Harvest of Change

Tassel-topped stalks across the Midwest corn belt await a harvest of grain that will fuel your car with ethanol, feed livestock that becomes your dinner steak or be processed into foods lining shelves at your supermarket.

In the lush fields of a Page County farm in southwest Iowa, tooth-like white corn kernels almost ready for harvest are aimed at a specific audience: people who don't want to eat food that's been genetically modified.

It's the first season the Dammann family farm, based here for six generations, has decided to target its crop to the demand of that niche market.

Consumers' increasing desire to know where their food comes from and how it is grown is prompting large-scale farms to adjust to more food-conscious markets, following the path of smaller operations that sell directly to customers.

"We now have an engaged public that is reconnecting and thinking about food," said Matt Russell, policy project coordinator at Drake University's Agricultural Law Center in Des Moines. "That opens up a whole political process and a market process that makes industrial agriculture more responsive."

This change is one of the tremendous shifts sweeping agriculture in Iowa and across the USA.

•The age of farmers continues a 30-year climb that puts the average at 58.3 years — more than 20 years older than the national median age.

•Technology, while making physical tasks easier, allows each farmer to handle more acres or more livestock. The downside: a trend toward ever-larger operations that squeeze out smaller farms. Sixty-six percent of all agricultural products sold in 2012 were produced by the largest 4% of U.S. farms, according to the U.S. census of agriculture.

•More minority farmers are changing the face of American agriculture. Among 2.1 million principal farm operators in 2012, almost 8% were minorities, according to the agriculture census. Farms operated by Hispanics, which made up the largest minority group, saw a 21% increase over five years.

•Climate change causes more intense and frequent flooding, droughts, hurricanes and tornadoes. Experts predict climate change will increase the pests, weeds and diseases that farmers battle to bring food to the table and trigger decreased yields or even the economic shock of crop failures.

Amid all the challenges, farmers find lucrative markets shaped by shifting consumer tastes. Farmers markets, where consumers can interact directly with the growers of their food, expanded steadily in the USA from 1994 to 2014, almost quintupling to 8,268, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In 2012, fresh fruits and vegetables sold directly to consumers were a $1.3 billion industry, up 8% since 2007, the census found. That same year, organic food sales reached about $27 billion, according to the USDA, up from $11 billion in 2004.

Consumers around the world, including an expanding middle class in China, drive demand for American exports, an opportunity to increase income for American producers and feed the world's growing population. A worldwide market also exposes American farmers to global crises — and global opinions.

For the first time this fall, the Mexican-based processing company where the Dammanns and other southwest Iowa farmers send their corn will accept only corn grown from seed that hasn't been genetically modified, said Scott Roberts, national procurement manager for Minsa. The company, which has mills in Texas and Iowa, aims to reach more European markets and the growing U.S. market for food not derived from genetically modified organisms.

"The demand seems to be there," Roberts said. "The non-GMO, I think, is going to meet the sort of market out there that can't afford organic, but yet they still want to be able to see it on a label or know that it's non-GMO. We're just trying to get ahead of the market."

Genetically modified seeds contain DNA modified to express a trait such as resistance to a pest, an environmental condition or a chemical. American farmers have embraced genetically modified crops, and exhaustive research has not found safety issues. This year, 93% of the corn growing in the USA comes from genetically modified seeds.

Concern over potential unforeseen consequences has led some consumers to resist food derived from genetically engineered plants. European countries have largely rejected GMOs.

Minsa's directive for the crop this fall led the Dammanns to plant 2,400 of their 4,200 tillable acres in food-grade corn that has not been genetically modified.

Growing this corn after years of planting genetically modified strains poses challenges, the Dammanns say. The yield is slightly lower, and they have to use a different cocktail of herbicide than usual, since the non-genetically modified corn isn't resistant to Roundup, the chemical used by conventional farmers to eradicate weeds.

Justin Dammann, owner and operator of the Dammann family farm, said he doesn't care whether demand for non-genetically modified food is founded in science or politics or is just a fad.

"What was in yesterday is out," he said, "but we've got to keep up with all that, because we're raising what people want to buy and eat."

Jackson reports for The Des Moines Register.