Rethinking the American Family Farm

By NEAL MOORE

CRESCO, IOWA (CNN iReport) ---  I found it interesting that the boyhood farm of Norman Borlaug, the father of the “Green Revolution” and “god” of conventional farming as we know it, now inhabits an organic, sustainable-farming strategy. The Natvigs and Borlaugs have been neighbors for as far back as they can remember, and as a result, they just happen to be related. I spoke with Godfrey Natvig, age 89, former Howard County Soil & Water Commissioner and life-long farmer; Mike Natvig, age 44, quite busy on an organic, sustainable revolution of his own; as well as, Mary Damm, a soil scientist from Indiana University. The answers given -- both from the soil, as well as from a six-generation farming family -- might surprise you.

Photographs by Neal Moore:

#2) Soil Scientist Mary Damm, of Indiana Univeristy. Shown here in her element – the now scarce native tall-grass, virgin prairie of NE Iowa. Shot approximately one mile down the road from the old Borlaug residence, Cresco, Iowa.

#3) Godfrey and Mike Natvig, ages 89 and 44, respectively, seen on their family porch. The Natvigs inhabit their original 160 acre family farm, homesteaded in the 1860s, which adjoins the 110 acre Borlaug farm, a quarter mile down the road.

#4) A soil sample on the Norman Borlaug Farm (left) and a soil sample from the scarce native tall-grass virgin prairie of NE Iowa.

#5) The Norman Borlaug childhood farmhouse and barn, Cresco, Iowa.

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