Special Report

SHP ‘Educator’ winner seeks more things to teach

Eastern Iowa farmers John and Joan Maxwell are the Soil Health Partnership Exceptional Educator Award winners. The Donahue, Iowa couple tell the story of what’s happening on their farm to everyone, from local kindergarten students to visitors from Brazil.

“We see about 7,000 people on our farm, about 3,000 kids,” Maxwell told Brownfield Ag News at the Soil Health Summit in St. Louis. “We’re wanting to educate the consumer as to the food being safe, the food being nutritious.”

Maxwell tells Brownfield he and his wife Joan share how Cinnamon Ridge, a successful dairy and crop farm, can sustainability produce food while caring for the land.

“You’ve got this whole world in front of you and you just keep educating and every day you get up and if you got one more, you’re one more ahead,” said Maxwell.

Along with teaching visitors on his farm, Maxwell enjoys attending conferences from which he can get new ideas to make his farm more sustainable.

“I learn, I go back to the farm, I practice them,” he said. “Some of them work for me, some of them don’t, and the ones that work for me then I educate myself enough that I can teach it.”