Khrushchev & Garst

The Diplomats

Iowa Corn Field (The Kinnick Project, N.d.) 

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev

When Stalin suddenly died in 1953, First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev assumed leadership of the USSR and immediately had to deal with widespread Cold War food shortages caused by drought and economic policies that favored industry over agriculture.

         "There will be no communism if our country has as much metal and cement as you like             but meat and grain are in short supply."

-Nikita Khrushchev in a 1954 address (Michigan State University, 1954)

In response, Khrushchev, who started life as a peasant in a poor agricultural region of the Ukraine, became  obsessed with corn production to feed the starving  Soviet people. In 1954, Khrushchev created an ongoing nationwide corn campaign that used propaganda to  promote growing corn as the key to ending Soviet hunger.

"Khrushchev holding an ear of corn at a conference in 1957."  (Michigan State University, 1957)

               "Make way for the Corn."              (Michigan State University, 1955)

"Hybrid  seeds are the rule for high corn harvests." (Michigan State University, 1956)

"Corn is a priceless treasure." (State Publishing House, Tajik SSR, 1963)

"What Khrushchev’s real story was, was that he wanted protein. He had wheat, he had grain, he had something to make porridge out of but what he really wanted was protein like meat, milk, and eggs. How do you get meat, milk, and eggs? We do it with the grain. So protein was the real story in that case. He just wanted a much better diet for his people."

-Liz Garst, Roswell Garst's granddaughter (Personal interview, 3 Jan. 2022)

Roswell Garst

Simultaneously across the globe, Iowa agricultural businessman Roswell Garst held the answers to Khrushchev's problem. Garst had an innovative mind for advancing agriculture with new techniques and technology, such as applying fertilizer, using corn cobs for cattle feed, growing hybrid seed corn, and erecting sorghum drying buildings. His ideas were rapidly adopted by farmers in Iowa and became the foundation of an unlikely diplomatic friendship formed from a 1955 agricultural exchange. 

(The Des Moines Register, 8 Nov. 1977)

"Roswell Garst examines an ear of corn on his experimental plot at his Coon Rapids, Iowa farm."  (TASS, 9 Sept. 1959)

Garst & Thomas Hybrid Corn Company (Munroe, Iowa State University Archives,  23 Sept. 1959)

"[Garst and Khrushchev] were really quite alike. They were both big idea men who were absolutely passionate about agriculture and food production."

-Liz Garst, Roswell Garst's granddaughter  ("Citizen Diplomacy Through Corn," 2009)

                          Hybrid grain                           (Garst & Thomas Seed Corn Co., N.d.) 

"In my opinion, the best way to learn how to get on peacefully with anyone is to get acquainted and start doing business with them—business of mutual advantage."

(Memo: Roswell Garst to All Salesmen Everywhere, Iowa State University Special Collections and University Archives, 10 Dec. 1955)