Leopold Center - New report explores Iowa's food stories, heritage

Iowa is best known for its corn, soybeans and hogs, but a closer examination reveals many fascinating food stories that feature an array of products once raised here.

A new Leopold Center report explores how the integration of Iowa's history, ecology and culture has created unique food products that may hold economic opportunities for farmers and rural communities in today’s changing markets.

"Iowa has a rich food heritage and many cultural traditions," says Marketing and Food Systems Initiative leader Rich Pirog who wrote the 45-page report. "A reexamination of this heritage may provide potential to create niche markets and new food enterprises tied to rural development and agritourism."

Maps highlight report
Pirog and intern Zach Paskiet document Iowa's food heritage using maps to show historical concentrations of various crops, counties where historical and recent immigrant groups have settled, topographical and ecological features that favor certain kinds of production, and locations of nearly 30 community food festivals. Pirog said he hopes the report fosters more research on place-based foods -- highly differentiated food products with strong ties to where and how they are grown or processed.

"Europe has already started work in this area with the use of certification marks or geographic indications, a type of certification for quality-assured products that originate in a specific region or locale," Pirog said. "Farmers who participate in these markets are receiving premiums for their products. They also have some control over the amount of product that enters the market."

Pirog cited examples such as Radicchio Rosso di Treviso, a type of red chicory grown in Italy"s Veneto region, and Sweden's Hushallsost cheese, a semi-hard cheese made from cow's milk. In the United States, onions grown in a 19-county area around Vidalia, Georgia, are protected with the Vidalia onion certification mark, which is a type of trademark. American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) also define grape-growing regions distinguishable by their geographic features.

Place-based foods, agritourism go together
"In Europe there's a strong link between the marketing opportunities offered by these place-based products and the amount of rural development and agritourism going on in these communities," Pirog said. "Similar efforts are underway in the grape-growing region along Lake Erie in New York and Pennsylvania and in southeastern Missouri along the Mississippi River. With development, Iowa could do the same."

Although the report looks at Iowa's food history, Pirog suggests using the information to build Iowa's future.

"This report is not a call for Iowa to return to its earlier agricultural heritage by competing with other states in producing an array of conventional foodstuffs," he said. "We were looking at what is unique and different in Iowa that we can capitalize on in today's marketplace."

Georgia may be home to the sweet Vidalia onion, but Iowa can boast some of the sweetest, juiciest melons.

As a special project of the Leopold Center's Marketing and Food Systems Initiative, consultant Sue Futrell and ISU Extension farm management specialist Craig Chase looked at the Muscatine melon and its 120-year history of production in southeastern Iowa. They also looked at ways to capitalize on the geographic identity of one of Iowa’s most popular crops and support producers in a fast-changing market.

Two areas in Muscatine County are well-suited for growing melons -- the Muscatine Island area along the Mississippi River that is protected by levees built in 1845, and along the Cedar River valley near Conesville. The soil is sandy and well-drained, groundwater is close to the surface and the melons and other produce grown there are sought-after throughout Iowa and beyond.

In 1921, 750 carloads of watermelons grown on 2,000 acres of land and 100 carloads of muskmelons grown on 500 acres were shipped from Muscatine County. The 2002 Census of Agriculture showed only 12 commercial growers producing muskmelons and watermelons on 107 acres in Muscatine County.

"Economic analysis suggests that melon farming in Muscatine County can still be profitable, but increasing labor costs, price competition from imports and limited shelf-life and processing options present significant challenges for producers," the report states. "Without a marketing program that builds on the unique qualities and identity of this traditional crop, melon production most likely will continue to decline in southeast Iowa."