The Conturso family.
A New Jersey couple and their two children are wrapping up a four-day field trip to Iowa.
Nancy Conturso works in the insurance industry in Manhattan and saw an ad in New York’s Times Square for a contest called “Be Our Guest…Be A Farmer.”
As the grand prize winner, Conturso and her family are learning all about Iowa’s agricultural industry and where their food is produced. “We live in a very suburban area and the farm is…I can’t think of anything more opposite of what we experience in our day-to-day life,” she says.
The Conturso family was chosen from among more than 100 entries from 31 states. During the trip, they visited a turkey farm near Ellsworth and a farm near Newton that raises cattle, hogs and grain. They also toured the John Deere plant near Des Moines.
“We’re learning about the farm and farm life and how money is made in farming, how cattle and hogs are grown and at what point farmers get them and at what point they sell them off and how soybeans are grown and corn and how much science is involved in the process,” Conturso says.
The trip concludes today with a visit to the Iowa State Fair.
By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City