John Deere, the world’s largest ag equipment maker and Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer, is now in the Guinness Book of World Records. Last November, Deere’s Project “Can Do” created a full-sized combine made entirely from food at the John Deere Pavilion in Moline, Illinois.

It took more than 308,000 cans of 15 different kinds of food and more than 11,000 bags of popcorn, peas and beans. Guinness says it’s by far the largest sculpture ever built from canned food.

The sculpture, dedicated to America’s farmers, was 60 feet wide, 80 feet long, 16 feet tall and weighed about 170 tons. It took 450 volunteers more than 1,800 hours to build it. The sculpture was dismantled in December and the food was donated to a food bank that serves food pantries in eastern Iowa and western Illinois.

By Phil Roberts, Davenport