Farmscape: Documenting the Changing Rural Environment

Iowa State creative writing students document the American farmscape through interviews with people involved in changes in how we grow our food and live our lives in the rural United States. You'll take delight in a sip of Zinfandel at a new winery and savor the taste of organic vegetables on a truck on its way to the local farmer's market. You'll make a stop at a bed and breakfast and Hispanic cultural center and gaze out the window at restored wetlands and prairie. You'll also suit up in protective clothing before entering a hog confinement and you'll watch chickens move quickly down a conveyor belt at an IBP slaughtering plant. You'll experience the David and Goliath story of a family farmer up against the economic forces of the 3,500-acre agribusiness operation next door. In the end, you'll understand that farming completely changed the ecosystem of the prairie. Part of the 4th Annual Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness, and the Creative Imagination.