrees. He next works in the 800-square-foot fish barn, feeding his tilapia pelleted food. Most of the water in the system comes from the

Nature’s Gift Aquaponics What: A hybrid farming operation that raises fish and uses the waste from the tanks to fertilize water-based plots of produce. Who: John Woodbury Founded: 2012 Where: Southwest Johnson County Crops: Farm-raised Nile tilapia, 15 types of organic and heirloom lettuce, rainbow Swiss chard, magenta butter lettuce, sweet peppers, tomatoes, hot peppers and cucumbers Where to buy it: l Bloomingfoods Market and Deli, 3220 E. Third St., Bloomington l Richard’s Pizza Kitchen and Market, 229 S. Main St., Franklin Information: AquaponicsIndiana.com

See fish on B4

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

left: Floating foam board with holes drilled into it allows rainbow chard to have stability as it is grows in the nutrient-rich water. top right: Peppers are planted in a growth medium that is watered by nearby fish tanks. bottom: Woodbury stands between four tanks that add minerals to the water before it is pumped into the 200- gallon aquaculture rearing tank.

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

top: Woodbury holds up long roots growing beneath his pepper plants. The roots dangle and follow the flow of the current as they soak up water. bottom: Blue buckets hold tomato plants in the greenhouse.

fish // cont. from B2 Woodburys’ well. They’ve also created a rain-capture system on the roof of the barn, which funnels rainwater into tanks. The result is perfectly clear, chemical-free water that keeps the aquaponic system pristine. Because pesticides and other chemicals hurt the fish, John has had to learn new ways to kill pests on his plants. He’s found that insects such as the ladybug, lacewing and hoverfly will kill aphids and protect the plants. Currently, he is raising a mixed lettuce plant. He’s grown red Russian kale, rainbow chard and cucumbers. Branching out into other crops, he’s experimented with tomatoes, sweet corn, even root crops such as radishes. “People have tried more than 200 different crops that have worked great with aquaponics,” he says. “It’s fun to experiment to see what works and what doesn’t.” The produce is sold locally at stores and farmers

markets. John has provided food for Richard’s Market in Franklin and Bloomingfoods Market and Deli in Bloomington. During the summer, he had a booth at the Greenfield Farmers Market. He expects to do especially well at markets during the winter, when he’s able to provide plenty of produce that he has grown indoors. John is in the process of moving outside commercial aquaponics to serve as a guide for future fish-and-crop farmers. He has plans to open a small store, where he will sell tanks, piping, pumps and other equipment to help others get started in their own homes. People from as far away as Fort Wayne have come to tour his facility and learn how to begin doing aquaponics in their garage or basements. “I could show people how to set one of these systems up,” John says. “You can build one for cheap at your house and supply produce at your house year-round.” *FI

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

forest trees

seeing the and the Indiana Tree Project offers Hoosiers a chance to help the state grow

t’s a bit of a stretch to imagine the Indiana of 200 years ago, nearly completely forested. The state’s modern landscape varies between urban glass and steel; fields of grain, beans and vegetables; and stretches of interstate connecting large and small communities. Even so, wood is the state’s largest agricultural industry. Our current forest land aids other agricultural sectors as well by preventing soil erosion. Then there is its place in the Hoosier psyche as an integral part of the state’s natural splendor. The Indiana Tree Project was a natural program for the state to embark upon. Citizens here see trees as emblematic of their own ties to the land. “It came out of brainstorming sessions between our group, the Department of Natural Resources, and the Division of Forestry,” says Bourke Patton, Indiana Natural Resources Foundation executive director. “Every year, we were getting calls from people asking to plant a tree in someone’s memory, so we looked at how to formally address that.” The concept is rather straightforward. For a $10 donation, the project will plant a tree in the memory of someone you’ve named. You’re provided with an identification number for your tree, which is traceable by GPS to a satellite image, so you can monitor its growth. If you buy more than one tree, they will all be planted in the same acre, so you will only get one ID number. The project is certified by both the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the Forest Stewardship Council. Both these organizations have stringent standards for assuring responsible forest management and consideration of water quality, biodiversity and wildlife habitat. Sponsors include Heritage Environmental Services, a nationwide waste management company, and the Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen’s Association. “Marketing has been mostly word-of-mouth,” says Patton. “It is mentioned in the DNR literature, but it has mostly, if you will, grown organically.” He says that at some funerals, loved one’s survivors will specify the project as the charity of choice for contributions in the deceased’s memory. He also notes that there is an uptick of activity during the holiday season. “It’s a great stocking stuffer.” The project is entering its third year. The first year, a plot of land at Yellowwood State Forest was planted with oak, cherry and walnut saplings. Sites are matched with tree varieties based on variables such as soil characteristics and exposure to wind. “It takes two to three years for roots to get established,” says John Seifert, state forester. “If you can get a 6- to 8-inch growth rate in the first year, you’re off to a pretty good start.” He notes that the project’s trees have a 90 percent survival rate. Last year, the planting took place at Morgan-Monroe State Forest. “We planted a lot of walnut, a little bit of butternut, some red oak and quite a bit of white oak,” Seifert says. In the spring the planting will be at Morgan-Monroe again. There are 30 more acres there still to plant. “The program’s growth is dependent on the land we buy,” he explains. “We’re experimenting with planting

photos by Josh Marshall

By Barney Quick

after a harvest.” Donations to the project are classified as charitable contributions. The Natural Resources Foundation is a private entity. Its mission is to support and sustain the policies of the IDNR. It assists with buying land for the Tree Project as well as nature preserves. It also undertakes a variety of educational initiatives, such as supporting interpretive naturalists, distributing Outdoor Indiana magazine to school libraries and providing grants for field trips. “We help the IDNR do the things it wants to do,” says Patton. Tree roots absorb a great deal of water from rainfall. Runoff and erosion can be countered by large concentrations of trees. Along with soil erosion prevention, wildlife support is an important reason for bolstering Indiana’s forested lands. The nuts produced by various hardwood varieties provide food for species ranging from deer to bald eagles to bobcats. Patton says that public response to the program covers a wide spectrum. “It’s been great to see participation

by everyone from corporations to individuals,” he explains. “The benefits to the state and to nature are both big selling points.” The economic impact of the state’s hardwood forests is considerable as well. Manufacturing of products made from them brings in $8.1 billion a year. Approximately 35,000 people are employed in that enterprise. Today’s saplings will be ready for harvest in 80 years, and more will be planted in the meantime. The reforestation of Indiana is pretty much all upside. Perhaps, even more than the environmental and economic benefits, the reinforcement of Hoosiers’ characteristic sense of heritage is the program’s most compelling feature. “People can come back in 10 and 15 years and show their children the trees they’ve watched over that time,” says Seifert. Patton adds that the reclamation is permanent: “The land we plant will always be a forest.” For more information, visit https://secure.in.gov/dnr/ TreeProject/index.aspx. *FI

Farm Indiana // December 2013

No Boundaries

Chad Decker works toward boundless success for his fencing company

stablished in 2002, Columbus-based Indiana Agricultural Fencing (IAF) specializes in the uncommon service of providing animal enclosures on the properties of Hoosier farmers — a service that, to the casual observer, is perhaps little appreciated in terms of both practicality and aesthetics. Owner Chad Decker, 29, started IAF when he was still in his teens. And it was around this period that Decker, a Columbus North High School graduate, was entering his freshmen year at Purdue University. Yet backtracking a bit further into his history provides a clue or two about his current career. “I’ve been around cattle most all of my life,” says Decker, explaining that he and his father, Scott Decker, raised cows and show cattle for local fairs and 4-H organizations. His dad is still in the cattle business. “I always wanted to work for myself, but my family didn’t raise enough cattle to make a career out of it,” Decker says. He sensed that his love of raising cattle and his entrepreneurial ambitions were beginning to merge; hence, his decision to enroll at Purdue. “I never stayed a weekend in Lafayette in all four years,” says Decker, reflecting on his hectic, early days as a student and would-be business owner. But he made it work, successfully graduating from Purdue’s animal science and agricultural economics programs before returning to his business responsibilities back home in Columbus. Certainly, it was a work ethic awareness of boundaries and compartmentalization that fostered Decker’s early accomplishments — a work ethic that continues to provide a reliable balance for the fencing projects IAF undertakes. And it is this sense of balance that drives

photos by Josh Marshall

By Clint Smith

top: Clint Blish works on a fence under construction in Brownstown. middle left: Brian Liggett uses a chainsaw to even the length of boards. middle right: Tom Finney lines up a fence post as Curtis Kirk uses a skid steer to drive the post into the ground. bottom: Don Malcomb pulls wire at the job site.

nearly all of his fencing projects. While cost and the needs of both animals and owners are critical, Decker indicates that IAF maintains an attentiveness to the appearance of the proposed project. “Aesthetics, functionality, and cost — one has to find the right balance,” he says, suggesting that his business

is very in tune with managing the three criteria. IAF provides a variety of fencing options, with characteristics ranging from the “tried-and-true” simplicity of barbed wire to a sturdier and more substantial profile of wood-plank board fencing (including poplar, treated poplar and oak), what IAF refers to as the Cadillac of

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

fencing choices. Without doubt, cattle producers are IAF’s largest patrons. As the fencing projects are initially dedicated to the characteristics of the animals, Decker casually quantifies a breakdown of his clientele: 60 percent cattle, 20 percent equine, 15 percent sheep and goats, and 5 percent falls under miscellaneous. And one may wonder about the latter category. When asked, Decker laughs, recalling a client who approached IAF with a request for an unusual variety of fence. “We had a customer who had a number of saplings on his property,” but the small trees, located near a small body of water, were being devoured by beavers. IAF was called in to install a fence to keep the beavers away from the trees, what he defines as a “one time thing.” But Decker and his two crews of employees are always up for a challenge.

He proudly contends that IAF is the “largest farm fence builder in the state of Indiana.” Yet despite this designation, he is still faced with hurdles. Like most small-business-based projects, it’s not the challenge of the job or the proposed project, but simply spreading the word about the service. “It’s tough to get your name out there,” he says, “to get people to know you exist.” Still, he acknowledges the advantages of doing business in Columbus. “It’s a great central location,” he says. “We cover about a two-hour radius from Columbus.” Decker says his typical customers range from Lafayette to Kokomo, Richmond down to Cincinnati, Louisville up to Bloomington, and Jasper up through Spencer. He also has had a loyal client request projects as far south as Florida. And though the Midwest winter months present predictable challenges for any outdoor endeavor, Decker

keeps things going through the shorter hours and colder days. IAF even offers winter fencing discounts for customers who plan to get a head start on spring projects. “I’m just floored by the size of what this company has become,” he says, modestly musing on the days when he was just a kid helping his father raise cattle. “This has all just gone a lot further than I ever imagined.” Of course, as any business owner is inclined, Decker would like to see his company grow, but his main motivation can be defined quite simply: “To do great work for our customers.” And if one follows the markers that have defined the company thus far, it’s safe to conclude that his ambitions have no boundaries. For more information on Indiana Agricultural Fencing, call (812) 592-0118 or visit www.indianaagri culturalfencing.com. *FI

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

Resolutionary

Associated press photos

war

Stacks of paperwork await members of the House Agriculture Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington as it meets to consider proposals to the 2013 Farm Bill.

Farmers offer varying opinions on the impact of government shutdowns By Richard Isenhour he partial shutdown of the U.S. federal government, combined with the expiration of the Farm Bill, provided a double whammy to farmers and put them in a precarious position. Or the impact of the partial shutdown of the U.S. federal government, even when combined with the expiration of the Farm Bill, was not significant or, at the least, instantly noticeable to farmers. Your position depends on what side of the road you’re farming. “The shutdown came at a pretty critical time,” notes Rob Richards, a fourthgeneration farmer and general manager of Indy Farms in Johnson County. “There are a lot of things that come together during the harvest season. While the government shutdown did not alter field harvest activities, there were other impacts to some farms, depending on their activities.” Richards underscores two outcomes of the government shutdown that had an impact on farmers: the lack of a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) crop report in October; the closing of USDA/FSA (Farm Services Agency) service centers in counties throughout the state. “(The USDA) report lists projected acres and yields by commodity, which drives market pricing,” Richards explains. “Without any adjustment, the prior ‘bumper crop’ report stays in play, thus reducing grain prices. In other words, there was a missed period for any crop estimate ‘true up’ reporting midway through harvest. “Depending on a farmer’s grain sales strategies and tactics, this could have negatively impacted revenues.” The closing of agency service centers, Richards says, made it difficult to get information and other resources farmers routinely receive to help them in their operations. He adds the closures also affected many a farmer’s wallet. “Many farms take out commodity loans using fall-harvested stored grain as collateral,” Richards explains. “These loans were not available during this time, thus delaying potential cash for farmers.” The situation was especially critical, Richards adds, to farmers who may have had a facility (grain bin) loan and needed draws to pay vendors. Because of the shutdown of the federal government, most local FSA and USDA service centers were closed and most employees placed on furlough. Without price stabilization or access to the crucial information — crop reports, for example — the centers provide, many farmers had to make difficult decisions based not on hard data, but on information shared between them or by making educated guesses.

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“Private landowners, farmers, contractors, partners and citizens did not have access to the Greensburg Service Center, whatsoever,” notes Mike Hughes, USDA district conservationist in Decatur County. “The building was closed for approximately two weeks, and all facets of communication from our end were discontinued during that time.” Hughes says that because the Decatur County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) is a county agency, several of its tasks were carried on during the federal government shutdown. He adds, though, that many of the SWCD’s activities were limited because of a lack of the usual support its employees received from the USDA and other federal agencies. Some of this support includes data on dairy, beef and pork farmers rely on to carry out their operations. “The biggest impact of the government shutdown on the pork industry was the lack of market data coming from the USDA,” notes Josh Trenary, executive director of Indiana Pork. “Not only is this data important to both buyers and sellers of commodities, it is required to be reported for the livestock industry. When this reporting stopped, it made it very difficult to continue pricing market hogs during the shutdown.” Some farmers, though, didn’t find this lack of information to be critical. “I wasn’t personally aware of the impact (of the government shutdown) on the dayto-day operations on our dairy farm,” notes LuAnn Troxel, president of Indiana Dairy Producers and who along with her husband, Tom, operates the Troxel Dairy Farm in Hanna. “The farm service agency and conservation offices were closed, but I hadn’t planned to visit them anyway. We did miss some of the market reporting, so there was definitely a vacuum of information, but it didn’t make a critical problem as far as I was aware.” There have been 17 government shutdowns since 1976, most of them lasting between five and 21 days. Shutdowns arise when the U.S. Congress fails to pass legislation funding government operations or agencies. This most recent shutdown ran from Sept. 30 to Oct. 17 and arose over inclusion of language defunding the new health care law. On Oct. 16, Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed to temporarily extend funding for government services and agencies until Jan. 15. Both houses adopted the resolution, and it was quickly signed by President Obama the following day. Even though things are back to normal — as normal as things can be in Washington, D.C. — another shutdown in January looms on the horizon. “The continuing resolution expires on Jan. 15, 2014,” Hughes says. “This means we all have time to produce a plan that will hopefully not get implemented. My advice to producers and landowners would be to prepare for it based on the level of business they do with USDA or any other federal government agency. “Probably the best way for farmers in Decatur County to prepare,” he adds, “would be to communicate your concerns in a timely manner with the Greensburg Service Center.” Richards agrees and stresses the importance of keeping tabs on the timing of another potential government shutdown. “It’s important to stay in front of things and anticipate any needs,” Richards says. “The biggest concern to pork farmers the last time around,” Trenary notes, “was the possibility that inspectors at federally inspected plants could be deemed nonessential, meaning meat packers would not have been able to continue processing market hogs. Assuming, during another shutdown, these inspectors would be deemed essential since they help protect public health, the biggest concern would again be the potential absence of price reporting data.” The Farm Bill, which expired on Sept. 30, is the main agricultural policy tool of the federal government. The comprehensive omnibus bill is passed every five years or so and generally contains any number of amendments, suspensions of law, phasing out of programs or creation of new ones. The 2013 Farm Bill was passed by the Senate this past June, but the House version failed to pass. Among items of contention: changes in the agricultural subsidy program and proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (formerly the food stamp program). “We hope the Farm Bill passes by the end of the year, but at this point it seems any speculation on its passage is a losing proposition,” Trenary says. “As for the Farm Bill’s importance to pork farmers, we hope a provision called the King amendment remains a part of the bill. It would help protect interstate commerce in the sense that it would prohibit a state from requiring agriculture products produced in other states but sold within its borders to meet its standards of animal production.” The USDA’s Hughes believes farming operations will remain status quo regardless of what happens on the Farm Bill. “We are a confident agricultural community here in Decatur County,” Hughes says. “Yes, the Farm Bill will be passed. And until it gets passed, we are going to keep on trucking along, doing what we do best, and doing it to the best of our ability.” Richards also believes the Farm Bill will be passed, although he is not optimistic that that will occur before year’s end. “The crop/livestock production portion of the bill seems to be set,” Richards says, “but it is the other items in the bill that are presenting challenges for legislators. The most notable item is the food stamp program and any proposed changes for it.” Richards is among the growing number of farmers who believe the direct payment subsidy will go away with the new Farm Bill. He also suspects there may be changes with the federal crop insurance subsidy. “It would have a significant negative impact if there were to be changes there,” he says. “Premiums could increase to a point that it would not be possible for some to pay. This would put farms and farmers at risk in the event of a poor yielding year.”

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

Rob Richards and sons, Eric and Aaron, are co-owners of Indy Family Farms in Greenwood.

LuAnn Troxel, on the other hand, remains optimistic about the passage of the Farm Bill and what it may contain. “I do expect that a Farm Bill will be passed before year’s end,” Troxel says. “I am expecting some things from it. I believe direct payments will go away, and I am fine with this. I was ready for them to go away over a year ago, and I believe the direct payment policy for corn and soybeans is a bad one. “I also believe that there will be some reduction in the nutrition programs,” she continues. “This doesn’t affect farmers except that it is the real holdup in getting the Farm Bill approved. Eighty percent of the Farm Bill price tag is for nutrition programs, and I believe there is room to reduce this price tag. If farmers are giving up direct payments, then nutrition programs can see some responsible cuts as well.” Troxel says she is hopeful the legislation will include a responsible safety net, which includes some dairy price margin insurance for the nation’s dairy farmers. “As far as I’m concerned, the purpose of the Farm Bill to farmers is to provide an adequate safety net in times of disaster and negative production returns,” Troxel explains. “It is impossible to get in and out of the farming (dairy) business based on market fluctuations. We have to ride the waves, but it’s really difficult to continue on during times of extended losses. After all, this is how we provide for our families. It’s tough to pay for the privilege of dairy farming over a long period of time. We’ll do anything for a little while.” And like many of her agricultural contemporaries, Troxel sees the government’s role in farming as a double-edged sword. “Truthfully, the farmers I know are an independent lot and would like to see less government in farming, not more,” Troxel believes. “With that said, I fully recognize that (the government) does play an important role, and we wish to work together to provide nutritious and delicious food produced right here in the United States.” *FI

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

Submitted Photos

Addison Bakehouse:

Finding a home in Columbus

Story by Clint Smith

t’s a modest, cottage-quaint structure in Columbus that Joan Edwards, owner of Addison Bakehouse, has just recently gained comfort in calling “home.” She opened the space at 1702 Pennsylvania St. in August, a culminating event that was a pairing of steadfast practice and simple opportunity. Previously, Edwards had honed her culinary skills as a personal vocation, a satisfying hobby that cushioned the monotony of day-to-day responsibilities. Fast-forward a little bit — past the abrupt elimination of her contracted position as a dental hygienist — when Edwards, though working on a humble budget, went into business for herself. “I rented a commercial kitchen at a local church,” she says, “and began marketing whole desserts to restaurants up in Greenwood.” What paid off for her was what might be considered an old-school method of interacting with the public, personally introducing herself and providing samples and price lists to potential clients. Suffice it to say, she saw results right away. “I sold my desserts wholesale for a year and a half, but a retail restaurant became a goal at that point.” Edwards was a Greenwood resident before meeting Rob Jones, with whom she’s in a relationship and who lived in Columbus. “We found a little spot downtown,” recalls Edwards of their search back in June for an

ideal location for their culinary venture, “but it was so tiny and not set up as a restaurant.” Yet on precisely the same day, just as disappointment was sinking in, they noticed a tiny structure that happened to be for lease. “So we took out the lease and bought some paint and went to work.” Which brings us to Addison Bakehouse’s opening in August. The unassuming exterior of the former house — an assembly of burgundy bricks topped by slate-shaded shingles — hints at the inviting atmosphere within: stylish, keenly refined and meticulously restrained. Currently, Edwards’ menu consists of sandwiches and paninis, fresh salads, light sides and rich desserts. For the holidays, Addison Bakehouse welcomes orders for pies and cakes and offers options for custom whole desserts. Just as Edwards has become pleasantly acquainted with the city of Columbus — which she describes as “warm and welcoming” — she is equally welcoming to her customers. With the holidays under way, Addison Bakehouse may be an ideal spot to gather as a group. “Small groups of 10 to 30 people can reserve the dining room in the evenings for private events with dinner options,” she says. During lunch hours, a cozy back room is available for meetings at no additional charge. Addison Bakehouse, 1702 Pennsylvania St., Columbus, (812) 567-3037. Hours: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, closed Sundays.

Yields

Brown Butter Snickerdoodles

Recipe provided by Addison Bakehouse.

Cookies: 1 cup butter 1½ cups granulated white sugar 2 large eggs 2¾ cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons cream of tartar 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon iodized salt Rolling Mixture: ¾ cup granulated white sugar 2 teaspoons cinnamon In a small saucepan, melt butter on medium heat. Reduce to a simmer and stir until butter turns golden brown. Remove from heat and let cool. In a large bowl, whisk together cooled butter, sugar and eggs. Sift dry ingredients together and stir into wet mixture. Cover bowl and chill dough in refrigerator until firm. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough into small balls (about 1½ tablespoons of dough per ball). Roll balls in mixture of cinnamon and sugar and place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes until cookies are flattened and crinkly.

Farm Indiana // December 2013

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photos By John Armuth

From left: Marie Kleinhenz, Jim Kleinhenz, and Kirk Kleinhenz, the three proprietors of 7K Farms.

Feeding the masses

or nearly 40 years, the Kleinhenz family and its 7K Farms (3155 W. Road 650N, Taylorsville) has been providing the community with enough edible ammunition to feed, well, an army. That statement is, of course, good-natured hyperbole, but there’s little exaggeration when examining this food service distributor’s client list, as well as its menu of more than 3,500 wholesale products. Jim Kleinhenz of 7K Farms (the business name denotes the seven Kleinhenz children, of which Jim is one) cites several local food service establishments in nearby Columbus that are loyal customers: Sadie’s Family Dining, Skooter’s, Shorty’s, Sweet Rose Bakehouse, Gramz Bakery and the Sirloin Stockade. “Columbus is a great place to do business,” says Kleinhenz. And around the holidays, 7K Farms is no stranger to providing high-volume orders, producing specially assembled fruit baskets, along with meat and cheese gift boxes. “For the winter months we sell a lot of frozen soups,” he adds. Some favorites are the cream of chicken with wild rice, corn chowder and three types of chili. For more information on 7K Farms, visit www.7kfarms.com.

Say Cheese Chef Joe Strangis, culinary arts chairman at Ivy Tech in Columbus, offers us this recipe for an Italian treat, perfect for the holidays. Mascarpone Cheesecake Crust 1½ cups finely chopped walnuts 1 cup sugar 2 tablespoon butter, softened Pinch cinnamon Filling 17½ ounces mascarpone cheese 2 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract ½ teaspoon nutmeg Topping 1 cup ricotta cheese Mix walnuts, ½ cup sugar, butter and cinnamon, forming the crust. Press crust into bottom of a springform pan, bake at 300 degrees for 15 minutes or until browned. Combine mascarpone, ½ cup sugar, eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla and nutmeg and mix until smooth (do not overmix). Pour the filling into the baked shell, bake at 300 degrees for one hour. Let cheesecake cool about 5 minutes after baking.

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Mix ricotta cheese, 3 tablespoons sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Spread topping on cake and bake at 300 degrees for an additional 5 minutes. Garnish with your favorite fruit sauce, chocolate sauce or coffee liquor.

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

Associated Press photos

Unintended consequences

Above: Des Moines water works lab technician Bill Blubaugh takes a water sample from the Des Moines River. Below: Algae cover the surface of Corydon Lake in Corydon, Iowa. The ethanol mandate has contributed to millions of acres of new row crops being planted and more fertilizer use. The fertilizer flows downstream, polluting lakes.

Green energy drive comes with environmental cost

By Dina Cappiello and Matt Apuzzo n The Associated Press

he hills of southern Iowa bear the scars of America’s push for green energy: The brown gashes where rain has washed away the soil. The polluted streams that dump fertilizer into the water supply. Even the cemetery that disappeared like an apparition into a cornfield. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. With the Iowa political caucuses on the horizon in 2007, presidential candidate Barack Obama made homegrown corn a centerpiece of his plan to slow global warming. And when President George W. Bush signed a law that year requiring oil companies to add billions of gallons of ethanol to their gasoline, Bush predicted it would make the country “stronger, cleaner and more secure.” But the ethanol era has proven far more damaging to the environment than politicians promised and much worse than the government admits today. As farmers rushed to find new places to plant corn, they wiped out millions of acres of conservation land, destroyed habitat and polluted water supplies, an Associated Press investigation found. Five million acres of land set aside for conservation — more than Yellowstone, Everglades and Yosemite national parks combined — have vanished on Obama’s watch. Landowners filled in wetlands. They plowed into pristine prairies, releasing carbon dioxide that had been locked in the soil. Sprayers pumped out billions of pounds of fertilizer, some of which seeped into

drinking water, contaminated rivers and worsened the huge dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico where marine life can’t survive. In Indiana, for instance, farmers planted 750,000 more acres of corn last year than they did the year before the ethanol mandate was passed. More than 28,000 acres of conservation land were lost. The consequences are so severe that environmentalists and many scientists have now rejected corn-based ethanol as bad environmental policy. But the Obama administration stands by it, highlighting its economic benefits to the farming industry. Farmers planted 15 million more acres of corn last year than before the ethanol boom, and the effects are visible in places like south central Iowa. The hilly, once-grassy landscape is made up of fragile soil that, unlike the earth in the rest of the state, is poorly suited for corn. Nevertheless, it has yielded to America’s demand. “They’re raping the land,” said Bill Alley, a member of the board of supervisors in Wayne County, which now bears little resemblance to the rolling cow pastures shown in postcards sold at a Corydon pharmacy. All energy comes at a cost. The global warming consequences of drilling for oil and natural gas are well documented and severe. In an effort to reduce those harms, however, Obama’s administration has allowed so-called green energy to do not-so-green things. The government’s hopeful predictions for ethanol have proven so inaccurate that

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

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scientists question whether it will ever achieve its central environmental goal: reducing greenhouse gases. That makes the hidden costs even more significant. “This is an ecological disaster,” said Craig Cox of the Environmental Working Group, a natural ally of the president that, like others, now finds itself at odds with the White House. The administration accepts the cost because it believes supporting corn ethanol will encourage development of cleaner, greener biofuels. “That is what you give up if you don’t recognize that renewable fuels have someplace here,” EPA administrator Gina McCarthy said in a recent interview with AP. “All renewable fuels are not corn ethanol.” Still, corn supplies the overwhelming majority of ethanol in the United States, and the administration is loath to discuss the consequences. “It just caught us completely off guard,” said Doug Davenport, a Department of Agriculture official who encourages southern Iowa farmers to use conservation practices. Despite those efforts, Davenport said he was surprised at how much fragile land was turned into corn fields. Shortly after Davenport spoke to The Associated Press, he got an email ordering him to stop talking. “We just want to have a consistent message on the topic,” an Agriculture Department spokesman in Iowa said. That message was laid out by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who spoke to ethanol lobbyists on Capitol Hill recently and said ethanol was good for business. “We are committed to this industry because we understand its benefits,” he said. “We understand it’s about farm income. It’s about stabilizing and maintaining farm income, which is at record levels.” But the numbers behind the policy have become so unworkable that, for the first time, the EPA is soon expected to reduce the amount of ethanol required to be added to the gasoline supply. Meanwhile, an unusual coalition of big oil companies, environmental groups and food companies is pushing the government to go even further and reconsider the entire ethanol program. To understand how America got to an environmental policy with such harmful environmental consequences, it’s helpful to start in a field in Iowa. ooo Leroy Perkins, a white-haired, 66-year-old farmer in denim overalls, stands surrounded by waist-high grass and clover. He owns 91 acres like this, all hilly and erodible, that he set aside for conservation years ago.

See ethanol on B14

Top: An ethanol plant stands next to a cornfield near Nevada, Iowa. Middle and above: The Sturgeon Cemetery near Sewal, Iowa, stands as an island among corn plants. With ethanol production enticing farmers to plant on more acres, the cemetery is now surrounded by cornfields.

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Farm Indiana // December 2013

Above: Leroy Perkins stands in his field of grass, which is part of the Conservation Reserve Program near Corydon, Iowa. Perkins must make a decision to either leave the highly erodible field in grass or break ground to plant corn. Below: A motorist fills up with gasoline containing ethanol in Des Moines.

ethanol // cont. from B13 Soon, he will have a decision to make: keep the land as it is or, like many of his neighbors, plow it down and plant corn or soybeans, the major sources of biofuel in the United States. “I’d like to keep it in,” he said. “This is what southern Iowa’s for: raising grass.” For decades, the government’s Conservation Reserve Program has paid people to stop farming environmentally sensitive land. Grassy fields convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, and that combats global warming. Plus, the deep root systems prevent topsoil from washing away. A decade ago, Washington paid farmers in Wayne County about $70 an acre to leave their land idle. With corn selling for about $2 per bushel (56 pounds), farming the hilly, inferior soil was bad business. Lately, the math has changed. “I’m coming to the point where financially, it’s not feasible,” Perkins said. The change began in 2007, when Congress passed a law requiring oil companies to blend billions of gallons of ethanol into gasoline. Oil prices were high. Imports were rising quickly. The legislation had the strong backing of the junior senator from Illinois, the nation’s second-largest corn producer. “If we’re going to get serious about investing in our energy future, we must give our family farmers and local ethanol producers a fair shot at success,” Obama said then. Bush signed the bill that December. It would fall on the next president to figure out how to make it work. ooo Writing the regulations to implement the ethanol mandate was among the administration’s first environmental undertakings. But Obama’s team at the EPA was sour on it from the start. As a way to reduce global warming, they knew corn ethanol was a dubious proposition. Corn demands fertilizer, which is made using natural gas. Ethanol factories typically burn coal or gas, both of which release carbon dioxide. Plus, digging up grassland releases greenhouse gases. “I don’t remember anybody having great passion for this,” said Bob Sussman, who served on Obama’s transition team and recently retired as EPA’s senior policy counsel. “I don’t have a lot of personal enthusiasm for the program.” The EPA’s experts determined that corn ethanol was only modestly better than gasoline when it came to carbon dioxide emissions. Sixteen percent better, to be exact. And not in the short term. Only by 2022. By law, though, biofuels were supposed to be at least 20 percent greener than gasoline. From a legal standpoint, those results didn’t actually

matter. Congress exempted existing coal- and gas-burning ethanol plants from meeting this standard. Still, the ethanol industry was livid and challenged the EPA estimate. The biofuel-friendly Obama administration was undermining the industry’s selling point: that it was much greener than gasoline. The EPA’s conclusion was based on a model. Plug in some assumed figures — the price of corn, the number of acres planted, how much corn would grow per acre — and the model would spit out a number. To get past 20 percent, the EPA needed to change its assumptions. The most important assumption was the yield, a measure of how much corn could be produced on an acre of land. The higher the yield, the easier it would be for farmers to meet demand without plowing new farmland,

ture officials added a new “high yield case scenario” that assumed 230 bushels per acre. Problem was, a spike in corn prices would encourage farming marginal areas like Wayne County, which could never produce such large yields. The EPA’s model assumed only a tiny increase in corn prices. When the Obama administration finalized its policy, corn ethanol scored 21 percent better than gasoline, barely crossing the key threshold. “You adjust a few numbers to get it where you want it, and then you call it good,” said Adam Liska, assistant professor of biological systems engineering at the University of Nebraska. He supports ethanol, even with its environmental trade-offs. The Obama administration’s predictions were soon

plowing that counted against ethanol in the greenhouse gas equation. Corn yields have inched steadily upward over the years as farms have become more efficient. The government’s first ethanol model assumed that trend would continue, rising from 150 bushels per acre to about 180 by the year 2022. Agriculture companies like Monsanto Co. and DuPont Pioneer, which stood to make millions off an ethanol boom, argued those numbers were too low. They predicted that genetically modified seeds, which they produce, would send yields skyrocketing. Documents show the White House also suggested the EPA raise its yield assumptions. When the final rule came out, the EPA and Agricul-

proven wrong. In September 2010, corn passed $4, on its way to about $7, where it has been most of this year. ooo It’s impossible to calculate how much ethanol is responsible for the spike in corn prices and how much those prices led to the land changes in the Midwest. Supporters of corn ethanol say extreme weather — dry one year, very wet the next — hurt farmers and raised prices. But supply wasn’t the only factor. Historically, the overwhelming majority of corn in the United States has been turned into livestock feed. But in 2010, for the first time, fuel was the No. 1 use for corn in America. That was true in 2011 and 2012. Newly released Department of Agriculture data show that, this year, 43 percent of corn went to fuel and 45 percent went

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to livestock feed. The more corn that goes to ethanol, the more that needs to be planted to meet other demands. Scientists predicted that a major ethanol push would raise prices and, in turn, encourage farmers like Leroy Perkins to plow into conservation land. In 2008, the journal Science published a study with a dire conclusion: Plowing over conservation land releases so much greenhouse gas that it takes 48 years before new plants can break even and start reducing carbon dioxide. For an ethanol policy to work, the study said, farmers could not plow into conservation land. In response, the Department of Energy said America could meet its ethanol demand without losing any conservation land, officials said. They would soon be proven wrong. In the first year after the ethanol mandate, more than 2 million acres disappeared. Since Obama took office, 5 million more acres have vanished. Agriculture officials acknowledge that conservation land has been lost, but they say the trend is reversing. When the 2013 data come out, they say the figures will show that as corn prices stabilized, farmers once again began setting aside land for conservation. ooo Losing conservation land was bad. But something even worse was happening. Farmers broke ground on virgin land, the untouched terrain that represents, from an environmental standpoint, one of the country’s most important assets. The farm industry assured the government that wouldn’t happen. And it would have been an easy thing for Washington to check. But rather than insisting that farmers report whenever they plow into virgin land, the government decided on a murkier oversight method: Washington instead monitors the amount of cropland nationwide. Local trends wash away when viewed at such a distance. Look closely at the corn boom in the northern Great Plains, however, and it’s clear. Farmers are converting prairies into farmland.

The Department of Agriculture began keeping figures on virgin land only in 2012 and determined that about 38,000 acres vanished last year. But using government satellite data — the best tool available — the AP identified a conservative estimate of 1.2 million acres of grassland in Nebraska and the Dakotas alone that have been converted to fields of corn and soybeans since 2006, the last year before the ethanol mandate was passed. In Wayne County, a gravel road once cut through a grassy field leading to a hilltop cemetery. But about two years ago, the landowners plowed over the road. Now, visiting gravesites means walking a path through the corn. “This is what the price of corn does,” said Bill Alley from the board of supervisors. “This is what happens, right here.” ooo In his recent speech to ethanol lobbyists, Vilsack was unequivocal about ethanol’s benefits to the air and water: “There is no question air quality, water quality is benefiting from this industry,” he said. In the Midwest, meanwhile, scientists and conservationists are sounding alarms. Between 2005 and 2010, corn farmers increased their use of nitrogen fertilizer by more than 1 billion pounds. More recent data aren’t available from the Agriculture Department, but even conservative projections suggest another billion-pound increase since then. Nitrogen fertilizer, when it seeps into the water, is toxic. Children are especially susceptible to nitrate poisoning, which causes “blue baby” syndrome and can be deadly. Department of Agriculture officials note that the amount of fertilizer used for all crops has remained steady for a decade, suggesting the ethanol mandate hasn’t caused a fertilizer boom nationally. But in the Midwest, corn is the dominant crop, and officials say the increase in fertilizer use — driven by the increase in corn planting — is having an effect. The next-generation biofuels that were supposed to wean the country off corn haven’t yet materialized. Every day without those cleaner-burning fuels, the ethanol industry stays reliant on corn and the environmental effects mount. The EPA could revisit its model and see whether ethanol is actually as good for the environment as officials predicted. But the agency says it doesn’t have the money or the manpower. With the model so far off from reality, independent scientists say it’s hard to make an argument for ethanol as a global warming policy. And the administration rarely tries to make that argument anymore. What was once billed as an environmental boon has morphed into a government program to help rural America survive. “I don’t know whether I can make the environmental argument or the economic argument,” Vilsack said in

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an interview with the AP. “To me, it’s an opportunity argument.” Going to Congress and rewriting the law would mean picking a fight with agricultural lobbyists, a fight that would put the administration on the side of big oil companies, which despise the ethanol requirement. So the ethanol policy cruises on autopilot. Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, said there’s no reason to change the standards. Ethanol still looks good compared to the oil industry, which increasingly relies on environmentally risky tactics like hydraulic fracturing or pulls from carbon-heavy tar sands. *FI Editor’s note: On Nov. 15 the Obama administration proposed to reduce the amount of ethanol in the nation’s fuel supply for the first time, acknowledging that the biofuel law championed by both parties in 2007 is not working as well as expected.

things to know about ethanol

By The Associated Press

President Barack Obama has called corn-based ethanol “the most successful alternative fuel we have ever developed.” Billed as a green replacement for billions of gallons of gasoline, ethanol has enjoyed widespread political support. But the results of America’s ethanol policy have not been as green as advertised. Here’s what you need to know:

Ethanol is an alcohol that is fermented and distilled from corn. Since 2007, when Congress required oil companies to blend billions of gallons of ethanol into their gasoline, it has become one of America’s most widely produced renewable fuels.

2 3 4 5 6 7

When it burns, ethanol emits less carbon dioxide than gasoline. That’s why it is a centerpiece of the government’s plan to reduce greenhouse gases.

But getting ethanol from corn has a hidden environmental price that the government rarely acknowledges. America’s ethanol policy has encouraged farmers to plant millions of new acres of corn.

More than 5 million conservation acres — environmentally sensitive farmland that had been set aside and allowed to grow as grassland — have disappeared on Obama’s watch. Every time a farmer plows into grassland, it releases carbon dioxide that had been naturally locked in the soil. In the name of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the policy encourages a practice that emits greenhouse gas. The corn boom has increased fertilizer pollution in Midwest waterways and beyond. Scientists say that’s worsened a huge “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico.

Top: Environmentalist Craig Cox looks at a cornfield near Ames, Iowa. Above: Erosion is seen in a cornfield that was recently converted from pasture near Lineville, Iowa.

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Environmentalists and many scientists now say, when all the environmental factors are considered, corn ethanol is not a viable strategy for combating global warming. But it has been a boon to Midwest farmers. The Obama administration no longer pitches ethanol as a greenhouse gas strategy. Rather, it’s frequently presented as a program that helps rural America.

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