Traveling Through the Heartland

By Corinne Beda, FarmShare Staff


My husband and I just returned from a road trip to Colorado driving through the heartland of the United States on US 30, “The Lincoln Highway”. What an incredible journey! 

There weren’t many “attractions” but we did see a lot of country. In Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska there were corn and soybean fields that stretched to the horizon. Cattle grazing in open fields became more numerous in Nebraska. Many times we were the only car on the road surrounded by nothing but farms and fields. Every so often we’d come to a town, some tiny, only 400 residents or so, and some bigger, 4,000 residents. Regardless of size, they all had two things in common – grain silos and railroad tracks (symbols of our globalized food system). We also saw signs extolling the virtues of renewable energy (from ethanol and soy products, of course). And the wind farms! Did you know that Iowa is the second largest producer of wind power? Nebraska has its share as well.

Every so often we’d come across a road side stand in the middle of nowhere with farmers selling some of their vegetables: corn, of course, and lots of pumpkins, squashes, tomatoes, beans, and edamame. When we arrived in Boulder, where my in-laws live, there were farmers markets and stalls set up in parking lots of shopping centers. We bought fresh peaches and my new favorite, roasted peppers. Everywhere we went in Boulder, eating locally and organic or sustainable was at the forefront. Restaurants served grass-fed beef and made a point of stating that many of their vegetables came from local farmers. Local, organic, recycled, biodegradable and sustainable were common topics among everyone we talked to.

On a sad note, as we traveled through Iowa we saw the devastation that still remained from September’s flooding. There were sandbags along Route 30 to protect the road and parts of other highways were totally destroyed by the water. We saw what we thought was part of a small lake or river along the road until we realized there were telephone poles and power lines running across the middle of it. Entire roads and fields were still under water weeks after the floods.

This country is so beautiful and diverse. I’m glad we’re taking the time to see it up close and to sample it’s bounty. It sure looks different than the tiny patches of green and brown that we spy from an airplane window. Flyover country – bah!  Folks that say that just don’t know what they’re missing.