More old photos: Farming in Iowa

[charby]

Here are some more, 100 years of farming in Iowa.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/picture-gallery/money/agriculture/2014/09/12/100-photos-farming-in-iowa-since-1930/15519849/

[vaskidmark]

All I see are hicks raping Mother Gia.  Or that's what Mother Jones tells me I am seeing.

IIRC that was still when somewhere between 50% - 25% of the population worked directly on feeding the rest of the country.  Now it's less than 1% feeding us and about 15% of the rest of the world while still dumping surplus to keep the prices up.

stay safe.

[KD5NRH]

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/picture-gallery/money/agriculture/2014/09/12/100-photos-farming-in-iowa-since-1930/15519849/

But we gots it so hard if we can't get a parking space within 50ft of the WalMart door, or have to cook our own meal.

[charby]

All I see are hicks raping Mother Gia.  Or that's what Mother Jones tells me I am seeing.

IIRC that was still when somewhere between 50% - 25% of the population worked directly on feeding the rest of the country.  Now it's less than 1% feeding us and about 15% of the rest of the world while still dumping surplus to keep the prices up.

stay safe.

Also yields for corn were under 30 bu/ac before modern hybrids. Same thing could happen again if society collapsed.

[K Frame]

Also yields for corn were under 30 bu/ac before modern hybrids. Same thing could happen again if society collapsed.

Monsanto is murdering us all!

NO CHEMICAL CORN! NO CHEMICAL CORN!\

Or so says one of my freakier FB friends...

[230RN]

Great pix.

Caption on one of them:
"Grasshoppers caused severe damage to corn and soybean crops across Iowa in 1949. Polk County farmer C.J. Trawver examines damage in his corn field north of Des Moines after grasshoppers moved in from a newly harvested alfalfa field. Chlordane or toxaphene, both of which are now banned, were applied at 1 1/2 pounds per acre to control the pests."

I recently found out that seagulls are Utah's State Bird because they moved in when a cricket plague hit and the birds ate 'em all up and saved the harvest.

http://pioneer.utah.gov/research/utah_symbols/bird.html

There's even a monument to them in Temple Square, SLC.

http://ldsimages.org/files/2013/09/mormon-family-history2.jpg

[charby]

Monsanto is murdering us all!

NO CHEMICAL CORN! NO CHEMICAL CORN!\

Or so says one of my freakier FB friends...

hahahhhahahahahaha

Hybrid corn was before the chemical companies showed up. Not hard to do, just takes several generations of inbreeding to make it happen before the crossbreeding.

[Regolith]

Monsanto is murdering us all!

NO CHEMICAL CORN! NO CHEMICAL CORN!\

Or so says one of my freakier FB friends...

You should see the stupid *expletive deleted*ing commercials they're running here in Oregon in support of Measure 92 (requires foods made from GMO to be labeled)...

[Tallpine]

You should see the stupid *expletive deleted*ing commercials they're running here in Oregon in support of Measure 92 (requires foods made from GMO to be labeled)...

I pretty much support farmer and ranchers, but you should hear all the "ag-talk" whining on the radio about the "Big Oil" companies saying that people don't want to buy gas with more and more ethanol in it 

[Unisaw]

I like the 1983 photo of a "smart" tractor with an enormous CPU and tape storage!

Both sides of my family came from Iowa farms.  My maternal grandfather's acreage near Titonka, IA is still farmed by some cousins.

[vaskidmark]

I pretty much support farmer and ranchers, but you should hear all the "ag-talk" whining on the radio about the "Big Oil" companies saying that people don't want to buy gas with more and more ethanol in it 

The more ethenol they put into the gas the more I am inclined to buy it.  I'm just holding out until it hits 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999998%

In the mean time it might be nice if the automotive industry would build engines capable of handling the crap that comes out of the pumps, or better yet if the EPA figured out how much pollution they are causing to be created as part of the bill of goods that is ethenol-enhances gas.

stay safe.

[KD5NRH]

The more ethenol they put into the gas the more I am inclined to buy it.  I'm just holding out until it hits 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999998%

Planning to run a T off the fuel line to a spigot on the dash?

[charby]

You should see the stupid *expletive deleted*ing commercials they're running here in Oregon in support of Measure 92 (requires foods made from GMO to be labeled)...

I can actually agree with the GMO vs non GMO labled foods.

GMO is not selective breeding, it is gene insertion from a different organism into the germ plasm of the food plant. 

They wanted to label hybrid vs open pollinated food, I'd probably tell them to go pound sand.

[Tallpine]

I can actually agree with the GMO vs non GMO labled foods.
...

Oh no - I agree with Charby about something 

[Regolith]

I can actually agree with the GMO vs non GMO labled foods.

GMO is not selective breeding, it is gene insertion from a different organism into the germ plasm of the food plant. 

They wanted to label hybrid vs open pollinated food, I'd probably tell them to go pound sand.

There's already a labeling system in place that works perfectly fine. If your food is non-GMO, you can put a logo on your box saying so. You even get to charge a premium for it.

As it stands, it's fear mongering that's just going to drive the cost of food up, as food manufacturers would have to have a separate packaging line just for Oregon.

[Scout26]

There's already a labeling system in place that works perfectly fine. If your food is non-GMO, you can put a logo on your box saying so. You even get to charge a premium for it.

As it stands, it's fear mongering that's just going to drive the cost of food up, as food manufacturers would have to have a separate packaging line just for Oregon.

Just stop shipping food to Oregon, the problem will fix itself in about a month or two.

[charby]

Just stop shipping food to Oregon, the problem will fix itself in about a month or two.

Oregon exports Barley and Hops, I think they would win.

[K Frame]

hahahhhahahahahaha

Hybrid corn was before the chemical companies showed up. Not hard to do, just takes several generations of inbreeding to make it happen before the crossbreeding.

Hybridizing through crossbreeding they don't seem to have an issue with.

The people I know who are against it are screeching about the gene splicing aspect of it...

[charby]

Hybridizing through crossbreeding they don't seem to have an issue with.

The people I know who are against it are screeching about the gene splicing aspect of it...

Yea, but when hybrid corn seed hit the markets in the 1930's it took a lot of convince the farms to switch from open pollination (collecting their own seed) to purchasing hybrid seed. Hybrids were king by the 1950's, yields finally went from 30 bu/ac to over 100 bu/ac.

[KD5NRH]

As it stands, it's fear mongering that's just going to drive the cost of food up, as food manufacturers would have to have a separate packaging line just for Oregon.

BS; no other states prohibit such labeling.  How many products have some sort of California warning on them already, regardless of where they're being sold?  Hell, a lot of stuff already comes with French labeling and instructions, even in Texas, so obviously they're not overly concerned with area-specific labels.

[K Frame]

Yea, but when hybrid corn seed hit the markets in the 1930's it took a lot of convince the farms to switch from open pollination (collecting their own seed) to purchasing hybrid seed. Hybrids were king by the 1950's, yields finally went from 30 bu/ac to over 100 bu/ac.

Of course it did, just as it takes a lot of convincing to get people to try just about anything new.

This is a different level of concern altogether.

[charby]

Of course it did, just as it takes a lot of convincing to get people to try just about anything new.

This is a different level of concern altogether.

I know, I'm still trying to see how I feel about inserting a gene from bacteria into a plant to make it resistant to a pest.

[Regolith]

BS; no other states prohibit such labeling.  How many products have some sort of California warning on them already, regardless of where they're being sold?  Hell, a lot of stuff already comes with French labeling and instructions, even in Texas, so obviously they're not overly concerned with area-specific labels.

Two things: California is a big enough market to cause every manufacturer to change their labeling for everywhere. Oregon isn't.

Second, the French thing is so that manufacturers can sell both here and in Canada at once. Canada's market is about the size of Cali's (both have ~35+million people, though Cali's GDP is about 2x that of Canada). Again, Oregon isn't going to be enough to convince every single manufacturer in every other state to label ALL of its food that way.