Our goal is to share information that helps you make the best food choices for you and your family.

"Congratulations on your 25th anniversary!” said the first email I opened on a recent workday. It was a short message for a big personal milestone, a quarter century as an ag journalist at the Iowa Farm Bureau.

I know it’s rare nowadays to spend an entire career working at the same place. And it’s even rarer to work as an ag editor. Most newspapers and TV stations don’t have the budget anymore to hire food and farm reporters, even in the Midwest.

I’m extremely grateful to all you Farm Bureau members who have supported my work over the years. You understand there’s value in sharing local news about Iowa food and agriculture. 

Here at Family Living, our goal is to share information that helps you make the best food choices for you and your family.

Personally, I’ve seen many changes in Iowa food and farming over the past 25 years. 

Just for fun, I’m giving a few examples of what I believe are the biggest changes during my career.

Precision agriculture. Tractors and farm equipment today are equipped with GPS and precision agriculture technology, which helps farmers manage their fields down to the square inch.

Precision agriculture also helps farmers spoon-feed their plants a precise amount of fertilizer at the right time and in the right place. 

By precisely applying crop protection products, these state-of-the-art technologies reduce the environmental impact of farming and help make farming more sustainable. It also keeps food costs affordable, because it helps farmers grow more food while using less land. (Learn more at www.fb.org/focus-on-agriculture/why-is-precision-agriculture-important.)

Animal care. Today’s livestock barns run like smart homes to keep farm animals safe, healthy and comfortable in all kinds of Midwest weather.

For example, pig farmers use smart farm technology to control the lighting and temperature in the barns, automatically opening or closing ventilation curtains to adjust air circulation.

Farmers also receive alerts on their phone if, for example, in the middle of the night the temperature in the barn isn’t optimal for the pigs.

Conservation progress. Iowa farmers are stepping up to the challenge of improving Iowa’s water quality. 

Iowa now leads the nation in conservation wetlands; pollinator habitat; conservation tillage; grassed waterways; filter and buffer strips; and bioreactors, which naturally filter nutrients from water at the edge of fields. 

There’s still a lot of work to be done, but Iowa farmers are committed to farming sustainably. (Learn more at ConservationCountsIowa.com.)

I’m excited to see what the future brings for Iowa agriculture. I expect even greater changes, likely within the next five years, as precision agriculture and artificial intelligence innovations quickly improve.

Once again, thank you for reading Family Living and for sending me your feedback. Like farmers, I’m always looking to learn and get better.

Admittedly, the hardest part of this job is that my mistakes are often embarrassing and extremely public. 

What keeps me going is the hope that my work might help more little girls (just like me, a long time ago) experience the joy of growing up on an Iowa farm.

Take care,

Teresa Bjork

Editor, Family Living