captioning sponsored by wnet >> thompson: on this edition for saturday, october 12: the latest acting director of homeland security steps down; and in our signature segment, we continue our "future of food" series with a look at what farmers in iowa are doing to help grow more sustainae practices for the future. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milsteinh athe j.p.b. foun. rosalind p. walter, in memory of george o'neil. barbara hope zuckerberg. ro corporate funding isded

by mutual of america, designing cupomized individual and gr retirement products. that's why we're you c retiremepany. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation fued by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, megan thompson. >> thompson: good evening, and thanks for joining us. the trump administration's acting secretary of homeland security, kevin mcaleenan, resigned last night. president trump made the surprise announcement on twitter saying, "kevin, now, after many years in government, wants to spend more time with his family and go to the private sector." mcaleenan, the president's fourth homeland security secretary, was appointed just six months ago. on monday, protestors against the administration's immigratioo

cies forced mcaleenan off stage before he could speak at georgetown law school. joining me now for more on this youngs, homeland security ka reporter for the "new york times."t i wanted to fik you about accomplishments.re, his i mean, during his six months on the job he largely delivered what presidentrump wanted on the southern border, right? >> yes, i mean, you have to remember the time which kevin mceenan assumed theition as the head of the department of homeland security. kirsten neilsen had just been pushed out by the president who was infuriate oaferred the number of border crossingss occurring athe southwest border. in may there were about 144-- more than 144,000 enforcementhe actions atouthwest border. now look at where we are. those apprehensions have aclined by more than 60%. things have relatively cald down at the border.

but, at the same time, there was friction between him and the president and white house adviser stephen miller, known as the architect of the preimsidens gration agenda. in the end, kevin mcaleenan, while he did bring border crossings down, he did have-- he did twike issue some of the initiatives that others around him wanted to puh. k athompson: can you ta what are some of tout that? initiatives that he was a little more resistant to during his time? t >> well, you marm earlier this year there was a push by-- particularly the white house, as well as mark morn who was leading ice at the time, is now leading customs and border protection, to launch a nationde sweep-up of migrant families who had recently crossed the border, the ice raids that-- as they were called at that time. behind closed doors, kevin mcaleenan didn't want that to happen. the idea that the president woul cut state department aid to central american countries,

this was c somebody-- kevin mcaleenan-- who believed in addressing the root causes of the reasons of which people leave central american countries. he believed in state department aid and was disappointed when that was cut. at the same time, kevin mcaleenan didversee the department of homeland security when some of the more aggressive initiatives were implemented and expanded >> thompson: he was an acting secretary. he was never nominated for full confirmation. department of homeland securitye to be without a permanent head for so long? >> not just himeither. you have to look. so, the hed of the department of homeland secuty-- him, u.s.cg position. mark morgan, the head of customr and borotection, acting position. head of ice right now, matt albet, acting position. when you talk to career officials in the agency, it has created a sen where there is an instability of leadership

right now. and, remember, we're also talk dignity.h.s. and d.h.s. was created in the wake of the sept aber 11 attack it was not created to be solely a-- immigrati enforcement agency, which many would say is what it has become and it is responsible for many things outside of that, whether it be cyber-security, disaster relief, as well as securing the country and information sharing in regards to terrorism. >> nawaz: any ideas about who might be tappedext for the homeland security job? >> there are a lot of names that ve been floated i mean, it'll known that individuals like kent cuccinell and mark morgan diseparate rhetoric that pleases the president. let's remember how they got the job. they went on fox ws and advocated for the president's policies. act that we thought would becy strictly followed. however, we've been told that there werrules changed by the white house with the cooperation of senior homeland security officials to make it so that it would not need to go to the next

person in line. that would be, right now, david pecowski, deputy sretary, who is in an acting position. the president is going to choose who he is going to choose.l i can tel you, however, whoever he does choose, i think it will be a we hile befhat person is nominated, if he is nominated all. >> thompson: zolannk kanno-youngs tou so much for being with us. > es>> thompson: for the latt on the louisiana governor's race,or visit www.pbnewshour. >> thompson: the state of iowa america's leading corn producer, and second-largest producer of soybeans. but fears that its practices are not sustainable havebuead to a smalgrowing movement toward both traditional and new techniqueso ensure its farms are productive far into the future. newshour weeke special correspondent mark bittman has our story, which is part of our "future of food" series with support om the pulitzer center.

>> reporter: it's 90 degrees, a typical july day in iowa. >> alfalfa was planted this spring, the same time i was planting oats. >> reporter: sam bennett is a sixth-generation farmer. his family's been on this land in northwest iowa since 1883. like most farmers here, he grows mainly corn and soybeans. but today, bennett is showing close to 100 fellow farmers some big changes he's making on his land. going to harvest looks like the rye will be ready before the oats. we have about 2,000 acres altogether on our farm. we've started integrating small grains like oats and rye into our rotation, too, and those really aren't crops that are found really anywhere in iowa. there'not a lot of acres of those. >> reporter: this practice of growing a variety of crops--ki a break from the corn and soy beans-- is called"ie diverscrop rotations." bennett says he plants these crops closer together so there are more of them. soil, which improvoil andthe

water quality. >> i think my dad comes from a generation that if you work harder, you'll be more ccessful. and i think what i'd like to say in my generaon is that if you work smarter, you'll be more successful. and taking on me of these newer practices, some of these sustainable practices, is working smarter. >> reporter: on most farms, you'll see soy growing in at, clean rows. is growing alongside cereal rye. the rye fills in places where weeds would otherwise grow, reducing the need for herbicides. this rye is a "cover crop," planted in the fall to protect the fields over the winter when they'd otherwise be bare. keeping roots in the ground limits soil erosion and attracts earthworm activity, improving the health of the soil. >> this cover crop is building soils. our earth worms are happy. there's an earthworm hole. >> reporter: this event is called a "field day." it's a chance for farmers to

learn about bennett's sustainable practices. >> i think everybody is always watching me across the fence. call every spring. phone one guy calls me up and says, "what e you doing?" reporter: is he challenging you, or is he digging for info to figure out what he should be doinom >> oh,of both. i've heard guys say, "why is esur field so weedy?" maybe some of guys, foey've never seen a cover crop field like that . so, i don't know, i ng those as badges on my chest, i guess, that people are inrested in what i'm doing. >> reporter: it's a pretty significant shift from the status quo. 23 mlion acres-- some 75% of iowa's farand-- is used to grow corn and soybeans, most all industrial agriculsingnown as expensive equipment and a massive amount of emical feilizers and pesticides. those two crops are highly subsidized by the deral government to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year. and corn and soy are mostly grown to produce ethanol and

animal feed. the remainder that's eaten by humans is mostly in the form of junk food. sarah carlson is the strategic initiatives director at practical farmers of iowa, or p.f.i. >> nature doesn't like all that specialization, right. nature wants chaos. nature wants diversity. >> reporter: p.f.i. is a farmer- led non-profit organization that researches conservation practices, shares the findings with its members like sam bennett, and then gets them to spread the word to other farmers. when people think of iowa, the than corn and soybeans.ch more is that a problem? or, if it is, why is that a problem? e so, because of the cropping system that we hday where we just plant two crops for abt six months out of the year, we have no rootse ground in the wintertime. and so, we have a lot of chance for water to take poll

r to nearbboy wadi >> reporester: p.ollutants calld nitrates, found naturally in soil and also ntained in fertilizers, have contaminated iowa's drinking water pply. it's costing hundreds of millions of dollars to clean it up. flooding because we aren't flash holding water on the landscape like we used to. >> reporter: record flooding earlier this year ft swaths of farmland throughout the midwest too wet to plant, threatening many farmers' livelihoods. >> so, there's just a whole host of externalities because of thep two ystem. >> reporter: meanwhile farmers' practices are slowly starting to change thanks to more awareness, government incentives, and training by groups like the practical farmers. its membership has more than doubled in the last seven years; and the use of cover crops has surged in this state, tripling over the last five years to around 900,000 acres today. carlson points out that,

ironically, many of thesepr tices used to be common. industrial farming of corn and soy is actually a relatively new enomenon. >> we haven't always looked like this. ev three decades ago, farmersou in this area have been growing small grains in rotatiod corn and some soybeans. >> iowa used tproduce a huge amount of horticultural crops. so, it produced apples and grapesnd tomatoes. >> reporter: matt liebman is a professor of agronomy and researcher at iowa s university. so, the iowa lascape began to transform dramatically in the 20th century. and with development of farm chemicals and machinery, crop rotations got much less diverse, and enormous increases in productivity took place. and that's what we're living with today-- highly mechanized, extremely specialized, highly productive,

narrow diversity system. >> reporter: this highly mechanized system is depleting nutrient-rich layer.most about half of it has already disappeared. liebman is researching ways to combat the destruction by growing something called" prairie strips," plots of native grasses and wildfwers planted alongside traditional crops. >> there's something covering the ground year round.an and these have stiff, upright stems that serve as wayl ofring the water flowing acrosshe land, slow it down. there's a lot of vegn here, so there's essentially no run-off, off of prairie. >> i have been called an outlier. i would sai'm doing things at almost no one else in the neighborhood would do. >> reporter: lee tesdell is one of about 70 ople working with iowa state university to grow prairie strips. tesdell owns 80 acres in central iowa and uses 20 f various

conservation practices, including a "saturated buffer," a filter that keeps niates from running into a nearby stream. >> this is a relatively inexpensive way to denitrifywa r. >> reporter: the stream is what you're protecting. >> right. we're trying to protect water quality for people downstream. >> reporter: tesdell says the buffer has decreased nitrate runoff by 91%. many of his sustainability practices were paid for by a and federal programs, buttate tesdell did have to pay for some of it out of pocket. i'm making some assumptions radical farmer.not a flaming these aren't especially radical uptions, but they're not ser common, either. >> right. part of it's the cost. however, it's important to kno that in iowa, 60% of the farmland is not farmed by the owner. >> reporter: tesdell himself doesn't farm his land. r at job falls to mike helland.

>> if the landown't working together with the tenant on conservation, it's probably not going to get done. >> reporter: bechase the tenant less interest in stewarding the land than the owner would. >> exactly. >> reporter: and this creates a huge barrier to change. since many farmers don't own the land, they don't feel invested enough to make long-term changes, especially ones that might impact their bottom line. and even if they wand to farm more sustainably, some landlords might not allow it. >> mike and i always say that e 're trying to be an exam the neighborhood, and that our neighbors are watching us. >> reporter: mike helland farms about 000 acres, renting 2,400he of tfrom various landlords. helland is open to trying more conservation techniques, but he already tried a diversified crop rotation of oats in the '80s. >> there's an old saying in ts: "it's one of the mos consistent crops in iowa; it'll lose money every year." >> reporter: he says it didn't work then and wont work now for

him because big food companies have set up their systems to source specific crops from a fec specocations, like buying oats from canada or wheat from kansas.t >>nd of goes back to economics. we don't even have a market around here for wheat., i meani couldn't call up my local elevator and say, "i want to bring in wheat." they don't have any place put it. >> reporter: helland also says making a living as a farmer is gettinlrharder. he'sdy invested over $1 million in machinery and equipment while corn and soy prices have dipped in recent year >> all of our costs keep going up. as a farmer, you never get a cost-of-living increase. you just have to be more efficient, a, with the same machinery; or the same manpower, same hours. >> reporter: so, farmers feel trapped in this system. esbut, despite all the hur people like john ikerd say we

don't have a choice but to change. ikerd is an agricultural economist who spent 30 years working witharmers across the u.s. >> i can't tell you how long we can continue to prop up this unsustainable agriculture, but we can't do it indefinitely. >> reporter: what does a sustainable food system look like? >> it's about looking at agriculture as a part of a living system because it's all interconnected. and so, you have to have farming systems then that are in harmony with nature, with natural principles., the regeneratisilient, diverse natural ecosystemseav to be reflected in the farms. >> reporter: so, wha it take to make the large-scale changes experts believe need to happen? tef.i.'s sarah carlson says food companies can crarkets for alternative crops, and state and federal governments mustse incrustainability requirements in farming programs. >> it might be through finance. might be through mortgage rates, you know. might be through the market. it might be through crop insurance.

so, we've got to try all of gethose things and see wha the... gets the shift the fastest. if wcare about farmers on th >> reporter: but all of that is a long way off. for now, farmers like sam bennett are implemenopng solutions y crop, acre by acre. with any luck, you're going to be farming for 50 years. do you think it will lk different in 20, 30, 40 years from now? what do you envision? >> i sure hope it looks different. i'd like to see more diversity on the landscape, diversity that we had 50 years ago. what used to be normal i'dike to make normal again. it's like i told 100 people what i'm doing toy. if those 100 people tell 100 people, we'd solve this problem real quick. i'm not borrowing this land from my dad or my grandpa; i'm borrowing it from my kids and my grandkids. it's my responsibility to leave this land in better shape than i found it.

>> thompson: new york city's metropolitan museum of art is one of the world's largest and most celebrated museums. its collections span 5,000 years of history, its buildings are spread over more than 12 acres,t an visited by millions of people each year. so, how do you keep all of it safe for nearly 40 years, that job fell to john barelli. in 2016, he retired as the met's head of his extraordinary career in a new book, "stealing the show." i spoke to him recently here in new rk. so the enormity of your job is just mind-boggling. i mean, how do you keep a collection like that safe andse re? >> i had a lot of help. athad over sir,0 a gre nagement team of eight managers who helped me sort of manage that program. >> thompn: there were no jor heists under youwatch, but there were a few items that

did go missing over the years. n you telus some of those? >> well, i first got there in 1978. about a year later, 197 we got a call that a greek head was missing from one of e pedestals. >> thompson: okay. >> at first we thought maybe it was, you know, misplaced or, you know, a curattook it into conservation or something. but whe owe got down to the area, we saw it was taken right was splintered, and we said we had a problem. we were able to recer itive days later on valentine's day, which was interesting because when the met received the object in an acquisition, there was a heart carved over its left eye. and when we covered itthere was another heart carved over its right eye. and it was in a locker in and central station. an anonymous call told us to go

look for it. no one was ever arrested. it's interesting, with art concentrating on getting the art back, recovering the art, as opposed to finding out wh did it. art becomes paramount, not the perpetrator displawm speaking of the perpetrators, i mean, who steals art? it usually an inside job? is it somebody from the outside? >> yeah wl, i've come to the conclusion there are three different types of art theft. and the word "opportunity" is important because we have the internal opportunists-- somebody who works within an institi or in someone's home who hasit opportto take an art object. we have a pson ho maybe comes construction worker, a visitor-- who sees an opportunity to take a piece of art. and then we have the professional, the person who is looking for something to steal

and who has fences and ways to dispose of these art objects, illegally. >> thompson: you write in the book a lot o your job was not just dealing with objects going missing, but you also h to deal with some interesting objects that showed up at the museum. >> yeah. >> thompson: you can tell us about some are those? >> there was thidayheps meno where artists want to be in the imseum. so from time toe, we've had people leave paintings at the information desk. we've had graffiti artists, like banksy, put things on the wall. and we had two shrunken heads mailed to the museum, and they wanted to, you know, give them to the curator. and it was quickly decide that they didn't want them. >> thompson: they didn't want the shrunken heads. >> they didn't want the shurchgen headses. g thompson: bob barelli, author of "steale show," thank you so much for joining us.

>> okay, thank you, megan. >> this is pbs newshour weekend, saturday. >> thompson: firefighters in southern california e making progress against two fires as winds die down and temperatures e op in the region. thousands of peoe still under mandatory evacuation orders from the saddleridge fire in the san fernando valley near los angeles which began on thursday that fire has not grown in size since friday and was close to 20% contained, but officials cautioned there could be flare- ups. in louisiana today, vors are deciding if there will be a ecnoff for governor in an unusual primary on. democrats and republicans all run against each other in the primary. republicans are trying to deny incumbent democraticelovernor johndwards the 50%-plus- one vote he needs to avoid a runoff. president trump campaigned in louisiana last night. he did not endor any one candidate. instead, he urged voters to turn out to force the inc

democrat into a runoff. only democratic ste louisiana's elected official. turkey's military claid it has" brought under control" a key border tn in northeastern syria. it is the first victory for turkish-led forces, which began an air and ground attack on kurdish-held areas on dnesday. in cairo today, the secretary general of the arab league called for the u.n. security council to take measures to halt turkish aggression. the main kurdish-led group is calling on the united states to e at a typhoon it central japan, including tokyo, last night is causing massive flooding and landslides. at least two people have died, million people to evacuate their homes. in tokyo, streets were empty. transportation, including e city's two airports, was shut down, and many residents went to shelters.

>> thompson: finally tonight, eliud kipchoge of kenya dieiwhat no human has ever done. he binke the two-hour barrier the marath today.ly in a specialrranged event vienna, he cover the 26.2 miles in 1:59:40. the time won't be an official record because thevent was not run under normal race conditions, bukipchoge already holds the faest official marathon time of 2:01:39. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. i'm megan thompson. thanks for watching. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by wg media access group a access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz.

the cheryl and philip milstein family. the j.p.b. foundation. of george o'neil.r, in memory barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america, designing customized individual and group retirementroducts. that's why we're your c additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a priiote bcorporfunded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from vieu.rs like thank you. be more.

announcer: explore new w worlds and new ideas through ograms like this, made availab everyone through contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. ♪ john: folk music has been around as long as there have been folks to sing it. folk music is about real people and rl lives and the frustration of dissent. it was a time in america when the simple act of gathering together to and helped us sing our troubles away. how doo, i'm john sebastian, and that was me, and thmy music. tonight, we're gonna look back at some of the most poollar songs of theera. ♪ and we'll go dancing, baby, then you'll see. in♪ ♪ how the magic's in the music and the music's in me, yeah ♪