The Whole Picture
Materials travel from places as far away as Trinidad to support farming in the Cannon River region. Thousands people are involved in the production tractors, the mining of phosphorus and potash, and the engineering of seeds. Hundreds of thousands of kilo calories of energy are put into the production of chemicals and fuel.

Despite the  density of this report, I have not given you all the facts. There are ripples of beyond those that I have analyzed. For example, the purchase of farm inputs contributes to urbanization by locating the jobs in urban areas and this demands development and maintenance of an infrastructure (Perelman 517), including pluming, roads, and electricity in urban areas. Likewise, there are 17,000 parts in a tractor, each one made of materials collected from far and wide. I have chosen to trace only steel. What about rubber, aluminum, or plastic? What kinds of relationships and resources must be maintained for these tractor parts? After reading this web site, I hope that you can take a better guess about the answer than you might have been able to before.

Waking Up 
After reading Stuff (Ryan and Durning), which traces the inputs needed to make a newspaper, a cup of coffee, and a bike (among other things), I had trouble waking up the next morning. I was haunted by the thought of fossil fuels, pesticides, and deforestation as I plugged in the coffee pot. While I flipped through the comics I wondered where the trees grew that were used for my paper. I hopped on my bike and thought about the mines, cyanide chemicals, and energy needed to produce the aluminum for bike frame. I couldn't stop thinking, "What kind of a world do I live in?"

This spring I have been watching the corn sprout in the fields around Northfield, MN. I have been haunted by facts that I have discovered while doing my research. My friends can attest to this. "Did you know that Minnesota produces 2/3 of the iron ore used to make steel in the US?" I say to them. Did you know that the largest phosphorus mine in the US  is in North Carolina? Did you know?

I didn't know. Neither did most of the people I talked to. But now that I do, I cannot ignore the facts. Farming used to rely on humans, plants, and animals for inputs. Now it relies on ocean liners, international trade agreements, and gene splicing. What does all of this mean?

First, it highlights the consumptive nature of our culture. In an eye-opening book called How Much is Enough?, Alan Durning explains this society-wide trend. "Worldwide, since mid-century the per capita consumption of copper, energy, meant, steel, and timber has approximately doubled; per capita car ownership and cement consumption have quadrupled; plastic use per person has quintupled; per capita aluminum consumption has grown sevenfold; and air travel per person has multiplied by 33 times" (29). 

Second, it means that we don't understand the implications of our actions. None of us understand what it means to purchase an item made of steel or put fertilizer on our land. According to Stuff, "Consumption on the North American scale...is possible only because of chains of production that reach all over the planet. Most of the production, and most of it's impacts, are hidden from view--in rural hinterlards, fenced off industrial sites, and far-off nations" (Ryan and Durning 5).

The Next Step
I read Stuff three years ago. In the time since then, I have learned take my overwhelmed thoughts (what kind of a world do I live in? How can I understand these complex relationships?) and transform them into a more pertinent kind of question: what kind of a world might I live in?

The answer, I believe, is unique to this place. I chose to research an acre of land in the Cannon River region because it is like no other place on earth. Here, we get 31 inches of rain a year, the sun shines 69% of the time it can during the summer, and glaciers provided us with rich soil. The way that I understand this place changes as I learn more about it. This project has been no exception for me, and, I hope, for you. As we "reorient our minds" around this region, we must also look for answers that are unique to this region.

There are several  ways to reduce the inputs needed on a farm, unique to this place because they will all be enacted a little differently here than anywhere else. One possibility is no-till farming, which requires fewer crosses of the land with each piece of equipment. It also eliminates the need for a ripper, cultivator, and stalk shredder. Megan Gregory (34) found that using crop rotation and no-till methods in this area can significantly reduce fossil fuel inputs, because of reduced inputs of fertilizer, pesticides, and fuel. There are, in fact, a handful of people who practice no-till farming in the area (Legvold). A second possibility is organic farming. Organic farms are run in a variety of ways, but all try eliminate chemical inputs (herbicides, insecticides, synthetic fertilizers). It is clear from this project that chemical inputs contribute significantly to the energy, mining, and transportation needed for conventional farming. Organic farms usually involve more human energy as well, which provided by family, interns, and volunteers. This method of farming is also practiced in the Cannon River region. For an overview of Big Woods farm and Valley Creek Community Farm, see Martha Steenberg's project. A third possibility is equipment sharing.  Equipment coops, where farmers share tractors, combines, or attachments, could reduce the scale of equipment production and therefore save resources and energy. The results of such sharing could be significant. In 1982, due to sharing of equipment, the Soviet Union produced almost 50 percent more food per tractor than the United States (Perelman 515). Some sharing is already happening. Cannon Valley Cooperative, for example, applies fertilizer and Roundup® for local farmers who don't have the equipment to do so. Sharing between neighbors could be informally arranged, as is the case with Dave Legvold, a no-till farmer, and his neighbors who rent the necessary planter until they decide to purchase their own.

Conservation tillage (reduced or no-till) will not only reduce inputs, but also reduces soil erosion, increases invertebrate densities in the topsoil, and increases soil moisture (Gregory; Little 376). These are vital considerations when one realizes that 20 lbs of soil erosion are produced for each pound of food consumed in the US (Perelman 515). Organic farming, on the other hand, does include tillage, but cuts back on chemical application. Presently, no-till and organic farming are not considered compatible, but there may be possibilities of the two converging more in the future (Little 379). The decisions that each farmer makes regarding their  practices will be a process of give and take.  The family, location, and crop will all factor in to their decision. However, it is crucial that every farmer does consider the environmental impacts of their farm and take action toward sustainability in some way.

Producers of farm inputs can also think about reducing their ecological footprint.  Freeman, Peirce, and Dodd challenge business leaders to participate in environmental preservation. They suggest that, while it is not easy, there are many steps that businesses can take to "be green" including marketing to the environmental preferences of customers (345). By creating markets for environmentally friendly goods in the Cannon River region, we can influence the world in which we live.

Parting Thoughts
Europeans first started farming in the Cannon River region 150 years ago (Berg 45) without the aid chemicals, engines, or genetically modified plants. When engines became available, farmers used them because it made their life easier. I doubt that anyone would have imagined that it would also lead the restructuring of society and the need for inputs from all corners of the globe.

Yet, we are deliberate creatures. We can think carefully about decisions and act according to their future effects. Now, we must consider what has been presented and make another choice: to continue farming this region in a way that we know is unsustainable, or to work toward another way.  Right now, John Deere is developing a tractor that doesn't need an operator (John Deere "engineering"). The tractor uses a geographic positioning system (GPS) and satellites to navigate the field. This, they hope, will produce straighter rows and save farmers time. Should local farmers adopt this technology? What impact might the operater-less tractors have on the Cannon River community? I will leave you to consider this.

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