There’s a word that explains a lot about modern agriculture, even if Merriam-Webster hasn’t caught up yet: chickenization. It’s what happens when animals become “widgets,” farms become factories, and power quietly shifts from thousands of farmers to a handful of corporations.

In this season finale of At the Iowa Farm Table, Beth Hoffman digs into how chicken went from luxury to dollar-menu staple, and what we lost along the way. Journalist and author Christopher Leonard traces the rise of vertically integrated poultry and the contract system that keeps farmers under someone else’s thumb. Former U.S. Senator Tom Harkin reflects on how federal policy helped supercharge “efficiency,” and what that really cost rural communities.

Then we head back to the Midwest to meet two very different kinds of poultry operations charting another path.

We won’t solve chickenization in a 20 minute podcast. But we do ask a pointed question: if cheap meat comes with sick soils, hollowed-out towns, and stressed-out farmers, is it really efficient?

Voices

* Senator Tom Harkin—The Harkin Institute

* Christopher Leonard—The Meat Racket, @cleonardnews, watchdogwritersgroup.com (watch full interview here)

* Jason Grimm—Grimm Family Farm

* Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin—Tree Range Farms (watch full interview here)

Resources

* New Study Highlights Benefits of the Partnership Between Contract Farmers and Chicken Companies—National Chicken Council

* 2024 Americans’ Views on Business Survey

* The Cost of Money and Commercial Poultry Growing

Special thanks to our guests Christopher Leonard, Tom Harkin, Jason Grimm, and Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin for their insight. And to Mallory DeVries and Anrica Deb for their thoughtful editing throughout this episode. Thanks to Meghan Holloran for supporting our social media and promotional work this season.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit attheiowafarmtable.substack.com

This week on At the Iowa Farm Table, learn more about how and where your food is raised!

Beth Hoffman and Amanda Severson chat about their cattle businesses and how they raise meat differently than what you typically buy in the supermarket. They discuss current political trends and how the nutrition of the meat they raise differs from cattle raised on corn.

You can learn more about Amanda Severson and her family at https://www.grandviewbeef.com/ and on instagram @grandviewbeef

Beth Hoffman runs Whippoorwill Creek Farm with her husband—find them at iowa-farm.com and @whippoorwill_creek_farm on Instagram.

Thanks for listening to the At the Iowa Farm Table Podcast! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support the work of the Iowa Food System Coalition.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit attheiowafarmtable.substack.com

What’s going on in farm country?

China, which normally buys half of America’s soybean crop, hasn’t bought a bean. Corn prices are dragging below the cost of production. Wheat and hogs? Also in the tank.

Across the Midwest, people are whispering—and in some cases shouting—that we might be headed for another farm crisis, the likes of which Iowa last saw in the 1980s.

To get perspective, I turned to Sarah Vogel. She’s an attorney, advocate, and author of The Farmer’s Lawyer, the memoir that chronicles the landmark Coleman v. Block class action lawsuit. As a young lawyer and single mother in the 1980s, she took on the federal government on behalf of 240,000 farmers facing foreclosure.

Later, she made history again as the first woman ever elected Commissioner of Agriculture in the United States, serving two terms in North Dakota.

After five decades fighting for farmers, Vogel’s perspective on this moment cuts through the noise. We talk about what she’s seeing on the ground, how federal policy is failing rural America, and what it takes to keep fighting for a fair food system.

At the Iowa Farm Table is brought to you by the Iowa Food System Coalition. We invite you to stay connected to the latest in Iowa’s food system news: subscribe to our newsletter for timely news, action alerts, and event updates, all focused on supporting local farms and communities. Sign up today and never miss a bite!

Edited by Mallory DeVries.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit attheiowafarmtable.substack.com

In recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day (October 13th in Iowa), we hear from two Indigenous women residing in Iowa and learn how shifting our perspective can help bring us back into balance with the natural world.

Featured Voices

* Marianna G. M. Cota, MPH — Ecologist, dreamweaver, heartist, disruptor, folklorist, and public health scholar with Yoeme/Yaqui, Kapampangan/Filipino, and Mexican lineage. Marianna is the dreamer behind INDIGENEXUS, inviting others to develop and maintain relationships with the creative and spiritual aspects of their being.

* Zine: Beauty All Around Us, a community-led project featuring indigenous youth perspectives.

* Sikowis Nobiss, BA, MA — Founder of Great Plains Action Society, which addresses the trauma that Indigenous Peoples and the Earth face through community engagement, civic engagement, mutual aid, rematriation, and healing justice.

* Nobiss works closely with the Honor Native Land Fund, an opportunity for non-Native people living in the Midwest to contribute to the rematriation of land to Indigenous stewardship. Through supporting land return, participants in HNLF acknowledge that we live on Indigenous homelands while taking practical steps toward repair.

* You can also join the Decolonial Repair Network to dive deeper.

Stay in the Loop

Stay connected to the latest in Iowa’s food system news. Subscribe to the Iowa Food System Coalition’s newsletter for timely news, action alerts, and event updates, all focused on supporting local farms and communities. Never miss a bite!

🎧 Produced by the Iowa Food System Coalition. Edited by Mallory DeVries.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit attheiowafarmtable.substack.com

Iowa schools spend millions feeding kids — in effect, they’re the largest restaurants in the state. But here’s the catch: most of those tax dollars don’t stay in Iowa. When food is trucked in from across the country and contracts go only to national corporations, local farms and rural communities lose out.

In this replay of our very first episode, we dig into the real economics of school lunch. You’ll hear how the now-defunded Local Food for Schools program changed what ended up on kids’ trays, why school districts’ purchasing power shapes what farmers grow, and what’s at stake in bills like HF 851 and SF 525.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit attheiowafarmtable.substack.com

Iowa’s food system has been engineered into sameness. This episode explores how diversification—of crops, markets, and farmers—could reshape the Corn Belt and prove that Food Grows Iowa.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit attheiowafarmtable.substack.com

Iowa’s nitrate levels have hit historic highs, forcing lawn watering bans, swim advisories, and costly cleanups. A new report — the Central Iowa Source Water Research Assessment (CISWRA) — confirms what many Iowans already know: agriculture is driving the problem, and solutions can’t wait.

So what can you do about a challenge this big?

In this episode, host Beth Hoffman sits down with Dr. Adam Shriver, Director of Wellness and Nutrition at the Harkin Institute and leader with the Iowa Food System Coalition, to break down four concrete steps we can all start taking today.

💡 The acronym is IDEA:

* Inform — Learn the facts about water quality and share them in your community. Join groups already working on solutions.

* Discover — Use free nitrate test kits to map water contamination through citizen science.

* Eat — Support diverse, local farms by buying food directly from farmers and food hubs. Every purchase builds viable markets for change.

* Ask — Landowners: include conservation practices in leases to protect soil and water for the long term.

These aren’t quick fixes, but they’re real actions that create momentum for cleaner water, healthier communities, and stronger farms.

🔗 Resources

* CISWRA Report

* Executive Summary

* Additional Resources & Recordings

* Izaak Walton League – Nitrate Watch program

* Request a Kit

* Iowa Food System Coalition

* Setting the Table for All Iowans plan

* Environmental Stewardship Chapter

* Water Quality Groups

* Practical Farmers of Iowa

* Iowa Farmers Union

* Iowa CCI

* Iowa Environmental Council

📬 Got an IDEA of your own? Share it with us! What’s happening in your corner of Iowa that can inspire others to keep going?

Stay in the Loop

Stay connected to the latest in Iowa's food system news. Subscribe to our newsletter for timely news, action alerts, and event updates, all focused on supporting local farms and communities. Sign up today and never miss a bite!

Thank you to Adam Shriver. Mallory DeVries edited. Meghan Holloran assisted media production. Music by Chris Schwartz and Lobo Loco.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit attheiowafarmtable.substack.com

Hosted by Chris Schwartz, Executive Director of Iowa Food System Coalition | Think downstream!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit attheiowafarmtable.substack.com

Cheese curds. Goat cheese. Ice Cream. Beverages.

At the Iowa State Fair, the Iowa Quality Dairy Products Competition showcases the best dairy products in the state, from small family creameries to large-scale brands that are investing in Iowa.

In this episode, we follow Heather Moore of Moore Family Farms in Maquoketa as she enters her cheese curds in one of the fair’s most competitive categories. We go behind the scenes at Iowa State University for judging day, hear from founder Stephanie Clark on how Iowa’s dairy industry is growing at both ends of the spectrum, and find out what this contest reveals about the future of farming in our state.

Featured Voices

* Heather Moore – Dairy farmer and cheesemaker at Moore Family Farms in Maquoketa, Iowa.

* Stephanie Clark – Iowa State University Emeritus Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition; founder of the Iowa Quality Dairy Products Competition.

* Danielle Christofferson – Production Manager at the Iowa State Creamery and organizer of the dairy competition.

Dairy Competition Winners

Cultured Products

* Hinterland Dairy Quark - Original

* Hinterland Dairy Quark - Garlic & Herb

* Woods, Zach French Onion Dip

Cheese Curds

* WW Homestead Dairy - White Cheddar Cheese Curds

* Hinterland Dairy - Original Curds

* WW Homestead Dairy - Pizza White Cheddar Cheese Curds

Cow Milk Cheese

* Hinterland Dairy - Hoppin' Jalapeno Cheddar

* WW Homestead Dairy - Chipotle Morita

* Hinterland Dairy - Brooks Place Aged Alpine Cheddar

Goat Milk Cheese

* Korver, Justin - Cranberry Spice Swirl

* Smith, Diana - Chevre

* Smith, Diana - Cheddar

Dairy Beverages

* Country View Dairy - Chocolate Whole Milk

* Woods, Zach - 1% Buttermilk

* Woods, Zach - 36% Heavy Whipping Cream

Ice Cream/ Gelato

* Country View Dairy - Muddy Buddy Frozen Yogurt

* Korver, Justin - Wildberry Lemonade

* Korver, Justin - Chocolate

Best of Show

Country View Dairy - Muddy Buddy Frozen Yogurt

Stay in the Loop

Stay connected to the latest in Iowa's food system news. Subscribe to our newsletter for timely news, action alerts, and event updates, all focused on supporting local farms and communities. Sign up today and never miss a bite!

Make the Iowa Local Food PromiseJoin Iowans across the state in committing a portion of your food budget to food grown right here in Iowa. The Iowa Local Food Promise is a simple way to support local farmers, strengthen our communities, and keep fresh, nutritious food on our plates. Make the Promise →

Very special thanks this week to Danielle Christofferson, Stephanie Clark, Heather Moore, and the judges at ISU. Mallory DeVries edited. Meghan Holloran assisted media production. Music by Chris Schwartz and Lobo Loco.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit attheiowafarmtable.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit attheiowafarmtable.substack.com