MHP Visits Area Farm For Wellness Learning
Mark Jackson (far left) talks about modern agriculture and how it impacts our everyday lives.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – With fewer people living on or having a direct connection to farms or the farming community, Mark Jackson opened up his farm to share some information about modern agriculture to a group from Mahaska Health Partnership.
Ann Smith, MHP community wellness coordinator, said, “Though we live in a rural community, many of our employees are one or two generations removed from the farm. This opportunity provides an open dialogue with farmers to help answer food-related questions to better our jobs in healthcare and our overall confidence as consumers.”
“From the demonstration of equipment right down to the sandwiches served, this tour will shed light on the impacts of agriculture at home and around the world,” said Smith. “I believe this information has a direct correlation to our goals in providing health and wellness information to our patients and the community.”
Mark Jackson is no stranger to opening up his farm and sharing about modern agriculture and the role it plays in the modern world.
With the drought the area is experiencing, hybrids have helped to mitigate some of the potential losses farmers could experience due to the extremely dry weather.
“Modern agriculture is the key right now to our success of having a crop, that at least we can say we still have a crop. Because first of all, it’s not my grandfather’s agriculture anymore, in so much as I probably plant my crop at least a month earlier than what my grandfather did, partly because he didn’t have the equipment nor the time to get out there in a timely fashion. But I’m able to no-till using technologies, GPS, things like that. Where I place fertilizers precisely within a narrow band, and I don’t have to use all kinds of high impact chemicals, such as that would help stunt the plant as it would have to grow through it. So yeah, modern agriculture is part of the key to our success today,” said Jackson.
The visit allowed individuals to explore wellness beyond the normal conversation, “Sometimes people are tired of hearing about what they need to do for eating and exercise. So we decided to expand that, and talk about the environment and local farming and how that impacts the county when it comes to jobs and food and environment and the land. And then kind of what do farmers do and how are they important to our local society,” said Smith.
