Vietnamese Journalists Visit Iowa Farm

Vietnamese journalists talking with farmers, Dean Taylor and Gordon Wassenaar and the Iowa Corn staff.

Vietnamese journalists visited Gordon Wassenaar's farm near Prairie City yesterday to learn more about the practices involved with farming and the benefits of using biotech. Farmers Gordon Wassenaar and Dean Taylor were present to talk with the group about the important practices they use on their farms.  Both farmers have seen many changes throughout their years of farming.  Gordon has been farming for over 50 years and Dean has been farming for over 30.

Gordon near his corn field.

Gordon and Dean talked about how much cleaner our water is today compared to when they first started farming.  They explained that the water is cleaner today due to the reduced amount of chemicals applied to the fields.  Biotech seeds resist insects a lot better, which helps reduce the amount of chemicals the farmer has to apply to his fields to keep the plants healthy.

The journalists were interested in how to tell the difference between non-biotech and biotech crops.  One journalist thought that “baby corn” used in stir fry was biotech because it was small.  Dean and Gordon explained that biotech crops do not look any different than regular crops and that the baby corn was not necessarily biotech.

Following the discussions, the journalists took a short walk to the corn field, which seemed to amaze them with how tall t
he corn was.  Dean and Gordon explained the amount of acres they farm, and it seemed to be a little overwhelming to most of the journalists.  However, Dean and Gordon explained that they don’t farm it all themselves, they hire help or have family members that assist them throughout the planting and harvesting season, plus they have equipment to help speed things along.

The group excited to get a first hand look at the corn.

After the discussions, the journalists were able to get in the equipment, which seemed to be the highlight of the day.  They were amazed with the technology that farmers use to get the crops in and out of the fields each year!