Last night we camped at Wilson State Park. We were fortunate enough to find some showers at camp, which many of us took advantage of. Our breakfast of eggs and sausage was cut short by rain, so we quickly packed up and loaded up and made the long drive to Goodland, Kansas, where we met with Ron Schilling, a local farmer. He showed us one of the last wheat fields to be harvested in the area, where he explained how the grain is harvested. We then all climbed on top of the combine, which happened to be the largest one on the market. After that we went to a massive grain elevator, capable of holding 2.6 million tons of grain, corn, what have you. We were shown some of the inner workings of the elevator. Next we climbed aboard the bus and had a question and answer time with some of the local farmers, bouncing some of the Land Institutes ideas off them and questioning the sustainability of the farming methods. The farmers feel that their continuing technological advances will take allow for the necessary conservation of soil and the aquifer as time progresses, saying that as farmers their involvement with the land makes them the best stewards of the land, noting that this is their livelihood after all. Mr. Schilling emphasized that increases in the price of grain do not necessarily mean major increases in price of food, due to the farmers’ small share in the food (which is one dime per loaf of bread). When then drove to Boulder, Colorado, where we were given some time to explore the city. Interesting enough James, Vincent, Nels, Matt Layman and Lars asked a passerby what he thought of the words “land ethic” and he immediately mentioned Aldo Leopold. We then went to Boulder Mennonite Church where we ate pizza and talked to two members of the church, Bruce Fast and Phil Metzler, about what Boulder Mennonite was doing green and what other churches might do. That night most of us gathered around a piano and sang hymns, then had a devotional, journalled, and went to bed.
Our first full day of Discovery began with a visit to the Cahokia Mounds just east of St. Louis. Though originally scheduled for sunrise, we left the Presbyterian Church which had been our home that had been our home that night at 7am. We spent some of the morning on top of Monks Mound, the largest of the Cahokia group, and in fact in all of North America. The view from these relics of a lost civilization included the cityscape of St. Louis, with its great arch shining in the morning sun, and provided great stimulus for a discussion on the demise of civilizations. We left after a short time on the Mound and began the nine hour drive to the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. During the drive we read from "A Sand County Almanac," written by Aldo Leopold, the father of conservation and a significant subject of study on this trip. After a discussion on the meaning of a land ethic and Leopold's thoughts, as well as many card games and hours of sleep, we arrived at the Land Institute around 6pm, two hours later than planned. Ken Warren, a geologist at the Land Institute, spoke to us about their efforts. At the Land Institute twenty one scientists are trying to create natural systems of agriculture with high yields. The goal in mind is to eliminate plowing and tilling of the earth by growing and harvesting perennial crops which grow every year. In addition, the scientists here would like to grow multiple crops in the same field, a polyculture instead of a monoculture, sustaining the vitality of the land. Current agricultural practices here result in tremendous amounts of soil erosion and degradation. One of the many staggering statistics quoted by Ken Warren is that for every pound of grain produced, two pounds of soil are washed away forever. In this way Iowa has lost half its topsoil in the last hundred years. Another sickening ratio is that of pounds of grain in every pound of beef (8:1). This led me to the realization that our consumption of 10 pounds of ground beef in the taco salad on Monday had come about through the erosion of 160 pounds of soil. Creating strains of perennial wheat and other crops with high yields is a long and difficult process, but such crops can solve many of the problems modern agriculture has produced, and here at the Land Institute such progress is being made, slowly but surely. With our minds buzzing with new information and possibilities, we drove a short distance to our campsite in Wilson State Park, ate our supper of stir fry and applesauce, and headed to bed.