In this episode of the Iowa Ag Podcast, host David Geiger takes listeners through a personal reflection on the creation of his documentary Journey of a Bean, marking nearly a decade since the project began. David recounts starting the documentary in 2016, early in his broadcast career and still new to agriculture, driven by a simple question: how does a soybean make it around the world?
Without a farming background, David explains how agriculture initially felt complex and inaccessible, despite its central role in everyday life. That gap in understanding fueled his curiosity and ultimately shaped the documentary’s focus on logistics: from farms and rail yards to ports, processors, and grocery shelves. Agriculture, he notes, is logistics, and many of the systems modern society depends on were built to move and preserve food.
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The episode walks through the challenges of producing the documentary independently. David shares stories from filming in Illinois, the West Coast, and South Korea, where U.S. soybeans were processed into traditional foods and served to families half a world away.
Despite setbacks, Journey of a Bean exceeded expectations by capturing the scale of agriculture. David reflects on meeting farmers, transportation workers, processors, and international partners, all connected through shared responsibility. The experience reshaped how he approaches storytelling, reinforcing the value of curiosity, humility, and asking fundamental questions.