Some more of Scattergood and Stutsman

Yesterday there are a couple of things that I missed out. First, Mr Tom (the former Executive Director of Council for International Visitors Iowa Cities, CIVIC who retired a couple of months ago) took us around and always eager to tell things about the history and small details of things that we saw whilling passing by.

Second, in the school at Scatergood we also had lunch and they begin with a silent prayer when everyone sitting around a table hold each others hand. The other thing at Scattergood is Mr Mark (the perosn in charge of the school farms as also their literature teacher) who referred to a philosopher cum writer and also farmer Wendell Berry and that how farmers are increasingly with the choice to choose between their neighnbour and his farm lands and they choose the latter though it would be humane to do the former. This is the irony of our times.  And of course, the slight drizzle while we were walking across the farm and the symbiotic relationship that Mr Mark had with his plants and animals brought the humane concerns back.

Third, Mr Roger Stutsman did mention about his perspective on the food security and how some people may blame them for selling corn to ethanol producers, but then the waste after ethanol is produced gets back as cattle feed and suffices the protein requirement for cattle. As a cattle farmer he did lament the need for food safety requirement and said that many things are beyond their control though they follow all practises laid down by federal as well as state requirements. He did say that people should reduce consumption of raw meat.

Fourth, is the hotel Best Western or Longbranch. It was a nice experience after Hyatt at Sacramento.  My room key was smoth. The room had a microwave and refrigerator that I do not use them but the possibility that I can buy some juice and keep in my room is always a nice feeling. Most importantly it has the business centre from where I can write about my experiences here. It is a little out of the way but has a nice neighbourhood.

Fifth, in the evening we went to the Czech village. The museum was flooded in 2008 and they are working on relocating it to a higher place. There was some small festival and tried some Czech cupcape and muffine - they were yummy.

In the evening, Firoz from Bangladesh and I went over to the Longbranch restaurant and had some fish and then went to Best Buy to inquire about laptops and I also recharged my mobile. Later in the night I sat and wrote down my blogs which I had not done for a few days. Today we start at 11 am as it is drizzling.

(The main thing about yesterday is in my previous blog, see below).  

Scattergood school and the Stutsman farm

The Scattergood Friends School is an interesting place. It is perhaps one of its kind that allows students to grow most of the food that it consumes and everything is grown in an organic way. The teacher in charge, Mr Mark took us around the farm. And you could see the personal effort that he has been taking whether it is the tomoatoes and corriander, the greenhouse, the experiment that the bilogy students are conducting, the sheep and the lamb  who have been bottle fed. The princples of equality were followed in the school - everyone called everyone in their first names. The meeting area of the school did not have a space for a minister all sat around and the day began for everybody with 15 minutes of silence. One of the ethos of the school is non-violence, a Quaker ethos who have founded the school. It was so satisfying to see Gandhiji's wrting on seven social sins in the school library. This was first published in Young India on 22 October  1925 and I quote from the link given abov.They are

• Politics without Principle
• Wealth Without Work
• Pleasure Without Conscience
• Knowledge without Character
• Commerce without Morality
• Science without Humanity
• Worship without Sacrifice

An eighth one added by Arun Gandhi is:

• Rights Without Responsibility

They are so relvant even in today's world.

Visit to the Stutsman,  a distribution  company on equipment, inputs and livestock feed revealed that they had agricultural roots and still continue to do some farming. The roots of this company goes back to the depression when Mr Eldon Stutsman was pulled out of school to help his father who was going to loose his earnings a second time. The buying and selling of livestock feed and other inputs for people in the neighborhood slowly grew into a big business.

Mr Roger, son of Mr Eldon  who took us around the firm first then took to his land where they grown corn in 2000 acres (shared equally by three brothers, they usually roatate and  grow some soyabean to address soil fertility management), but because of good corn prices this year all their land is for one crop only and it is beiing produced for ethanol. The whole cultivation is managed by two people on a full time  basis and another three people during peak time. The process is fully mechanized. 

They also own some cattle (for meat) which they manage at the seond stage. The first stage is to feed them grass which requires large tracts of land. But in the seond stage when the cattle are a year old they are fed corn (which now is a by-product after ethanol  production) with some  other ingredient for four months and for which they have created some hoopsheds. About 900 cattle and some sheep are grown under the supervion of a single person employed by them.

Cultivation of some organic vegetables is being managed by their daughter-in-law after their son passed away (our prayers are with him). There are political intereests in the family. Ms Sally, his wife, plans  to contest for the state legislature from a new district. All  the best.